Time to move
WITH President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. in Malacanang, the Philippines, one of the world’s top manpower-exporting nations, is slowly getting back on its feet.
No less than the 64-year-old President Marcos from Ilocos Norte has enjoined the Filipino people, now numbering more than 110 million, “to go back to our normal lives.”
Marcos aired the call last Sunday in Bacolod City, where he attended the culminating activity of this year’s MassKara Festival.
We share the view of the Ilocano Chief Executive that the holding of the MassKara Festival signaled not just the opening of Bacolod City to tourists but also the entire country.
Launched in October 1980 by the late Bacolod City Mayor Jose “Digoy” Montalvo Jr., the first MassKara Festival was held following two major tragedies that befell Negrenses.
The tragedies were the collapse of sugar prices in the world market and the tragic sinking of the Negros Navigation ship MV Don Juan.
Mr. Marcos acknowledged that the more than two years of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic may have been very difficult because it put us through the wringer.
But it’s time for all of us to show again the “resilience, resourcefulness, industry and talent” of Filipinos, according to the Chief Executive.
President Marcos noted that the crippling COVID-19 pandemic, which has devastated the domestic economy, is fading away, adding the people are learning to manage it.
As a well-meaning Filipino, we commend President Marcos and his administration, which ends on June 30, 2028, for doing everything to revive the ailing economy.
