Well, in fairness to those concerned, the ttitle of this piece should be ''The 17 Unfinished Businesses in 2017.' That would be more politically correct. But today, is Innocents Day, and so, we should have a little hyperbole. To quote the President himself: "Estoryalang god ba." The first big lie in 2017 was the promise to finish the drug problemin six months. The president himself admitted he miscalculated the complexity of this problem. The second lie is that there was no fake news in 2017. Estoryahe! Third: Promise to abolish contractualization---easier said than done. Fourth: Horrendous traffic in EDSA. DOTr Secretary Tugade, talked too much too soon, but did too little, if at all.

Fifth: Eradicate corruption in six months, do I need to say more? Sixth: Finish Marawiseige in 100 days. The government forces lost many lives and Marawi was totally pulverized. Seventh: Lower unemployment rate, but unemployment and underemployment are still the highest in ASEAN. Eighth: Improve the country's wi-fi capability. The bitter truth is that a poor country as Laos has a much better wi-fi connectivity and capability than our country. Nakakahiya. Ninth: Lower inflation rate; it is even worse now. Tenth: Improve the value of the peso; the dollar-peso rate deteriorated in the last 12 months.

Eleventh: Address the prices of gas. You know the real score. Twelfth: Attract more investors for more job opportunities. The truth is many investors are leaving because of the new tax measures and the threat to abolish contractualization. Thirteenth: Overhaul taxation to make it more progressive. The TRAIN, supposed to reform the tax system, succeeded to deform itas prices of commodities, including soft drinks, are being slapped excessive taxes. I heard that Coke is relocating its manufacturing operations. I don't know about Pepsi and Cosmos and other players.This measure was railroaded by Congress in joint session on December 13, the last session day of the year.

Fourteenth: Eradicate the drug syndicates and the drug trade inside the Bilibid, but last reports indicate that they are alive and doing brisk business there---not fake news. Fifteenth: Pass the Federalism law and the Bangsa Moro Organic Act of 2017---both have not even started. If they focused on these, they might not need to extend martial law. Sixteenth: Complete the peace talks in a few months, but these were stopped. And seventeenth: Prohibit open pit mining, but it has been revived supposedly. Gina Lopez was ousted from DENR because many Commission on Appointments members are allegedly owners, lawyers or consultants of mining companies. Shame, shame, shame.

And so, Innocents Day is not only today, my friends. The whole of 2017 was an Innocents' Year. But can they really fool all the people all the time? Estoryahe.

josephusbjimenez@gmail.com