FINDING ANSWERS

It’s the first working day of the New Year which most Filipinos feel would usher in many blessings for everyone.

Every brand new year brings renewed hope. Throughout the years, the two major surveys have shown that nine out of every 10 Filipinos across every social class and geographic area have a positive outlook as a fresh year starts to unfold.

The overwhelming sense of optimism can be vey high even among those who may have felt that the previous year was bleak.

Being Asia’s predominantly Catholic country, our optimism comes from an unwavering trust and deep faith in God who certainly is the primary source of all hope. “God always opens doors... He is the Father who opens doors for us,” Pope Francis used to say.

Thus, our faith which enables us to be hopeful and filled with positivity will provide us the strength and perseverance to face all the daunting challenges and turmoil all around.
Let’s hope that one of the most daunting challenges now facing a vast majority of Filipinos – the high prices of rice – would be effectively tackled, with government finding a lasting solution that would make this New Year a happy one for both consumers and farmers alike.

Let’s hope that highly nutritious food like eggs, milk, and vegetables would be more affordable and accessible especially for the poor, in order to prevent the alarming state of malnutrition in our country from worsening.

Let’s hope for more interventions to effectively address the appalling data of UNICEF Philippines on malnutrition: 95 Filipino children die daily from malnutrition, 27 out of every 1,000 children do not get past their fifth birthday, one-third of all children here are stunted or short for their age, and stunting after age two can be permanent, irreversible and even fatal.
Let’s hope that our educational system is greatly improved to address grave concerns regarding our 15-year-old students who were ranked among the lowest in reading, mathematics, and science in the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Let’s hope that government and all other stakeholders are able to uplift the plight of our schoolchildren suffering from learning poverty – defined as being unable to read and understand a short, age-appropriate text by age 10 – which the World Bank said affects 91 percent of Filipino children.

Let’s hope that more win-win solutions would be reached for jeepney drivers and operators still problematic over the jeepney modernization program. Among the solutions would be more affordable schemes like that of Francisco Motors which, according to an ABS-CBN report, has been able to reduce the price of a modern jeepney to less than a million pesos or almost three times less than that of other manufacturers.

Let’s hope that the situation at the West Philippine Sea vastly improves to the extent that our fisherfolks are able to resume their regular fishing activities without being harassed by Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese militia vessels whose constant incursions into our exclusive economic zone have earned the ire of most Filipinos.

Let’s hope that more effective measures are undertaken to stop rampant corruption, in which around ₱700 billion in public funds are believed to be lost yearly in the Philippines which has been tagged as the sixth most corrupt nation in the Asia Pacific region.

And on the international front, let’s hope that the end is near for both the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israel-Hamas war which have inflicted so much misery to innocent civilians, many of them children.

Amid all the turmoil and challenges affecting our lives, being hopeful of better times up ahead would help us attain the happiness we all strive for. Happy New Year to us all! ([email protected])