Fingers crossed

Whew!

- IRIS GONZALES

This is the point where we let out a big sigh of relief now that 2025 has come to pass. That was quite a year for our country and for all of us, in ways big and small.To say it was a toxic roller-coaster ride is an understatement. It was the kind that malfunctions in the middle of the ride and leaves everyone hanging upside down. A colleague called it a yearlong Mercury in retrograde.

For sure, Murphy's Law was on overdrive.

Observers were right to point it out. Where we were in January 2025 was nowhere near where we stood by the end of last year. Nobody would have predicted how 2025 would unravel, all because of floodgate.

Before this whole thing erupted, we all knew that corruption was so deeply entrenched in our system, but it was only through this scandal that we would find out just how impossibly corrupt our nation of 115 million really is.

But here we are, on the first day of the new year, filled with hope and optimism. Or for the pragmatic and realistic among us - cautious optimism is perhaps the more accurate term.

The only choice is to keep hoping for better days and better times for our country because it is the only home we have.

For sure, 2026 will be a critical year - for the Philippines, and for you, me and everyone we know.

Make-or-break

For President Marcos, it's going to be a make-or-break year, his last and increasingly slim chance to redeem his administration after the grand thievery in flood control projects.