The end of the year and the beginning of a new one is always a time for recalling the memorable events of the year just past and hoping that things will change for the better in the next. So has it always been.
2016 will go down in history as a year of surprises. Tricky even, as tricky as the monkey under which sign the year (until Jan. 27, 2017) transpired.
For us Filipinos of course, it was political season. Nothing in the country is more keenly watched than this once-every-six-years presidential contest.
And the 2016 contest proved to be quite tricky.
In early 2015, Vice President Jojo Binay was a sure winner by most calculations. Everybody expected it to be a Binay-Roxas contest.
Nobody thought Grace Poe would enter the scene, not as a vice-presidential candidate as many expected but a top prize gunner herself.
Nobody also gave any serious attention to a political “upstart” from Davao City who started moving around the country to preach his message of federalism, along with how he hated drugs.
Towards the end of 2015, though, Grace Poe, having survived a challenge to her constitutional bona-fides, was considered the lady to beat. The newbie in the national scene, though exciting, had little financial support, a party whose members would fit into a run-down jeepney, and did not possess the polish expected of a serious presidential contender.
But then, 2016 played a trick on the usual prognosticators of Philippine politics. Rodrigo Roa Duterte, foul language, promdi ways and all, topped the elections with more than 16-million votes, with Mar Roxas, the man who was consigned earlier to the cellar among four, as a distant second.
Duterte’s victory was not only a surprise; it was stupendous.
During the second half of the year, with the new Philippine president surprising both local and international observers even more with his abrupt shift of foreign policy from one of mendicancy to the US of A to an independent foreign policy that had China as fulcrum, the world’s attention shifted to the heated presidential race in America.
This time, the urbane lady politician with politically “correct” messages, topped with pedigree and the endorsement of a fairly popular incumbent, was challenged by a blustering braggadocio with extreme views couched in politically “incorrect” language.
Similarly, everybody in their country and even the world thought Hillary was a cinch, but once again, in the Year of the Monkey, Donald Trump sprang a major surprise.
And now, the whole world awaits with bated breath what tricks the Donald will act as POTUS by the 20th of January.
There were other “tricky” events in 2016: Brexit, which discombobulated all of Europe. Terrorist attacks, principally those in France, the usual in the Middle East, and lately, in Berlin of all places.
Not to mention tricks coming from nature. Until the very end of the year, the country was battered by a strong typhoon, Nina, right after our farmers endured a prolonged El Niño.
Right after America’s newly elected leader takes his oath of office, the Year of the Rooster comes cackling in.
Our President was born in the Year of the Rooster, and don’t tell me “so that’s why he never seems to get tired talking.”
Mar Roxas is a rooster as well, and so is Alan Peter Cayetano, and Chiz Escudero. Any common denominators?
A Singaporean diplomat told me that if the Year of the Monkey was full of surprises and tricks, the year of the Rooster will be one of noise and could be quite contentious. Sabong ng sabong?
Whatever, let this writer wish one and all good health, happiness, a good disposition, and a bounty of blessings from the Almighty in 2017.
2016 has been quite eventful, quite game-changing. On a personal note, it was a happy year. Problems that bugged me in the past were solved to my satisfaction. Resolved challenges and good opportunities came my way.
Let us all hope that after a tricky year, the year that is coming soon will be quite auspicious for the country.
A happy and prosperous New Year to all!