Lighting up lives for Christmas

December has rolled in and the holiday frenzy is in full swing. The festive spirit is everywhere with streets shimmering with twinkling lights, malls buzzing with shoppers hunting for bargain deals and perfect gifts and the dreaded holiday carmageddon has begun as parties and reunions crowd the calendar.

- JOE ZALDARRIAGA

Yet beyond the festivities, this season is also a time to pause and reflect on the hardships millions of Filipinos continue to endure. The year has been marked by disasters that tested the nation's resilience deadly earthquakes and powerful typhoons claimed lives, displaced thousands and left homes in ruins. All the while, corruption scandals besieged us shattering public trust, shaking global investor confidence and sowing chaos within the very institutions meant to lead and protect us.

According to the latest Social Weather Survey conducted in September this year, 50 percent or five in every 10 Filipino families consider themselves poor, while 12 percent classify themselves as borderline and only 38 percent say they are not poor. Hunger also continues to worsen with 22 percent of Filipino families experiencing involuntary hunger at least once in the past three monthshigher than the 16.1 percent recorded in June 2025.