What make a good nation are good people. No matter how great the sceneries are, no matter how rich the natural resources is, and no matter how powerful the military defence might be, it cannot be a good nation if people living here are corrupt. Corruption has been the subject of discussion in this country for more than two decades. But while the media and political entities are busy revealing to the people of the nation and to the whole world how worst corruption in this country is, there are still cities, people and leaders that are proving “change for good” is still possible in this wonderful nation. As an observer, although I have not yet widely explored this beautiful country, I can say that Filipinos still has the courage to prove to the world that they can rise up to the challenge of times. In this country of OFWs , boxing legends, and white-sandy beaches, there are three places which I recently visited that I can say are making good things to happen despite of odds forcing this

Here’s my thought. Filipinos, we’re almost gone with the wind a few years back. Typhoon Yolanda, literally, almost buried us in the mud and blown us away to nowhere. Thousands were killed, lost their homes, morally degraded, starved, cried, and up to now desperate to recover from an unprecedented tragedy. The strong wind strikes again – Ruby. We’re flooded. We’re drowned. We collapsed again for a while. We welcome each year with this. We used to count days before Christmas. We used to light up candles a few weeks before we share our smile. Those were the November days. Some of us mourned while some of us commemorated the passage of our loved ones. We used to keep our smiles for a while and then burst it out in the cold days of December. The red colours and flashing lights are trying to calm us down. The cold wind is trying to speak its sorry after those tragic days that left us horrified. We can’t get out of the fire. It keeps on extending its tongue and grabs t