DESPITE the troubles brought about by the coronavirus in our lives, people seemed to have normally welcomed the new year 2021. The celebrations in every home as shown on social media do not reflect the grim scenario of what we experienced in the year 2020. This makes us appreciate our identity as Filipinos, where we are capable of standing up despite the trials and uncertainties of life.
At the start of 2021, somehow we felt a sigh of relief as the numbers in the calendar were changed, and will hopefully change the things that made our lives difficult. Yet, there is no other factor to blame for the bad things we’ve had than the coronavirus.
In all this, even in the setting of our very home, we continue to instill hope and positivism that the year 2021, would be better than last year.
In connection with what I wrote as my last piece for 2020, “Stay Calm, 12/28/2020”, I tried to look at the possible things to happen this year from the perspective of someone that studies Sociology and Public Administration.
I agree, our people should not lose hope. This is very important in our continuing fight against the coronavirus. But I hope our people should also be realistic in looking at things and not at what they actually want to do because we are in an extraordinary time. While we remain hopeful, we need to embrace the reality that Covid-19 is not yet over. We simply should not rely on figures when government agencies would tell us a different figure as against the real situation on the ground.
In short, I looked at our situation as trying to restore normalcy in the midst of uncertain conditions in our fight against the coronavirus. We feel tired along the way and want to go back to our normal ways, but the stigma will continue to haunt us, thus, it could be our choice to make.
In Bacolod, we can observe as everything goes back to normal with the belief that we already have a minimal number of Covid-19 cases as reported every day. I just hope we don’t take on the false assumptions that we really have to be confident nowadays despite the deaths of some prominent personalities due to Covid-19.
In terms of our economy, we can do nothing but hope for the best. However realistically, economic activities would take a slow pace until the vaccine is administered to our people. I believe that by the time we have the vaccine that would be the earliest time we can restart our lives and trace the path that we left off last year.
In politics, this year is going to be exciting because of the coming 2022 national and local elections. The filing of candidacy may happen in the last quarter of this year. Hence, political arrangements would be made in the coming months up to the time of the filing of candidacy.
We need to give this time to the people to choose their new set of leaders. It is good that our government decided to pursue the elections despite this pandemic. I am sure the performance of our public servants in our fight against the coronavirus will be the important barometer in the next year’s elections.
This is also the time that people should unite to erase incompetence and lack of concern for the people’s welfare. We need an active government to lead us through this very challenging situation and not the passive ones. People should remind leaders that their position is not theirs, but only delegated authority by the people because we agreed to have a government managed by the representatives.
Finally, I congratulate my friend and godfather, former La Castellana mayor, Dr. Enrico Elumba, for being featured in a news on national television for saving a baby girl in his hospital in La Castellana the other day. Despite the possibility of death on the baby, Dr. Elumba administered CPR until she was restored to life.*