“Bang!” — what a way to start the year on a purported sound the NAIA power generator made when it was allegedly incorrectly connected to the wrong voltage outlet, as the rumor mills have churned out.
Of course, there is no accurate depiction of what specifically happened on the morning of the first of January. It is also useless to belabor on the monumental losses our country surmounted on the very first day of the year. May it be monetary or reputational in nature, the damages suffered are saddening on what was supposed the time when Filipinos are most optimistic.
As for this writer, my family dodged a bullet when we failed to board our 26 December flight to Hong Kong since our youngest member of the party, a 4-year-old boy, tested positive on the rapid antigen test — a pre-departure requirement for all foreign travelers to Hong Kong. We had to cancel our flights and hotel reservations, for a hefty fee, and spend the holidays among each other’s company, amidst numerous Netflix marathons. Our boy tested negative immediately the next day but the fear of testing positive in the [then] required RT-PCR test and having required to undergo the mandatory quarantine in a foreign non-English speaking country, are too much to handle.
Lo and behold, our return flight was coincidentally scheduled on January 1, the day of the NAIA power outage a.k.a. Manila no-fly zone. Had we continued with our flight, then we would have been among the reported 65,000 affected passengers. We would have been among the tired, frustrated travelers forced to spend more money on food and maybe clothing. The thought of going through that with our young kids is horrendous. I feel truly sorry for everyone who had to go through the agony of it all, when it should have been a dream holiday, still part of ‘revenge travel’, after years in lockdown.
As they say, there is nowhere to go but up from that incident. Then two days later, on 4 January, the MRT-3 suffered a problem that forced it to reduce trains on what was supposed the day it was almost ready — the first working day of 2023. Manila’s commuters were forced to fall in line on what is already a difficult journey home. What better way to wake up the working masses than by paralyzing the MRT-3?
Just when we thought we can get away from all these issues by staying at home, think again! Then on the following day, 4 January, one of the country’s largest banks, Bank of the Philippine Islands, experienced problems with its mobile app and recognized unauthorized deductions on certain accounts of their clients. This was the time when transfers and bill payments are still heavily done as it was one of the first days of the month.
Here is an unfair question being thrown by naysayers: Where is President Bongbong Marcos, Jr. in all of this? We all know that the President has a scheduled state visit to the People’s Republic of China, upon the invitation of President Xi Jinping. The official visit, aside from bringing in pledges amounting to billions for economic growth and development, will strengthen diplomatic ties with our superpower neighbor, a relationship cultivated and rejuvenated by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The China trip ushers in hope for 2023, just as much as the previous state visits made by President Marcos, Jr. and we look forward to the good news it shall bring to our nation. Let us allow the Cabinet members to solve these issues, along with the rising prices of onions before our President returns to our country.
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For comments, email him at darren.dejesus@gmail.com.