As we become in the era of Duterte, we change and that makes things permanent, long term and, hopefully, a better Philippines. Heraclitus said, “There is nothing permanent except change.” And change makes things, communities and nations better.

ABS-CBN is the biggest political party in the country because it can make and unmake a candidate. Fair because ABS-CBN has played the game of politics well. The heat radar in this network is so high that during campaigns or any political event, they are always the trump card for some groups out to sow intrigues, chaos and the like.

So many things happening around the world and we are on the threshold of growth, infrastructure development, reducing poverty, gaining the second wind for peace in Mindanao and enhancing social amelioration programs in education and healthcare. So much work remains still, and we just cannot rest on the laurels of the Duterte administration for to do so would be to let time pass and other countries catch up to what we, as a nation, hopes to accomplish in the next 10 years.

Think about the future and not just the here and now. Remember the gains of the Duterte administration and the problematic issues that periodically caused so much tension and drains the leadership. In fine, we make our future by the leaders we elect. 

Filipinos own the air, water and land subject to certain regulations. Filipinos do not benefit from its usage in terms of efficient service and/or pricing. Patrimonial should serve Filipinos more than the private sector.

The days of mainstream media, or MSM, are gone with the nature and development of social media and the ability of a content creator to create news on an hourly basis. And these developments have pushed more transparency and accountability to leaders, officials and politicians because any second someone can just post things in the public arena and drill it to trend.   

The tingi mentality allows us to think small and build small. Anything that crosses the imagination is a wild tale, and a project that goes beyond a billion is mind boggling for others. Immediately, we attach our tingi mindset, “Sinong yumaman? Ilan sa korapsyon?” Is this the reason we continually fail to rise?

We have to break the dugyot mentality if we are to break the cycle of poverty. But first we must agree with the proposition that one has to care more in order to understand more.

Despite the presence of several versions of the federalism proposal, the 18th Congress will not move in the direction of federalism. Shifting to federal is not easy but we need to imbibe the mindset that allows reforms to be pursued.

The Duterte administration has shown enormous political will to get things done, from every crisis to every solution considered and rolled out. Some say government should deal with every crisis but we know from our history that the private sector should lead the offensive and government should provide the environment, the very ecosystem to respond to it. The public sector should be nimble, it should be lean and mean and go to things in a market failure scenario and lead the transition to a platform economy.

Integrity is the sum total of character. Thus, when appeals are made not to sully a reputation built through the years, observers would be reminded of the saying, “be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

IQ has nothing to do with smart cities. Conversely, IQ these days is not even the best measurement of success in the 21st century. "IQ is a number that indicates a person reasoning or logical ability in comparison to the statistical norm. EQ implies the level of person’s emotional intelligence.”