First I’d like to wish one and all a happy and blessed New Year.

But, I can’t say the same for those who have been warned about playing with deadly firecrackers and other forms of pyrotechnics, but insisted on doing it and thus landed in hospitals either seriously injured or maimed. All the worse for the victims of stray bullets.

Still, I don’t think 2009 will be as bad as doomsayers say it’ll be. How can things be bad if 9 out of 10 Filipinos have high hopes for this year? We as a people will overcome.

Hope, which is typically Christian in origin, separates us from all our Asian neighbors, the Philippines being predominantly Catholic. It’s also typically Filipino, with his “bahala na” attitude.

***

Somebody asked me: “Is there anything new this year?”

I think nothing much will change for 2009. We’ll still be quarreling over Charter change; the bill over contraception euphemistically called Reproductive Health and Population Management; and soon enough on the bill to make English a medium of instruction in public schools.

And of course, the noise will get louder on the issue of corruption, especially so with only 17 months to go until election day in May 2010, pinning everything, rightly or wrongly, on the administration.

Another issue that will make headlines will certainly be the move of the government to resume peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, given that the Supreme Court has already nullified that foolish memorandum of agreement for an ancestral domain of the Moros.

Now, the MILF is making non-negotiable demands before going to the peace table—one, for government to stop all military offensives in Mindanao; and two, to revisit the memorandum creating what they call a Moroland Juridical Entity, which in effect would mean dismembering the republic and creating a separate republic for the Muslims.

Santa Banana, halt all military offensives against the MILF when rogue MILF commanders continue to go on rampage, killing innocent civilians, burning houses and looting property in the process?

It can only mean a weak government that will submit to such a demand since government can no longer be relied upon to protect the people. Especially, not after the MILF high command coddled its rogue commanders with multi-million-peso bounties on their heads.

Revisit the agreement which has been held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court? If the MILF insists on this demand, then there’s no peace negotiation to speak of since that would mean that the government will submit to something outside of the Constitution.

The bottom line is that in any peace negotiation, both parties across the table must come with clean hands, not demanding non-negotiable terms. My gulay, we must have peace in Mindanao, but not at all costs, not submitting to something unconstitutional, and certainly not to admit that the government is weak.

***

It’s difficult for the Senate to justify cuts in the P1.415-billion national budget for no less than 21 state colleges and universities, while the senators are getting increases in their annual P200 million “pork barrel.”

At a time when state colleges and universities must be helped with increased budgets for much-needed expansion and hiring of competent teachers, the Senate would now pull the carpet from under them. It’s like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

More disturbing is the news that the University of the Philippines’ budget has been increased by P362 million, which means that UP now has P6.8 million, or equivalent to the combined budgets of 47 state colleges and universities from the Ilocos region, the Cordilleras, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, all the way down to Southern Tagalog and the Bicol region.

While I admit the need to subsidize UP, why must it be at the expense of other state colleges and universities? The Senate surely has screwed up sense of priorities.

***

Next only to the scramble for the presidency with the election fever setting in this year, is the scramble for the Senate with some retiring, having finished their second terms, and others running for re-election.

Those up for re-election are Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who said he’ll run again; Senator Miriam Santiago, who will also run again; Senator Bong Revilla, who might run again, although aspiring to be the vice presidential candidate of the administration bet for the presidency, whoever he might be; Senator Lito Lapid, who is said to be more interested in returning to Pampanga and running for governor against priest-turned-politician Ed Panlilio; and others who are aspiring to become president.

There’s former Senate President Manny Villar, Nacionalista Party presidential bet; Senator Mar Roxas from the Liberal Party; Senator Loren Legarda, who is reported to be a candidate of businessman Danding Cojuangco’s Nationalist People’s Coalition in either a Loren-Chiz Escudero team or an Escudero-Loren team; and Senator Ping Lacson, who they say might opt to run as mayor in Manila against Mayor Fred Lim, a former senator.

Others like Senator Kiko Pangilinan, who’s retiring, is said to be the vice presidential candidate of Mar Roxas, being also a Liberal; Senator Pia Cayetano is said to run for mayor of Taguig against retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Dante Tinga. Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has reportedly decided to return to the private sector.

***

It’s difficult to believe that as Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman claimed that he and his son, Mayor Nasser Jr. of Masiu town in Lanao del Sur, were the victims in that nasty Valley Golf and Country Club brawl that ended up in the reported mauling of 56-year-old businessman Delfin de la Paz and his 14-year-old son, Dino.

For how can the Pangandamans be victims of the brawl when the Muslim mayor from Masiu had with him his four armed bodyguards? The young Pangandaman was repeatedly heard saying “Do you know who I am? Tell him who I am,” when the DAR secretary’s party overtook the De la Paz father and son at the fourth hole of the course.

It was at this point, according to reports, that the mayor’s armed goons punched and kicked the 56-year-old and his 14-year-old son. To make matters worse, the DAR secretary was said to be a mute witness, and did nothing to stop his son and his goons from inflicting the punching and beating.

The Cabinet official may have apologized for that brawl, but it was well the President ordered the incident to be investigated—and no whitewash, as well.

From the looks of it, this is another case of arrogance of those in power that must be stopped, especially so since a member of the Cabinet is an official member of the President’s family.

And if the DAR secretary is sincere in his apology, he should not be threatening to sue the aggrieved party. In fact, as suggested, Secretary Pangandaman and his son should be immediately suspended pending the resolution of the case.

As for the Palace, this is another case where the President’s political will and resolve is being tested.

***

It’s rather ironic that so many Catholic believe in “feng shui” and in all those baloneys of round fruits and charms for New Year for good luck and for good fortune when they are all inanimate objects.

It’s all superstition. My gulay, how can inanimate objects give power on anything? I’d even say it’s against the second commandment of not having strange gods aside from the One Only God.