The year of the tiger is making way for the rabbit in a tumultuous 2022 that saw the call for unity winning the heart of the public resulting in the leadership of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., the first majority president in a long while.
The Marcos rule, thus, has among the biggest political capital to start a six-year term.
Out of the 10 presidential hopefuls in this year's national elections, 31 million Filipinos put their trust in BBM to lead the country in resolving the damage inflicted by Covid-19 — overwhelmed health systems, dramatic loss of human life, economic fallout, livelihood loss and business closures.
The country made history during the 9 May 2022 general elections after posting an 83 percent voter turnout, the highest for the automated polls ever, out of almost 66 million Filipinos eligible to vote.
It brought BBM to a historic landslide victory in an almost two-way presidential race against then-Vice President Leni Robredo, who narrowly beat him in the 2016 vice presidential polls.
Marcos' political fortune became even more secure when he teamed up with Sara Z. Duterte, the daughter of then-President Rodrigo Duterte and then mayor of Davao City.
Vowing to unify a severely politically-divided country, Marcos made many promises on the punishing campaign trail, including reducing the price of rice to P20 per kilo.
Months before the elections, Duterte has been consistently emerging as the top choice for president based on reputable nationwide surveys.
While the clamor for Sara to run for the highest post was strong, she opted to run for vice president, saying this would allow her to meet her supporters "halfway."
Duterte won the vice-presidential race a million votes more than Marcos received. She believes she would not have received 32 million votes if she chose to run against Marcos instead.
Marcos and Duterte became the first majority president and vice presidents as both won millions of votes double that of their respective rivals.
While a number of cases of malfunctioning vote counting machines and other election-related incidents were reported, the Commission on Elections said these glitches did not affect the overall operations of the polls.
Bitter-taste sugar
While various issues hounded the first months of BBM's administration, the "illegal" sugar importation order made the headlines and is believed to have led to the resignation of the President's right-hand man, then-Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez.
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee launched a probe into the unauthorized signing of Sugar Order 4, which allowed the importation of 300,000 tons of sugar.
The investigation ended with the filing of criminal and administrative charges against former Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian and three former executives of the Sugar Regulatory Authority but cleared Rodriguez, even when some senators argued that he should be held liable for the unauthorized order.
After Marcos won the presidency, Rodriguez was immediately appointed as Executive Secretary, who is also called the "Little President". However, he only held the post for a little over three months.
While Marcos snubbed presidential debates and carefully picked interviews, Rodriguez faced the media and dealt with the former's critics during the campaign period.
Like a punching bag, Rodriguez had to fend off criticisms but eventually has fallen out of grace through his own devices.
Run-away inflation
Skyrocketing prices of food, fuel, and other local commodities continue to challenge the Marcos administration.
Marcos acknowledged that the inflation rate has been running out of control.
Prices of commodities continued to increase quicker than targeted in November, hitting the highest level in 14 years.
Inflation rose to 8 percent in November — the fastest since the 9.1 inflation in November while the Philippine Statistics Authority reported the 14-year high of 7.7 percent recorded in October.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has projected a range of 7.4 to 8.2 percent inflation.
To temper inflation, the President ordered the extension of the temporary modification of the rates of import duty on select agricultural products.
This aims to mitigate and stabilize the impact of inflationary pressures, which Malacañang believes is a result of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The President also believes that imports are the "main drivers of inflation", lamenting that the rise in prices of commodities has been "running rampant and out of control."
In November 2022, the government released P5.2 billion to help almost 10 million vulnerable Filipinos deal with the soaring prices of fuel and other basic commodities under the Targeted Cash Transfer program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
The TCT grants unconditional cash transfers to the most affected households in the amount of P500 per month for six months in order to mitigate the effects of the rising prices of goods and services amid high inflation.
War breaks out
Despite being thousands of miles away from the Philippines, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has severely affected the daily lives of Filipinos.
The Russia-Ukraine war affected local petroleum supply and delivery, making gasoline and diesel prices as high as P90 per liter this year.
Calamities become frequent
In September, Super typhoon "Karding" swept through Luzon, killing at least 12 people.
But Severe Tropical Storm "Paeng" has claimed many more lives in Mindanao.
Government data showed that the death toll in "Paeng"-hit areas hit 160.
A magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck Ilocos Region and a strong tremor was felt in several parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila.
It left five fatalities and damaged some of the oldest churches in Abra province.
SMC controversy
Other problems involve the power supply that has encountered a hump after San Miguel Corp. tried to force a rate increase in a fixed-pricing scheme contract through an Energy Regulatory Commission.
The regulator opposed the application of San Miguel Energy Corporation's effort to obtain a temporary restraining order from the Court of Appeals against ERC's dismissal of a SMEC price hike petition.
The regulator then joined Meralco in resisting the move of SMEC, an energy unit of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. that operates the Sual coal plant.
Meralco is now sourcing the shortfall as a result of the SPPC pullout from an emergency PSA and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market which are more expensive than the fixed-priced PSA raising the possibility of higher electricity bills.
