Counting our blessings

SKETCHES By Ana Marie Pamintuan (The Philippine Star) Updated December 29, 2010 

On the Feast of the Holy Innocents we looked back on the year that’s about to pass, and listed several positive developments.

One is the successful conduct of the country’s first fully automated elections, with the winner in the presidential race being announced by the chairman of the Commission on Elections just hours after the end of voting.

Many kinks still need to be ironed out. We never saw such long lines or waited in line for hours to cast votes in the manual elections. But after that initial experience with automation, Filipinos will no longer settle for anything less in getting results in the next presidential race.

The worst scenarios did not materialize; the transfer of power at noon of June 30 was orderly, civilized and peaceful. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo smiled all throughout.

Benigno Simeon Aquino III assumed power with no serious challenges to the legitimacy of his mandate.

His rise to the position once occupied by his mother meant quieter streets for us as the wang-wang and blinkers of VIPs were banned.

Taxpayers also spent less on billboards marking public works and other government projects as P-Noy banned the display of pictures and names of politicians, including his own, to claim credit for anything bankrolled by Juan de la Cruz.

Congress just recently passed the 2011 General Appropriations Act – the first time in more than a decade that the budget was passed by yearend. In the past, a re-enacted budget messed up the projects and programs of government offices for the coming year. Some re-enacted appropriations were also classified as “savings” that were then used by the executive for certain other purposes.

On Valentine’s Day this year, the Department of Health distributed condoms to men in Manila’s flower center around the Dangwa bus terminal, ostensibly to promote safe sex on the day of hearts. But it heralded a return to the promotion of family planning by the government, which the Aquino administration is actively pursuing.

The Catholic Church of course will not see this is a positive development in 2010, but the country’s family planning program received an indirect boost from Pope Benedict XVI himself. In an interview, the ultra-conservative pontiff announced a major shift in Church teachings on condoms, telling an interviewer that the use of rubbers by prostitutes could be considered a responsible act to prevent the spread of HIV and save lives.

A new administration means a new initiative for peace, so P-Noy’s government is set to resume formal peace negotiations with communist rebels. A three-week Christmas truce is in effect and is expected to hold despite accusations of violations by both sides.

P-Noy vowed that with a new team in place, there would be changes in the way the country did business. There was guarded optimism as his PPP or public-private partnership program was launched, which could provide more jobs and address the inadequacy of the country’s infrastructure.

The economy was always GMA’s strong suit, and she left it in generally good shape for her successor to build on. And despite the global economic downturn, remittances of the country’s nine million overseas workers were sustained.

This was also the year the country became the world’s top destination for business process outsourcing.

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On another front, the big good news of the year was again boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao, who bagged his eighth championship title in as many categories.

Observers said the bigger sports story of the year was the performance of the Philippines’ Azkals in the Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup. The Azkals were later defeated by Indonesia, but the performance of the Philippine team, particularly against powerhouse Vietnam, raised Pinoy interest in football.

That interest, focused during the World Cup in South Africa as much on the competing national teams as on octopus oracle Paul, is expected to be sustained in the coming years.

In entertainment, Charice remained the big news as she landed a role in Glee and sang at the Christmas lighting of the trees at Rockefeller Center together with American pop music idols.

As the year draws to a close, we also give thanks for what the country didn’t have: no typhoon or cataclysmic flooding on the scale of last year’s Ondoy and Pepeng, and no maritime disaster with the death toll on the scale of those involving the “Princess” lines.

We had a lot of bad news throughout the year, but Yuletide is a period for counting our blessings. Surveys have shown that Filipinos continue to be optimistic about individual and national prospects for 2011.

There are many reasons to hope for a better year.