There is nothing like the Christmas break to take stock of the year that is about to end. After the crazy holiday rush, the countdown to the new year inevitably invites some sort of introspection. For a country so used to a dizzying frenzy of news, this leads us to ask: what changed in 2017? What stayed the same? What got better? What got worse?
This evaluation is especially timely since the Duterte administration’s campaign promise prior to its term was pretty much anchored on change. “Change is coming,” it vowed, something that 16 million voters believed. As things went, as is often the case in politics, over the months, the same campaign slogan was parodied to death after some things, well, did not change. “Change is coming?” some asked. “Change scamming, more like.” For a quick rundown of how things went in 2017 compared to how things were a year earlier, read on.
As said, Duterte entered the presidency with perhaps one of the strongest, most convincing mandates in recent memory. A year later, his trust ratings were lower—as forecast—though still high, all things considered. In 2017, net public satisfaction with the first Mindanaon president did plunge 18 points from +66 to +48 year-on-year, according to the Social Weather Stations. Meanwhile his net trust rating similarly fell 15 points from +75 to +60 in June year-on-year.
Predictably, the decimated opposition declared that the so-called honeymoon stage is over for the country’s chief executive. Following the wayward and violent drug war and other scandals, many observers agree that the two-digit decline in Duterte’s net satisfaction rating meant that the president, like many others before him, was given a chance to prove himself—to prove that change was indeed coming—and has, at least for the time being, fell short.
A big chunk of people’s displeasure for millions of mega-Manila commuters is the everyday agony in traffic. Traffic in the country’s major cities had been terrible for the longest time, but there is no denying that it is getting even worse.
Manila today ranks among the worst cities in Asia when it comes to the time wasted on traffic gridlock, according to a study commissioned by ride-sharing company Uber. Residents of the Philippine capital, the study found, spent an average of 66 minutes every day stuck in traffic, behind only Bangkok (72 minutes) and Jakarta (68 minutes).
The stress level this everyday reality creates is obviously enormous and surely affects the well-being of the already harassed Manileño.
And who was that unfortunate government official who said that traffic was at least an indicator that the economy was booming? The Philippine economy has so far grown faster than expected in 2017, with GDP growing at 6.9 percent, marginally higher than the 6.8 percent recorded in 2016, an election year.
In particular—and what might also explain the traffic situation—a continuing bright spot in the domestic economy is the automotive industry, continuing its already robust performance in 2016. Sales rose 15.9 percent in the nine months to September while local production jumped 30.1 percent during the same period. This represents the second fastest growth among automotive markets in the region behind Myanmar, a relatively smaller market.
A different sort of mayhem sadly occupies down south as Mindanao remains under martial law. Following the siege and subsequent liberation of the Islamic city of Marawi, Congress approved the extension of martial law on the entire island of Mindanao, 240 to 27.
The Senate voted 14-4 while the House voted 226-23 in what was, for all intents and purposes, a lopsided battle.
Fears of martial law being declared for the rest of the country meanwhile invokes the already grisly human rights situation hereabouts. According to the Philippine National Police, more than 2,500 drug suspects were killed and more than 53,000 were arrested in legitimate police operations from July 1 2016 to January 31, 2017. Unable to bear the uproar, the anti-drug campaign was transferred to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, which indeed saw a dramatic decline in killings.
So how do you feel today compared to last year? I sincerely hope you’re a little better and feeling the Christmas cheer. Being an observer, our stage as a nation can be very frustrating and even confusing when barraged by an overload of information from media. As citizens, I believe we should all just keep doing what’s right and things will slowly get better. The Christmas season never fails to induce some healing effect despite all the troubles and stress. If only, for a change, we focus on uplifting the real message of the season: peace and goodwill to all. Merry Christmas!