We can see more clearly the cycle of renewal and rebirth whenever the holiday season comes and the new year approaches. We want to leave our old selves behind and become better in our collective and individual lives in the new year.

As an economy, we want greater wealth and productivity.

As a government, we want greater efficiency and less corruption.

As a world, we want a more peaceful and less disaster-plagued planet.

As a family, we want greater love and harmony.

As individuals, we want more opportunities and the strength to achieve our dreams.

That we often fall short but still want to try again in the next year, year in and year out, defies logic. Is there a logic to individual and national progress? Is there a logic to individual and national deterioration?

What things should we wrap up, aside from gifts? What should we do more of and less of? What can we expect in the new year?

Among the issues that should be “wrapped up” is the confessed killer, the former president Rodrigo Duterte. He should be bundled off (along with his kulambo and his cohorts) to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands so he can show, as he has so bravely and publicly proclaimed, that he truly takes full moral and legal responsibility for the thousands of extrajudicial killings that took place during his administration’s “war on drugs.” While an ICC warrant still has to be issued for his arrest, it would be a triple blessing to the world if the ICC-wanted Vladimir Putin and Binyamin Netanyahu can be cornered ahead of him.

A situation that is continuing to unravel is China’s increasing aggression in our territorial waters and maritime exclusive economic zone. The recent active participation by People’s Liberation Army Navy warships in harassing and damaging Philippine vessels is an escalation that cannot continue. The passage of time emboldens China further and it continues to probe us for weaknesses. It is not a question of whether the situation will completely unravel or not; it is only a question of when.

Politically, the split of the UniTeam was the unraveling of the year. The political “marriage made in heaven”—as its primary architects Gloria Arroyo and Imee Marcos touted it—has crashed and burned. The stunning revelation by Vice President Sara Duterte that she has contracted for the lives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., first lady Liza Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez brought the abysmal side of Philippine politics to world attention.

This total break between the country’s two top officials was hastened by the two bright spots that have emerged in the landscape of Philippine politics: Sen. Risa Hontiveros, with the able support of Sen. Win Gatchalian, and the quad committee in the House of Representatives. 

Opposition senator Hontiveros has proven to be the primary driving force in rooting out the rot and pervasive crimes and dangers attendant to the functioning of Philippine overseas gaming operators. Pogos turned the country into one of the scam capitals of the world, a haven for money laundering, human trafficking and torture, corruption of national and local officials and agencies, and direct national security threats. Just as the colonial western powers of the 19^th century subverted and weakened China through the opium trade, so are unrestricted gambling and international crime syndicates proving to be means to subvert the country and weaken our moral and spiritual fiber.

The quad committee and its deft handling of its own “hearings in aid of legislation” of the Pogo issue as an offshoot of Hontiveros’ Senate hearings, intertwined with the issues of extrajudicial killings, unconstitutional purchase of large tracts of land by foreigners, questionable disbursement of about P612.5 million in confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education when Sara Duterte was its secretary, have opened a deep and broad picture of government inefficiency, corruption and actual criminal activity (such as big-time drug smuggling through the Bureau of Customs at the height of Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war) since “time immemorial.”

Not the least of these issues are the damning testimony and documentary evidence that gave flesh to the widely perceived aiding and abetting of extrajudicial killings by the former president (to the level of the charge of  “crimes against humanity”), and not only encouraging but in fact strengthening a culture of impunity that had a purported reward system for such misdeeds.

Like rats jumping a sinking ship, various personalities and officials of the previous administration have made themselves scarce or fled the country.

When our national leaders show a firm hand against corruption and impunity, it might signal the start of a turnaround in the “kalakaran” when transacting with government and the misuse or outright plunder of the people’s money. Or is that too much to hope for? Maybe if the impeachment cases against Sara Duterte prosper, the new year will offer the opportunity to make some headway.

To the question of logic to progress or deterioration, there is no clear answer, except that the new year always holds out the promise of hope. Hope even in hopeless situations. For how else can one describe the endless cycles of conflict in—to name but a few—parts of the Middle East and Europe and right here, in our internal political discord and in the West Philippine Sea?

Always, the Christmas and New Year holidays afford us the time for quiet and reflection, to think of the example of the Messiah who was born also in the most horrid of times, to think of others and to give to others. It is a time to tie up loose ends and wrap up our old selves and set them aside, because this is what it is all about: to always hope and to always work to be better persons, new year or not.

Read more: ‘Human Wrongs’: Images of Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’