The government recently announced that it was paying off the rest of its debts to the IMF early. The Philippine peso has not been stronger in many years, inflation is down and the treasury has never been more flushed with foreign currency. But at what cost?

Record remittances from overseas workers approaching $15 billion coupled with hefty cuts in education and infrastructure budgets are responsible for the unprecedented surplus. There is nothing inherently evil in this arrangement but it does reveal the government's priorities.

Take a chance in not investing in building roads and bridges and power lines and telecommunications for a few years. Keep the teachers underpaid and the students undereducated for a spell while we look good to our foreign creditors. Spend billions modernizing the armed forces without clearly determining who our enemies are and why these elements are so violently opposed to the dispensation.

The Asian Development Bank commissioned a report on the prevalence of corruption. As expected, the report detailed that even when it comes to the distribution of aid and assistance, the system appears to be hopelessly corrupted.

This blog is almost one year old and looking back, I have written regularly regarding the perspective of a native son gone back home. The topics are disturbingly similar. There is a theme that we can synthesize from all the troubles outlined. My version of the way out continues to evolve. Today is traditionally the Feast of the Three Kings, the Day of Epiphany. I will tell you about an Epiphany soon.

There was a big flood that inundated Bacolod before Christmas that totally submerged the one family car we have that we use to bring the kids to school. The "ECU" or the computer that serves as the vehicle's brains was rendered inoperable. While that vehicle is being repaired, we decided to buy a car that hearkens back to the very first car we ever bought in the US, a Hyundai Excel GL 1990 model that we christened "Charlie" after the salesman who sold the car to us in upstate NY. Back then, everyone told us to stay away from Hyundais. We used it for 6 years and drove it to Texas, Georgia, Arkansas and many other places and the car never gave us one bit of trouble.

I find it auspicious to own an itty-bitty 1.1 liter Hyundai Getz, as our first car in the Philippines. After all the gas guzzlers that we drove in the US, it is comforting to go back to a simple environmentally-friendly Hyundai.

First entry for the New Year. Continued to spend much time with family. The vacation will be ending soon. We will shortly have to make decisions which will certainly disrupt our idyllic existence, intrude into our privacy and breach our security.

There is a very promising political party that is aspiring to become a political force. It is completely against the grain of traditional Philippine politics. It emphasizes change that needs to begin within every single one of us. Most of the leaders are elderly people without the usual agenda that is taken for granted among the dynastic powers that have controlled our country from the beginning. I am seriously studying this party's platform.

Last time I spent the eve of the New Year in the Philippines was in 1988. Now, with my two older daughters, we watched the city become shrouded in the gray fog of gunpowder. You see tonight is our equivalent of the Fourth of July. To scare off the evil and unlucky spirits, we detonate illegal firecrackers way before and way after the stroke of midnight. Millions of dollars worth of pyrotechnics go up in smoke on this night.

Despite all the corruption and pollution and overcrowding and murders and kidnapping we become a hopeful nation during the dying minutes of the year.

Last day of what has been a year of great change. Spent half of the year in the US and the other half in the Philippines. My daughters have adjusted magnificently and they look forward to going to school each day. They have made many new friends and they are slowly learning the language of their parents.

We have spent much time with family members and we continue to rediscover the country we were away from for 17 years. All in all, a great vacation so far.

But what to do now and for the rest of our lives. There are opportunities to get actively involved, to join the political fray, a chance to become an agent for change. This will certainly crimp on our current vacation way of life and will mean less time spent with my daughters. And yet if I do not move now I will only strengthen the forces of inertia.

Nobody should live or die for oneself alone. That would be meaningless. The struggle to do good in a blighted world against very long odds is a noble cause. There is so much work to be done and we must start soon.