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Brighter days seen

2021 life improve

NEARLY 10 months after President Rodrigo Duterte decreed a Luzon-wide quarantine due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, there are good lessons that can be learned from the experience.

Filipinos, from the mighty to the lowly across this developing Southeast Asian nation of more than 100 million people, now realize the value of human life and our relationships with each other.

No less than President Duterte himself, a long-time mayor of Davao City, said that the crippling health crisis has cost the country so many lives and resources, “but we also learned so much from it.

The tough-talking Chief Executive from Mindanao, whose six-year presidency ends at 12 noon on June 30, 2022, made the statement in his “New Year’s Message” to the Filipino people.

Today is a joyful day, a time for new beginnings and a time to be hopeful. We ended the previous year with so much difficulties and trials, but with much gratitude,” according to Duterte.

Duterte said “we understood what it means to be a family, a community, a nation,” adding “we learned to share and to look after the welfare of our brethren” during the pandemic.

Not only that. The long time mayor of Davao City, a lawyer and a former government prosecutor, said the people have become wiser, stronger and more prepared for the challenges ahead.

We are given another chance to serve our people, and for us in government, this is another opportunity to render public service with genuine compassion and malasakit,” said President Duterte.

What is important, in the view of many, is for the people to support government programs, projects and initiatives aimed at speeding up the tempo of economic recovery amid the pandemic.

This, if we really want to see “brighter days ahead.