We’re not trying to be religious, but January 2026 has to be themed — depending on whatever your faith leads you — to anything about vision, awakening, commitment, setting spiritual goals, and desires. (Credit goes to prayer partners led by my spiritual father Emer.) Maduro, the ousted leader of the Venezuelan people, may not see it coming, but some are smarter than others, including the leader worse than Maduro. And we don’t have trumped-up charges here. The neighboring people’s president appears so confident in his worst military assault that nobody can deny: In his flesh in an instant, Maduro will appear before the U.S. courts of justice.
Kidnapped? Well, Trump didn’t kid him.
They both warned each other and it seemed that the not-so-American had the last laugh. Imagine him laughing the morning after? (We pause, too, for their seven days of mourning.) The scenes of the crime, of atrocities, of deathbeds for civilian people on the streets in Venezuela make us worry more of the future, with the right motive. Russia, China, and North Korea counterparts have been given the idea that it’s very much okay to violate international law; you’re a superpower anyway.
Kids cry before they die. Adults surrender their lives. They may also cry before God. Where is He in all this, though, some may ask. When all the words that come out of fascists are merely secondary to their corrupt, atrocious ways of leading, and some of them say, “saving” people.
How ironic to claim more Venezuelans are made happier, and Trump is their hero!
Which leads us to go back to where we are and where we should be: to focus on our own territory.
To say that the Philippines is like Taiwan is not without wisdom. The two neighboring countries need to beef up militarily and/or increase their power, resources, capabilities, minus the trolls and treacherous politicians. It is because China will continue to knock and later bang on the very doorsteps of our homeland and the privacy of our own homes. Can we believe Trump’s assertion that he has a good relationship with President Xi?
As the United States and the Philippines are treaty allies on paper, that is the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, along with EDCA and other defense agreements, Filipinos and their patriotic leaders (inside or outside government) need to do some re-envisioning and re-awakening, with genuine interests to serve the country and its people. Their patriotism goes beyond motherhood statements but more of strong words, more concrete, more clarified action meant for our territorial integrity.
The WPS is no sea dispute anymore. Clarity can best be seen in the UNCLOS ruling; it so happened that Duterte the former leader helped make things murkier to the delight of Chinese ambassadors, their coast guard, their generals, and Xi himself. We’re paying the price, yet we’re doing some no-nonsense defensive postures, position papers, patrols, and more importantly, our DND and PCG leaderships are not backing down on defense amidst China’s massive disinformation campaign at the WPS.
Our strength and resolutions initially had strong showings before China when we disallowed a Duterte have a defense portfolio, though we permitted her to temporarily head the Education department. Imagine the Matatag curriculum totally silent and against us in celebrating our victory at WPS, even small triumphs of coastguard personnel and truth-telling and truth-searching journalists, people in the Church, and civil society.
Let’s say we’re running out of time as intruders and bad elements of Philippine society and the world are already stationed inside our territory. That monster makes us think critically, unafraid of reclaiming a country safer, better for future Filipino generations to live in. (If we can only ban “Goodbye Philippines” and other firecrackers for good as God honors what we do, so we better have better things to say in our prayer for the country and the world; mind you there’s power in declaration.)
We have to be smarter and look at all peoples and their presidents in the eyes, blinking only when we need to, but are always awakening our sense of commitment to truly sustainable development goals and what our individual hearts desire.
Happy 2026!
DC Alviar
Professor DC Alviar is a tenured associate professor at National University (NU) Manila and a steering committee member of the Philippine International Studies Organization (PHISO). He has contributed to NU's community extension initiatives that introduced the five disciplines of a learning organization (Senge, 1990) to communities within a local government unit. He writes and edits local reports for Mega Scene. He graduated with Master of Development Communication (MDC) and Doctor of Communication (DComm) degrees from the University of the Philippines (UP) Open University in Los Baños and was awarded with a Commission on Higher Education (CHED) SIKAP grant. He previously served as editor-in-chief of The Adamson News and his high school publication Ang Ugat.
- DC Alviar
- DC Alviar
- DC Alviar
- DC Alviar
