HOW do you bring life to a lifeless feast? With the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)’s P500 Noche Buena guide, Christmas, which is supposedly an ever joyous, anticipated celebration, becomes hollow — a grim reminder of the country’s financial crisis.

DTI Acting Secretary and Kamiseta founder Ma. Cristina Aldeguer-Roque stated on DZMM Teleradyo that with the budget, “Makakabili na kayo ng ham, makakagawa ka na ng macaroni salad, makakagawa na rin ng spaghetti.” After intense backlash from many Filipinos, she later clarified that it is possible for the simple families of four.

Rather than satiating the public’s outrage, this statement — alongside her other remarks — only added fuel to the fire.

Their budget shopping showcases a P163.00 500g American ham, P112.00 for 800g pasta and 1kg spaghetti sauce, and P116.50 for 822g fruit cocktail and 410ml Kremdensada, which makes you question where they really get their numbers from. Perhaps it can be attained if you are celebrating Christmas by yourself, which not only refutes her earlier statement but also undermines the spirit of the holiday — what was a once-a-year season where families, no matter the distance, finally gather in one place. Moreover, it becomes a deception (or a pitiful attempt) of what could be a feast.

There is also an ongoing circulation of a video screenshot of her claiming that if you can opt for sardines, why buy ham? All of these make us realize how government officials truly are out of touch with reality. Their privileges blur the lines of any attempt at connection with the public — a growing line of distrust and disconnect, really.

Go-to dishes and traditions that were made through time now become out of reach because of the rising cost of living. 

They are conditioning us like dogs to settle for the bare minimum, ensuring that those beneath them would normalize the crumbs and bundles they handed to us, as if we can only accept how things are. They also ask Filipinos to be “creative” in their ways to budget. It reinforces their obsession with resiliency, when what the country needs is accountability and reform. 

And others blindly follow them, with celebrities and influencers justifying the claim and even creating trends to prove that the “noche buena,” if it can even be called as such, can be attained. It further lessens and ridicules the gravity of the situation. Gloria Diaz, the first Filipino Miss Universe, drew flak in a media conference for her upcoming MMFF movie, Rekonek, as she stated, “Of course, pwede. And by the way, Cris is a good friend of mine.” And as many have pointed out, perhaps it stems from her time when the peso was still stronger and inflation was lower. The cost of living before was nowhere near today’s.

Why make us the ones to adjust? Many are struggling to have food on their plates because of growing food prices, with 1.5% inflation last November — price hikes are at an all-time high, unemployment rates continue to rise, and our purchasing power continues to weaken as the peso drops to P59.22 per US dollar. Necessities become luxuries, yet the public should still make do with their budget.

It mocks and undermines the efforts of families to create a more than decent celebration, forcing them to count every peso when this season craves for comfort—a time to relax with loved ones. Moreover, Filipinos imbibe maximalism, we embody “the more, the merrier” spirit. The DTI’s stubborn claims ignore the realities, the lived experiences of households, reducing them to cold numbers. This is a burden ordinary Filipinos have to bear.

The insensitivity clouds the shared warmth Christmas brings.

So, as we celebrate Christmas with our loved ones, even for a fleeting moment of joy, we must continue to amplify our voices and not forget the struggles of the year. We must demand more from those in power and reject mediocrity in disguise as policy. 

From DPWH flood control projects to DTI’s P500 Noche Buena food control, it seems that, perhaps, the Grinch didn’t steal Christmas this time — the government did.