JANUARY 2026

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By Mariano A. Santos

Publisher / Editor

MESSAGE of hope and cheerful greetings usually fill the air as we say goodbye, this time, to year 2025.

We wish. But bidding “good riddance!” to this one that’s due to end, is not as final as we want it to be. 

Things happened this past year will haunt us even more in 2026. 

The prophecy of “1984” has taken upon us. The dystopia of George Orwell’s futuristic fiction is now our reality.

War is not war anymore. War is peace.

Consider this. A mighty country USA is committing reprehensible acts of piracy against a Third World Country. That is, after obliterating a number of boats and their riders without due process and outside the rules of engagement that civilized nations have adhered to.

These infractions are endorsed by one who audaciously clamors for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Chief Executive recently addressed the nation and claimed economic prosperity and record employment for the Americans while their lives are actually hit by high cost of everyday necessities and scores of jobless workers.

Thanks, but no thanks, for his minions and enablers who willingly implement his lopsided tariffs, massive layoffs, unjust economic policies that negatively impacted vulnerable families but increased the net worth of his already superrich tribe.

Thousands of Federal employees were indiscriminately let go while the Department of Education other essential government agencies dismantled. These were claimed as achievements even as the havoc they created is now apparent.

USAID, the venerable and longtime arm of U.S. outreach to end widespread diseases, hunger and poverty, was summarily banished, and thousands of needy people had died or now dying because of this unconscionable decision.

Yet, the boast persists that the country remains the leader of the family of nations.

Justice is alarmingly administered in the most corrupt ways. Prosecutors and judges who faithfully follow the constitution are now harassed, prosecuted and maligned. Convicted felons, fraudsters and criminals are being pardoned under suspicious terms.

Freedom of Press has never been more severely attacked and fake news has gained currency leading to widespread conspiracy theories and even criminal activities. Public Broadcasting System and VOA were defunded.

Environmental concerns have taken a hit amid the occurrence of natural disasters brought about by climate change. Actions like abandoning alternative sources of energy while resuming oil drilling and coal mining have taken the upper hand.

The belief that immigrants are instrumental to the progress that America has enjoyed for many years was junked.  Instead in 2025, an adverse and belligerent treatment of foreign workers and innovators that industries have courted and recruited is now policy. 

Laborers that worked on the farms, meat factories, restaurant kitchens, nursing homes, hotels—became easy ICE targets for incarceration and mass deportations. No wonder, businesses cried foul—protesting the assault on immigrants and their businesses.

Yet those in power, saw the condemnable effects as trophies of their chaotic misdoings.

The polls show the numbers of the people’s dissatisfaction. Those in-charge are deaf to the din of complains, proud even of their heartless approach to the challenges of the country.

Given this administration upside down take of what is happening to the country, a clarion call to the civic-minded citizens is on to take the cudgel of righting the wrong. Taken for granted for an extended period of time, it’s high time to fight for democracy.

It is about protecting voting rights, writing to legislators, supporting causes that end injustices and abuses and be quick in exposing falsehood—being involved in this challenging times.

The United States marks its 250th year of its founding in 2026. It was determined by the Founding Fathers early on that “Democracy is the best form of government” that the new nation should embrace and to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin—if we can keep it.

The U.S. survived it for all these years—including the bloody Civil War of 1861-65 when 600,000 Americans perished to keep it united. The last century brought in the Great Depression, two World Wars and the divisive Vietnam War. 

The 21st Century opened with the 911 Attack, followed by the Iraq War, then the long involvement in Afghanistan. U.S. even weathered the COVID plague.  All these came to pass. But Americans should now wake up to the present challenge that creeped up that assaults the very foundation of democracy in this country.

The year 2025 leaves the world gripped with uncertainty and the nation reeling from the havoc wreaked by a reckless president who continues to undermine and destroy the very foundations of our democracy. 

There are forces that are out to undermine the important doctrine of the separation of the state and religion as well as the separation of power—where the executive, legislative and the judiciary—are to govern equally, respecting each other’s area of responsibilities.

Apparently, there are proofs that racism and bigotry are now made into play to gain an advantage to control power on running the country.

The Greatest U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, should still be our noble guide on how we are to proceed as a nation—it should remain—a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Yes, Democracy should live on, so help us, Divine Providence!