10 things about 2019

Maria Ressa and Rappler will never go away despite the government leviathan breathing down on them.

Adieu 2019! Just like my column last year, this will be my wrap-up on the year that has passed. This being an election year, most political intramurals took place in the first four months of the year, and the latter part of 2019 was more on an introduction of the newly-elected officials. Regardless, the palates of the politically and legally curious were satisfied with the goings-on in the Philippines in 2019, which has always proven to be worthy for telenovela dramas.

The lead up for the midterm elections was just as exciting as the previous ones, but the results came more of a surprise to many with the lopsided victory of the administration’s bets for senator.

The Otso Diretso slate claimed zero victories, not even former presidential candidate, Mar Roxas, got in the magic 12. With political commentaries saying that 2019 will be a “plebiscite” on the approval or disapproval of the administration, none perhaps predicted a complete wipe out that may have led to the death of the Liberal Party, at least for the time being.

The elections could be said to be not violent, although of course a series of election-related deaths persisted, and the automated elections did not cause much of a problem. We will see if Smartmatic will continue to be our provider with the President’s directive to change.

The 2019 elections brought some surprises. The newbie senators immediately got on the ground running. Sen. Roland “Bato” de la Rosa got a taste of being viral during a committee hearing after castigating a youth activist. Sen. Francis Tolentino also made Internet rounds with veteran Sen. Frank Drilon confronting him during a Senate hearing. Sen. Bong Go has been more visible in going all over the country, championing his Malasakit Centers, which got their legitimacy late this year when the President signed into law the Malasakit Center Act. If you ask me, this solidifies Sen. Go’s run for the presidency in 2022.

In the local scene, we have the young ones causing quite a stir. Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, now known as Yorme, has gained so much popularity with his round-the-clock work ethic. It likewise helps that he is very social media savvy, with people pushing him to run for the presidency this early. Another is Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto, 30 years old only, with a very unconventional or rather, un-trapo-like brand of leadership that is almost never done in Philippine politics.

Maria Ressa and Rappler will never go away despite the government leviathan breathing down on them. Ressa has been busy advocating her cause while Rappler, despite clamped down by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bureau of Internal Revenue, is still in operations. An arrest is not enough to put Ressa down, and she has no plans of giving up the fight. Around 40,000 concert goers got another taste of Ressa at the U2 “The Joshua Tree” concert in the Philippine Arena in early December, where Bono mentioned Ressa twice, and flashed her portrait alongside other Filipina icons that included former President Cory Aquino and Sen. Pia Cayetano.

People expected Vice President Leni Robredo’s portrait to be flashed by U2 in their concert, but this did not happen, perhaps since this would certainly cause a flare up with the administration’s supporters. The love-hate relationship of our President and Vice President reached another milestone with Robredo’s appointment as drug czarina, albeit being short-lived. Personally, I thought it was a golden ticket for Robredo that she busted, most unfortunately. Now, we have a media game of patintero on whether she will reveal the supposed confidential information on the drug war that she got from her short stint with the Inter-Agency Commission on Anti-Illegal Drugs — something that we may never learn about.

The vice-presidential election protest of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. caught a snag, but it appears that his legal victories have been reserved for the entirety of the Marcos families, whose cases are being dismissed one by one. The Sandiganbayan most recently dismissed one of the mega-cases against the Marcoses with a billion-dollar claim. More can be expected in the future. On a side note, the documentary “The Kingmaker” premiered in San Francisco with an unexpected red-carpet guest — former Presidential Commission on Good Government and Commission on Elections chair Andy Bautista, who has been in hiding since his public fight against her wife.

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano emerged victorious in what is said to be the most controversial and neck-to-neck race to become the Speaker in the 18th Congress. It ended up to be a term-sharing agreement, known as the Magellan Formula, with Speaker Cayetano serving for 15 months, or until October 2020, then Rep. Lord Allan Velasco for another 22 months, with Rep. Martin Romualdez being the Majority Leader for the entire three years.

Relatedly, Speaker Cayetano led the Philippines in a successful hosting of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games that brought about the Philippines winning as overall champion. Criticism and controversies marred the start of the SEA Games, with stories of kikiam and kaldero, making it seem more of a cooking show instead of an international sporting event. At its conclusion, the Filipinos couldn’t be happier with the results and may this bring about a gold medalist in the Olympics for our country.

Gruesome stories on how the victims of former mayor Antonio Sanchez resurfaced with his near release from prison on the ground of his good conduct. This opened a can of worms in the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) in the Senate hearings that followed, a reflection on how flawed the Philippine judicial system has become. There is still a lot of work to be done on this aspect, and I hope there will be an overhaul of the BuCor to keep up with the fast-paced arrests being done by the Philippine National Police.

I am unsure if the Ampatuan decision can be considered a legal victory, since it took a decade to rule upon, but with the decision issued by the regional trial court in favor of the victims, the Filipino people are just satisfied with the result. And after hundreds of testimonies heard by Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes, the verdict should be good enough. However, as we all know, there is the appeal that comes after it, and the actual implementation of the decision. The fight continues.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte further exercised the powers of his office with his verbal shut down of sweepstakes outlets in mid-year, and later his rants against Manila Water and Maynilad on the concession agreement, which cost the two conglomerates around P11 billion by their dropping of the arbitral awards issued in their favor by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Singapore.

Some honorable mentions for 2019: Barretto dirty laundry, “Bikoy” and the narco-list, rampant earthquakes in Mindanao, the Bangsamoro Organic Law ratification, and Duterte Youth episode in Congress (Cardema vs Guanzon). It’s questionable whether 2020 will be just as exciting since this is the year sandwiched between elections and campaign, otherwise known as the most non-political year in a three-year cycle. We thus hope a lot of government projects and deals are finished or closed in 2020, free from any politicking, if that’s possible at all. A prosperous New Year to all!