Written with Sass
ljoson@theguidon.com
Christmas is a selfish holiday. Expectations set the standard of Christmas high up, as that one holiday meant for sharing kindness and giving love—while Reality tells us that Christmas is nothing more than a season of sharing wishlists on Facebook and giving your friends an unabashed “I’ll give your gift soon ah! Promise!”
When Christmas is talked about, who thinks of the helping the beggars at the White Plains intersection? Who receives their generous dose of Christmas cash, and decides that it’s going to the babies of Cribs this year? A few exceptions probably, but to the general population’s train of thought, Christmas is a just another holiday specially meant for immersing ourselves in exciting worldly things.
Christmas is about the elusive Starbucks planner and the exotic trips we’re set to embark on with our families. Christmas is about hosting parties and attending them. Christmas is about The Christmas Wishlist—basically a list of things you’re dying to have, just for the sake of having.
Dreams of iPads, new rides and Forever 21 sprees aside, have you ever thought of what would be on the Philippines’ Christmas Wishlist if she were alive and personified to make one?
The Philippines would be able to stand and function without her little fancies, but in the spirit of receiving, it would only be fair if she got to voice out the things she’s seriously been coveting all year long.
1) A traffic-free Manila. If there’s someone (or something) to blame for the almost irrational traffic jams plaguing Manila, it wouldn’t be rush hour road constructions or hot-headed drivers who like playing Bump Car on single-lane roads. Heck, it shouldn’t even be our awful drainage system or the MMDA on the chopping block. The root of all Manila traffic stems from vehicle congestion. Simply put, there are too many wheels on our roads, and a good number of them shouldn’t even be there. We’re looking at you, LTO.
2) Positive travel advisories. It really makes you wonder, who are feeding Australia, United Kingdom, France and the United States all their information? UK’s most recent travel advisory barred its citizens from travelling to the Philippines not only because of threats of terrorism—but also because of a “risk of rabies.” We know the DOT messed it up with “Pilipinas, Kay Ganda!”, but this is a bit much.
3) Justice for Lauro Vizconde. Philippine police and judicial forces really need to up their game to find the next—and this time—real “Hubert Webb.” The convicted suspects of the 19-year-old case were recently acquitted by the Supreme Court, as if to tell Lauro, “We got the wrong guy all along. Sorry it took us 10 years to realize this. But don’t worry, we’ve been given six months to find the real guys!” To have the real murderers behind bars would mean peace for the surviving Vizconde, and hope for the rest of the Philippines, that indeed, our judicial system still somewhat works.
4) For PNoy to have someone to spend Christmas with. It was probably Ate Shalani who got the most out of the First Breakup. Or was it Liz Uy? It’s hard to tell, but one thing’s for sure— even if you were nowhere to be found on August 23 (look it up, kids), you don’t deserve to be spending Christmas alone.
