It's wonderful to be Filipino

Let's be honest, 2025 was a brutal year. At the top of the Ination's trauma was discovering the shocking depth and scale of corruption in government.

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The people were robbed blind and the robbery was carried out - or at least abetted by the very "public servants" Filipinos trusted. Talk about betrayal.

Add to this the sharp deceleration of the economy, brought about by PBBM's failure to address the structural defects in the system. PBBM's failure sabotaged the once strong momentum of the economy and by doing so, squandered three years of the country's demographic advantage. Talk about a catastrophe.

Exacerbating the trauma were external factors - 23 typhoons, one of which ravaged Cebu. Political instability which many affirm is funded by China and managed by traitorous Filipinos. And of course the sustained coercion by China in the West Philippine Sea. Talk about being a sitting duck.

Making our year a full-blown comedic tragedy were senators and congressmen pirouetting across the national stage, proudly displaying their idiocy, cowardice, hypocrisy and pompousness for all the world to cringe at. Truly, what a bargain bin of leaders the country has. And just when the plot couldn't get any worse, the Comelec Chairman's bias in the Chiz Escudero decision happened.

With so much trauma in a single year, many find it impossible to enjoy Noche Buena even if they have P500 in their pocket. (The tone-deafness and ineffectiveness of the DTI secretary is beyond words).

Yet, we must still bring in the joy. It's Christmas, after all. So my mission today is to help you see the silver lining in it all.

Look at it this way. At least Filipinos are not living under the iron hand of communism. Filipinos still enjoy freedoms of speech, movement and the press - as well as the right to assemble, protest and navigate an open internet.