Scandal, panic, bring him home

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December 31, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — To say that the year just past wasn’t so bad is understatement, merely hiding under the covers, as 2025 began turbulently enough with the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte to The Hague in March, to face charges of crimes against humanity for his war on drugs dating back to his term as mayor of Davao City.

The airport standoff and subsequent flight out to the Netherlands was the first big story, sensational yet a bit anti-climactic after he had once said he would kick the International Criminal Court and slap its prosecutor.

The Duterte ill-luck extended to the daughter and Vice President, who was impeached by Congress for unaccounted profligate use of intelligence and confidential funds in the second quarter, with hearings taking up much of daytime TV, but hemming and hawing of the Senate pushed back whatever semblance of formal trial, later affirmed by the Supreme Court that the complaint violated the rule of filing more than one in a year’s time. The petitioners were advised to regroup and try again next February, much to the delight of Mary Grace Piattos and other alias recipients of such funds.

The catch phrase “bring him home” seemed to be the battle cry of the new self-styled opposition or disgruntled former administration partners, as a number of the Duterte allied candidates won in the midterm elections, garnering top slots in the Senate, including a surprise or two, then again so did the so-called kakampink or former dilawan that had a strong showing by garnering several seats in Congress. There appeared to be a shift in the electorate demographics with the millennials and Gen Z making their presence felt, many of them first-time voters, with encouraging signs of the woke as traditional shoo-ins of showbiz personalities this time couldn’t bank on popularity to gain electoral post.

The signal fourth State of the Nation Address of the President gave fair warning to crocodiles in government and the imminent chase down of those who had made a regular killing out of public coffers, with the famous interjection “Mahiya naman kayo” joining the ranks of past innuendos as “moderate your greed” and “walang kumpakumpare” (amended to walang pinsan-pinsan) if not “I am sorry” and the much applauded banishment of wang-wang.

Then came tumbling down what has been described as the worst, most scandalous corruption case in Philippine history, with billions of pesos lost in substandard and ghost flood control projects, with contractors exposed with their largesse of swanky sports cars and fake driver’s licenses to gain access as casino high rollers, leading to the creation of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure to ferret out the depth of avarice and sloth, among other deadly sins of malfeasance and misfeasance and charge them before the proper court, with the ombudsman being point man in whatever cases to be filed.

The greed and sleight of hand were of an unprecedented magnitude, affecting potential investors and triggering a shake-up in congressional leadership and an apparent suicide in Benguet by one former Department of Public Works and Highways official just days before Christmas.

As usual the year was not without its share of natural disasters, as a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit the province of Cebu on the last day of September, just as Super Typhoon Nando (Ragasa) was winding up destruction up north. The Cebu quake had scores of casualties, coming late at night when most people were home or asleep, epicenter traced to Bogo Bay. There were tsunami warning alerts, and a pair of other quakes weeks later in Davao and eastern Mindanao were not as tragic, daytime events said to be unrelated to the earlier stronger tremor that gave fair warning and creeping panic for the Big One.

Cebu, in fact, was victim of a double whammy, as in November Typhoon Tino (Kalmaegi) ran roughshod over much of the province, resulting in hundreds dead and missing, cars piled up in subdivisions such as Leysonville in Bacayan reminiscent of Ondoy, destruction to property and rendering thousands homeless. A week later it was the turn of Uwan (Fung-wong) to wreak havoc over the eastern section, with the coastal provinces of Catanduanes and Baler and the Cordilleras again bearing the brunt, with the howler skirting Metro Manila that nevertheless felt the frightful strong winds late on a Sunday evening.

The year will be remembered for the advent of AI, ascendant technology that kept everyone entertained with memes, ditto the encroaching effect of fake news, as the old school chose to stick naturally to their guns if not exactly the comfort of analogue, even as scams and fraud were seemingly unavoidable through bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, the unreliability of cyber dealings made into leverage by traditional media that presented their news as true, trustworthy, does not take sides and will go through hell or high water just to give you the correct information 24 hours a day.

Somewhat under the radar was the Bangsamoro autonomous elections postponed yet again, with officials finally deciding to delete the option “none of the above” on the ballot of candidates to choose from, saying if one abstains then that automatically means none of the above, no need to shade any allotted box beside it. The non-government Climate Conflict Action Asia keeps tabs on the volatile autonomous region, and the actual provinces that comprise it still going through technical wrangling by the courts, making any secession project impossible even if virtual.

Philippine sports found a new darling in Alexandra Eala, whose breathtaking run in the Miami WTA event in March gave the world notice, later acting as co-flag bearer for the country’s contingent in the Southeast Asian Games. Some tough first round exits in grand slams and other high-level tournaments rather tempered expectations for the ingenue, but by yearend she had eased into the top 50 rankings and won the SEA Games gold, reason enough to hope for a better 2026 that if she worked on her serve and mental toughness, titles on tour may be only a matter of time.

There may have been more prominent deaths the past year, e.g. writer Greg Brillantes’ passing late September as another typhoon had the Philippines in its crosshairs, but few can equal the long goodbye of Juan Ponce Enrile, whose career spanned several presidents (the only exception being Aguinaldo) and whether you loved him or hated him, there was no denying Manong Johnny’s influence on Philippine politics, his high water marks coming during the two Marcos administrations. But did he really ride off into the sunset? A brilliant legal mind shines in a corner of Morado Street, Dasmariñas Village, along with the ghosts of martial law.