elections 2010
By the time you read this parish diary you have already decided whom to vote and you know the reasons why you are voting for this candidate and not for that. I have two wishes for you. First, that you are happy with your vote, whoever he or she is. You are happy in the sense that you have worked it out scrutinizing, thinking, analyzing, and praying over your choice and you feel that you have selected the best person to do the job. One gauge whether you have made a good decision is the feeling of exhilaration afterward, a feeling that you have chosen the best person and you have made the right choice.
My second wish is that your choice has made you hopeful – hopeful for the nation and hopeful for our people. This is the reason why I have always participated in every election ever since I was allowed by law to do so. My candidates did not always make it though, and some of those I voted who did make it, did not always perform as expected, but the exercise always made me hope and yearn for the best for our people and our nation. Thus, though I am not always glad with the results, I am glad for this exercise. It gives one the reason to believe in ourselves again, and again perhaps, a reason to work harder, and a reason to be positive and optimistic about the future.
The Philippines, it seems, was never blessed with leaders who really made a difference in the life of ordinary people – leaders who, say, have cut in half the incidence of poverty, or who initiated and executed a major policy to eradicate or at least lessen significantly the rampant graft and corruption in this country. It is for this reason that elections make me hopeful. It helps me keep on believing that someday somehow we may hit the jackpot – a leader who would usher in a new culture, a new way of seeing and doing things, a better way of rendering public service.
But (and again this is a big but!) I know we cannot put all our hopes in our leaders alone. These leaders we elect today may be a force behind the move, the catalyst for better things, but in the end we are the ones, the people, who really matter and who determine the way things are run in this country. Putting our hopes solely on one person or in our elected officials for that matter, is merely painting a third of the picture. It may not be enough to produce the change that we hope for.
Permit me to give you an example. I talked to a government official once and he told me that though graft and corruption in government may leave a big dent in our fiscal situation and therefore on the basic services our government could render, yet the bigger graft, if we are to count this peso for peso, is in the private sector, most especially in the non-payment of correct taxes. This, he said, is the bigger graft and corruption. And I think this is true. We are just happy to fool our government, even too happy when a government official connives with us to short-change the government. And this is one reason why we could not just simply heap all our hopes in the officials we elected today. Indeed their role is crucial. (And I think it is good that presidents are elected with only one term in office. That way they have a free hand to do everything they can to reform the country without thinking of the next elections, which means they do not have to please anybody.) But we have to do our part. We have to be willing to accept the right things that they do even if that right thing would hurt us in the process. This sacrifice is necessary.
It is for this reason that I am very much elated when I see our young people in the parish volunteering as poll watchers, providing voters’ assistance on election day, and voter’s education. Looking at them sacrificing themselves, volunteering their time and enjoying these at the same time, is really something to behold. When the young can do this for their country, then the future of this country is bright, and we in the parish are glad to be part of the future they now forge. I have been a Namfrel and later a PPCRV volunteer since 1986 (which means that I have started to do so when I was 2nd year college). I am proud that I have been part of every election from that year onward. It is meaningful work. Meaningful because I believe in the cause it engenders and sustains; meaningful too because of what it made me into, the values it created in me; and meaningful too because you can meet a lot of “mean” people on the job, which is quiet challenging. And I tell you it’s fun, the memories are worth telling and retelling.
For this I would like to re-echo the gratitude of our parish to our PPCRV volunteers, young and old. You are the best of what this nation has always hoped for – people who are willing to sacrifice for their country, people who find spirituality in a very earthly endeavor, people who can respond to the love of Jesus in a very practical and concrete way. Indeed your actions have shown us that your love for God cannot be separated from your love for country. Indeed you found another expression of your love for Jesus there in your love and service for the countrymen. Again thank you.
My second wish is that your choice has made you hopeful – hopeful for the nation and hopeful for our people. This is the reason why I have always participated in every election ever since I was allowed by law to do so. My candidates did not always make it though, and some of those I voted who did make it, did not always perform as expected, but the exercise always made me hope and yearn for the best for our people and our nation. Thus, though I am not always glad with the results, I am glad for this exercise. It gives one the reason to believe in ourselves again, and again perhaps, a reason to work harder, and a reason to be positive and optimistic about the future.
The Philippines, it seems, was never blessed with leaders who really made a difference in the life of ordinary people – leaders who, say, have cut in half the incidence of poverty, or who initiated and executed a major policy to eradicate or at least lessen significantly the rampant graft and corruption in this country. It is for this reason that elections make me hopeful. It helps me keep on believing that someday somehow we may hit the jackpot – a leader who would usher in a new culture, a new way of seeing and doing things, a better way of rendering public service.
But (and again this is a big but!) I know we cannot put all our hopes in our leaders alone. These leaders we elect today may be a force behind the move, the catalyst for better things, but in the end we are the ones, the people, who really matter and who determine the way things are run in this country. Putting our hopes solely on one person or in our elected officials for that matter, is merely painting a third of the picture. It may not be enough to produce the change that we hope for.
Permit me to give you an example. I talked to a government official once and he told me that though graft and corruption in government may leave a big dent in our fiscal situation and therefore on the basic services our government could render, yet the bigger graft, if we are to count this peso for peso, is in the private sector, most especially in the non-payment of correct taxes. This, he said, is the bigger graft and corruption. And I think this is true. We are just happy to fool our government, even too happy when a government official connives with us to short-change the government. And this is one reason why we could not just simply heap all our hopes in the officials we elected today. Indeed their role is crucial. (And I think it is good that presidents are elected with only one term in office. That way they have a free hand to do everything they can to reform the country without thinking of the next elections, which means they do not have to please anybody.) But we have to do our part. We have to be willing to accept the right things that they do even if that right thing would hurt us in the process. This sacrifice is necessary.
It is for this reason that I am very much elated when I see our young people in the parish volunteering as poll watchers, providing voters’ assistance on election day, and voter’s education. Looking at them sacrificing themselves, volunteering their time and enjoying these at the same time, is really something to behold. When the young can do this for their country, then the future of this country is bright, and we in the parish are glad to be part of the future they now forge. I have been a Namfrel and later a PPCRV volunteer since 1986 (which means that I have started to do so when I was 2nd year college). I am proud that I have been part of every election from that year onward. It is meaningful work. Meaningful because I believe in the cause it engenders and sustains; meaningful too because of what it made me into, the values it created in me; and meaningful too because you can meet a lot of “mean” people on the job, which is quiet challenging. And I tell you it’s fun, the memories are worth telling and retelling.
For this I would like to re-echo the gratitude of our parish to our PPCRV volunteers, young and old. You are the best of what this nation has always hoped for – people who are willing to sacrifice for their country, people who find spirituality in a very earthly endeavor, people who can respond to the love of Jesus in a very practical and concrete way. Indeed your actions have shown us that your love for God cannot be separated from your love for country. Indeed you found another expression of your love for Jesus there in your love and service for the countrymen. Again thank you.
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