In his final New Year’s Day message as Chief Executive, President Rodrigo Duterte urged all Filipinos to cherish their experiences in 2021, aim high and do things better in the coming year to overcome the coronavirus pandemic and the ravages of Typhoon Odette.
The year 2022 will give Filipinos a “fresh start and opportunity to aim higher and do things better,” Duterte said Friday, as the country ends another year under the shadow of COVID-19.
Duterte will spend his New Year’s holiday in Davao “to be with his family and loved ones in Davao,” Cabinet Secretary and acting spokesman Karlo Nograles said.
The COVID-19 pandemic and Typhoon Odette were among the things that challenged the nation this year, the President said in his annual message for the upcoming year.
“Let all our aspirations and actions be guided by our strong sense of nationhood and our deep faith in the Almighty. May we also find a stronger and higher purpose in our lives so that we may pursue only what is good for our families, communities and the entire nation,” he added.
“Every day, we continue to witness the indomitable spirit of the Filipino that adapts, endures and triumphs over all adversities. The dedication and courage of our people—especially our medical and essential frontliners, uniformed services, civilian personnel and volunteers—demonstrate what great things we can achieve if we work in solidarity,” the President said.
“As we take a whole-of-nation approach to recover and build back better, may we all be inspired by the promise of new beginnings that the New Year brings,” he added.
The President also praised the Filipino people’s resilience in the face of adversity.
Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez joined Filipinos in “ushering the New Year full of hope that the coming days will offer a better life for every Filipino family.”
“The year 2021 may be unkind to some of us who lost family members due to the global health emergency caused by COVID-19. Our fellow countrymen in the Visayas and Mindanao have yet to fully recover from the devastation brought by Typhoon Odette,” the representative of the first district of Leyte added.
“But I have reasons to believe that a brighter future awaits all of us in the year 2022,” Romualdez said.
“For the past two weeks, I had the privilege of joining the BBM-Sara UniTeam in their Humanitarian Mission for victims of Typhoon Odette.
The affected areas in eight provinces we had visited were almost flattened to the ground. I have seen up close, however, that despair does not have enough sting to kill the Filipino spirit,” he added.
“Never have I seen a people so united in casting aside gloom to rebuild their lives and their communities. For once, our leaders set aside their political differences to join the people in bringing aid to the needy. No colors. No religion. Just the good, old Filipino spirit of bayanihan at work,” the president of Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats said.
“This rare display of unity offers us hope that Filipinos can still remove the shackles of political divide to chart a new and better course for the next generation,” the president of the Philippine Constitutional Association added.
“I have no doubt that this showcase of unity will be replicated in other parts of the country in the days to come. Sa pagkakaisang ito, naniniwala ako na kaya nating bumangon muli. Happy New Year, my friends, and may God continue to bless us all!” he ended.