Yearender: Bombs Away, Earthquake Swarm, Fish Boat Ramming

The bombing of the cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Jolo, Sulu during Sunday morning mass on Jan. 27 was the first big story of the year, killing at least 20 mostly civilian churchgoers and bystanders. The first bomb went off in the churchyard, while another exploded in the cathedral itself to do maximum damage.

Military said a couple of extremists from Indonesia were responsible, a man and a woman who were suicide bombers. They were said to be training their local counterparts of the Islamic State in the south. The incident would replicate itself months later in June but with less casualties, as the attack on a military installation in Indanan, Sulu in June would net the first Filipino suicide bomber.

These were among some main stories emanating from the island of Mindanao, because in October came the earthquake swarm that rocked Cotabato and environs, including General Santos, Sarangani and the Davao region. Some 40 people died and countless infrastructure were damaged or condemned in the quakes that registered 6.3, 6.6 and 6.5 in magnitude on Oct. 16, 29 and 31, respectively. In Tulunan, North Cotabato, patients at the Father Tulio Favali Municipal Hospital had to move to the hallways when the adjacent covered courts collapsed. Affected residents had to spend the holidays in makeshift shelters and evacuation centers.

Another earthquake of similar magnitude hit the same region in December almost like an afterthought, as if to say the swarm was not yet done. A temblor also hit the island of Itbayat in Batanes in July, while Greater Manila during the year experienced some shaking emanating from Pampanga epicenter, prompting the resurgence of earthquake drills and geologists wondering if the big one was at hand.

 Although no one died in the incident, the ramming of fishing boat Gem-Ver in June, three days before Independence Day off Reed (Recto) Bank in the West Philippine Sea by a Chinese steel trawler caused a diplomatic fracas, suggesting not a creeping invasion but signs of an insidious entitlement by the neighboring Asian giant, as Cabinet secretaries scrambled to do damage control. Whether collision or elision, this was farthest from the minds of the fishermen who had to stay afloat in the dark night in cold water for hours before a Vietnamese ship rescued them.

The Chinese presence further manifested in the Philippine offshore gaming operators or POGOs, which had issues on taxes and being suspected spawn of other crimes involving Chinese nationals, such as prostitution and kidnapping.

The dreaded African swine fever ironically struck hard in the third quarter of the year of the pig, as around 60,000 hogs died or were culled to contain ASF that threatened many backyard industries in Metro Manila and Pangasinan, although a minuscule percentage of the number of heads in the entire country. Already contained in December, ASF, transmitted only among pigs largely through swill, has not been completely eradicated, according to the agriculture department, and drove up prices of traditional noche buena items ham and lechon.

 In better health if not in the pink was the performance of administration candidates in the midterm elections in May, which were seen as a referendum of resounding approval for the Duterte administration with most of his preferred candidates winning seats in the Senate. There was also a changing of the guard in local politics, with a number of young leaders emerging victorious amid the surprising near shutout of the old establishment who were finally taken to pasture by the electorate.

Meanwhile, the political rehabilitation of the Marcoses continued with the election of eldest daughter Imee Marcos to the Senate, three years after her brother Bongbong lost his bid for the vice presidency and their father was given a hero’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Imelda was convicted of graft but never arrested, and the family notched legal victories at the Sandiganbayan with a number of forfeiture cases dismissed, although already deemed as ill-gotten were shares in companies, jewelry, art work: Arelma, Roumeliotes, Manet, Monet…

Looming shortage and crisis still abound in water and rice, as several taps ran dry in the summer months and intermittently while water levels in main reservoirs for the metropolis fell to critical level, and the erratic supply and price of rice prompted the enactment of the Rice Tariffication law to bring in imports, much to the chagrin of local farmers as palay prices hit record lows. The water situation is near dire, with advisers saying the building of Kaliwa Dam should be a priority, but not without resistance from environmentalists in the Sierra Madre. As of writing the agreement with concessionaires is to be reviewed after government was ordered to pay damages for deferred rate hike.

Drug war year 3.5 still had support of a majority of Filipinos, according to surveys, even as the phenomenon of ninja cops surfaced, or police who recycle drugs seized during raids for reselling. The controversy caused the slightly early retirement of the national police chief, and in November the vice president called the bluff of the administration by accepting the offer to co-chair an inter-agency body against illegal drugs, a stint that lasted less than two weeks. A UN resolution shepherded by Iceland was passed by a small majority, calling for investigation and accountability on increasing deaths in the war on drugs.

In what was supposed to be the last big story of the year, the verdict for the trial of the century was finally handed down in December, with most of the principal Ampatuans found guilty of murdering 57 people mostly journalists in the so-called Maguindanao massacre in November 2009. The once powerful political clan is expected to appeal while 80 of the accused remain at large probably with different names and slightly altered faces, if not already in another country. The case of the 58^th victim was dismissed due to absence of a corpus delicti. Martial law was set to end in Mindanao after 2.5 years, but a STAR reporter warned of action from Dawlah Islamiyah in 2020.

Hail and farewell: Pepe Smith, Karina David, Carlos Celdran and Nene Pimentel.