We’re nearly at the finish line. The reports for 2025, and the first quarter of the 21st century, are in, and here’s the prognosis.
We’re kinda fucked. Kurakot energy is at an all-time high, and with approximately P360 billion worth of taxpayers’ money allocated to (many bogus) flood control projects this year, it feels like we’re living in a simulation. It’s not even The Matrix kind because at least they had a version of the internet that, by today’s standards, still allowed us to go out and touch grass.
Not only is there less grass than ever before, with many of our forests being razed straight from our hilltops; we’re in a simulation where Regine Velasquez is singing Jess Glynne’s “Hold My Hand” as It’s Showtime host Vice Ganda implicitly advertises a British low-budget airline, Jet2Holidays, disguised as a diss against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his “jet ski holiday” into the West Philippine Sea.
Duterte jet-skiing into supposedly contested waters (though the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s 2016 ruling made them clearly Philippine) was an image etched into our consciousness not by artificial intelligence, but by a declarative statement he made in 2016, when he “jokingly” said he would jet ski to Scarborough Shoal and plant a Philippine flag there. As if that wasn’t absurd enough, nine years later (a relic by the internet’s standards), Vice Ganda would add her own spin to the story, thus perfectly capturing our cultural predicament: Reality, devoid of any sense, is interrupted every three ads, and all we could do, in this economy, is cry or laugh! Haha?!
If the beginning of the ‘20s brought a brief revival of a monoculture, with the world united by the impending doom of the pandemic, 2025 may have reversed all that, and the closest we’ve come to uniting society might just be our shared love for matcha. What hafen, vella?!
On Edge
But there’s a silver lining in all of this. With Filipinos being pushed so close to the edge, a few good apples are bound to have had enough of it. The victims of Duterte — who is currently facing proceedings at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity — and dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo, now sentenced to life in prison for POGO-related human trafficking, are finally seeing their moment of justice.
The Philippines is also getting its flowers with Filipino producer Jonathan Manalo sitting as a voting member of the Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammy Awards, and Fil-Am rapper Ruby Ibarra winning NPR’s Tiny Desk contest, marking a moment for Pinoy hip-hop here, near, and far. Plus, with BINI set to perform at Coachella in 2026 as the festival’s first-ever P-Pop girl group, Filipino music is expected to be on an upward trend next year.
In the realm of culture, Alex Eala made history as the highest ranking Filipino tennis player in tour history, and film director Lav Diaz is up for a possible nomination at the 2026 Oscars for his film Magellan. And whether it’s spotting Philip Rosenthal and Conan O’Brien tour the city of Manila for their respective travel shows, seeing the debut of the Philippines’ own Michelin Guide, or cheering Team Philippines on at Netflix’s reality competition series Physical: Asia, our country certainly got its fair share of screen time in the global stage, which makes for one hell of a year for Pinoy pride.
2025 also saw the breakout of this very publication, Rolling Stone Philippines, and that must count as a good thing.
As we celebrate our first year, let’s all take a good, hard look at the triumphs and blunders that defined 2025. From ranking the top 25 Songs You Need to Know this year and making sense of the wild world of Philippine cinema, to the state of physical media and AI slop, our year-ender series, The Year in Review, has one foot in the past and another in the future, shedding light on the moments that changed us for better and worse.
To follow 2025 in Review, bookmark this page and stay tuned to Rolling Stone Philippines for more stories that don’t ask permission.
