What we should learn from 2017?
The year 2017 (the year of the fire rooster) is about to end, and in less than a month, we are going to welcome 2018 (the year of the brown earth dog). 2017 brought about a number of very hot events climaxed by the war in Marawi, and a number of terrorist attacks and some man-made and natural calamities, not to forget some unsolved killings, highlighted by the alleged summary execution of 17-yearold Kian de los Santos. It has been an eventful year, which ended with the ASEAN 50th anniversary and 31st summit of leaders, graced by US, Russian and Chinese heads of states and heads of governments.
To paraphrase Charles Dickens, this could have been both the best of our years, and also the worst of years. In the area of international relations and global affairs, the best thing that happened is that, for the first time in our history, we have a president who has the guts to tell the Americans to go to hell, and the courage to warm up to China and Russia. We have a president who has the temerity to reject aid offered by the European Union and to warn international bodies not to interfere in Philippine domestic affairs. And to tell human rights advocates from other countries that they have no right to impose on Filipinos their foreign values, much less to lecture on how to solve our problems. In 2017, we learned to assert ourselves and to value our sovereignty and national dignity.
In the area of national security, the Marawi siege should teach us to be more vigilant against foreign and local terrorists, and improve our intelligence capability and technical expertise in the defense of our communities. We should not lift Martial Law just to please human rights advocates and Leftists. We should be hard on the CPP/NPA/NDF. The peace talks are over, we should resume our armed struggles no matter how protracted this fight shall be in defense of our national integrity. We should arrest all those who are guilty of treason and sedition and be uncompromising to those who want to place the nation under the control and domination of an alien power and a foreign ideology.
In the social and economic front, we should reclaim our place in ASEAN, which is, at the very least, second to Singapore. As of today, our country is fifth, with Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand outranking us according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index for 2016-2017. We should address our population and unemployment problems, shape up our agriculture and industries, accelerate our infra development and stop corruption and bureaucratic ineptitude. 2017 was difficult for our people, but ahead is a more challenging year, with external and domestic issues that call on us to be stronger and more prepared.