Trust the Filipinos and their optimism.
The year 2016 saw a lot of Filipinos turning social-media sites into cesspools of vitriol, negativity and aggression.
From various branches of government, we saw our leaders and officials practice the politics of division and hate, the tactics of lies, mudslinging and muckraking.
We saw the horrifying extent of the illegal-drugs problem in our country, its damaging and corrupting effects on every sector of society, our government, our political institutions, even our fragile democracy.
We saw the double-edged nature of President Duterte’s war against illegal drugs claim lives, drawing complaints of impunity and human-rights violations.
Yet, despite all the bad things that happened in 2016, an overwhelming majority of Filipinos are still welcoming the new year with hope, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll.
The SWS survey, conducted from December 3 to 6, showed 95 percent of adult Filipinos saying they are hopeful of 2017, with only 5 percent saying they are rather fearful. It noted optimism for the new year had improved three percentage points from 2015’s 92 percent.
Optimism has always been the majority sentiment among Filipinos when welcoming the new year. Since the SWS first surveyed it in 2000, optimism has always been measured between 87 percent and 95 percent. Overwhelming majorities of the population across geographic areas and socioeconomic classes express hope, not fear or apprehension, when a new year arrives.
The 2016 SWS survey showed optimism in Luzon at 97 percent; followed by the National Capital Region and Mindanao at 95 percent; and the Visayas at 92 percent. SWS noted new-year hope in Mindanao had usually been lowest among all the areas, but this year it reached its all-time high record from the 88 percent recorded in 2015.
New-year hopefulness was measured at 99 percent among upper to middle classes or ABC; 95 percent among those in class D or the masa; and 93 percent among the very poor class E.
Of course, when the SWS survey was conducted, Typhoon Nina had not yet wreaked havoc on the Philippines. The typhoon, the strongest to hit the country since Yolanda in 2013, left vast sections of the Philippines in ruins when it slammed into our coasts on Christmas Day. It cost P4 billion in damages, ruined thousands of tons of valuable crops, left at least seven people dead and several missing, stranded thousands of holiday travelers and displaced more than 600,000 people, many of them farmers.
We doubt, though, if Nina could have sunk the Filipinos’ spirit or changed our hopeful mood about the new year.
We are just a happy, hopeful people by nature. Even after being hit by one tragedy after another, Filipinos remain unsinkable. We said in a previous editorial how Filipinos are able to celebrate Christmas no matter the circumstances. It is the same for each incoming year, as well: hope has always won out and has been pervasive among our people at high levels.
Filipinos dare to be optimists even in trying times. It is not that we see less than our despairing brothers and sisters in other countries. It is, rather, that we see more. We see more hope in times of despair. We see more redemption in the offing when we’re down and out.
We may have felt fear, anger, confusion and grief because of all the political and corruption scandals and the divisive war against illegal drugs in the past year. We may have lost loved ones along the way. A strong typhoon may have destroyed so many homes and livelihoods on Christmas Day.
Still, hope has not diminished among us Filipinos.
There’s something valiant and beautiful in our unwillingness to surrender our hope that things will eventually turn out for the better. And even if it’s misplaced optimism, even if the euphoria lasts only for the few weeks or months of the new year, it is still worth it, it is still uplifting.