Happier 2023
A New Year brimming with optimism, good health, and wealth to us all!
The year 2023 affords everyone the opportunity for a personal reset. Gains and losses, after all, form and inform our life cycle. None is more evident than the major events of 2022 that have impacted the lives of every Filipino.
“Since a ‘perfect’ government system is non-existent, there have been hiccups and bumps in the administration’s first five months.
Resilient Filipinos
The election triumph of the Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. — Sara Z. Duterte tandem is one for the record books. Their brand of leadership amid national and global challenges continues to inspire the public. Since a “perfect” government system is non-existent, there have been hiccups and bumps in the administration’s first five months. Still, the President and Vice President received excellent trust and approval ratings in recent surveys. It is further reflected, I believe, in the hopeful new year outlook of 95 percent of Filipinos according to the Social Weather Stations.
The nation confronted the inflationary effects of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the continuing repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, and natural calamities. The economic, social and political fallout from these crises could have brought our country to its knees. But as resilient people, we managed to remain standing.
In the first three quarters of 2022, the National Economic Development Authority said our gross domestic product posted an average growth rate of 7.7 percent. The Department of Health inoculated fully around 73.7 million Filipinos and boosted another 21.1 million. If I were to advise government officials, I would tell them to facilitate the immediate roll-out of the Food and Drug Administration-approved bivalent vaccine boosters to protect people from Covid 19 variants and strains. It would prevent a repeat of the P5.1 billion worth of wasted vaccines in the private sector that Go Negosyo reported last year.
On a personal note, and as my better half Mylah succinctly puts it, last year was an annus horribilis. Despite giving it my all, I failed in my senatorial bid.
I know that God Almighty has other plans for me. I also lost my maternal aunt, who was my second mother and mentor, at the height of the campaign season in February, as well as my maternal uncle before Christmas. During grief and disappointment, however, I rediscovered my strength and tenacity as a person, family man and Christian. I am forever grateful for the love of my family, friends, social media followers and the 11 million-plus believers in the last elections.
Again, a Happier New Year!
Crippled airports
A day after I arrived from an awesome family trip to Egypt and two days before PBBM’s state visit to China, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport suffered an embarrassing operations breakdown.
It was a nightmare on
New Year’s Day for some 56,000 stranded passengers, airline staff and airport authorities. The incident delayed hundreds of inbound and outbound flights at NAIA and other domestic airports.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines director general Danjun Lucas told me that before 10 a.m., the air traffic management center experienced technical glitches. Thus, NAIA became a noflight zone until 4 pm. as it resumed partial operations. In apologizing to all parties concerned, the Department of Transportation explained that the problem with the power supply resulted in the loss of communication, radar, radio and internet connection. The department said it is on top of the situation and has extended all possible assistance to affected passengers.
I do not think anyone from DoTr or CAAP wanted this to happen. Nonetheless, it is a serious wake-up call to our transportation and airport officials. They must improve their technical and operational due diligence to avert another airport systems failure and paralysis. The safety of passengers and airline workers should be their paramount consideration. I am glad that the Senate will hold an inquiry into the incident.
“They must improve their technical and operational due diligence to avert another airport systems failure and paralysis.