DECEMBER 2024 came to a close with hardly any harbinger of good tidings and very few reasons to hope for a better, more prosperous 2025. The big dampener was the last quarter survey on the related issues of poverty and hunger released by the SWS in the dying days of that month, which captured the reality on the ground: Self-rated poverty was on a 21-year high, and so was self-rated food poverty. President Marcos Jr. was generally in an upbeat mood, triumphant even in his public appearances, as the nation was making the countdown to the new year. But as we all know, the gospel of the good life and better lives ahead can't be preached to those with empty stomachs and miserable lives.
On the president's upbeat mood and suggestions of a better life ahead, the subdued reaction was like this: preaching on empty.
