Dear First Time Voter

I hate to break it to you, but it won't be the first time you will be disappointed. I have been voting for almost 3 decades now and only one presidential and vice presidential candidate I've voted for won, PNoy and VP Leni. I've had so many TOTGAs, but it never stopped me from hoping and praying that someday the right leader comes along and gets elected. 

Art by Tarantadong Kalbo

As Bishop Rey, Diocese of Imus said, "I am beginning to think that God never meant for Leni to win. Here mission was to waken us up... God showed us that if we get together and worked together, things happen. And maybe that brief moment was actually a glimpse of heaven." You may have been too young during PNoy's time, but we had good governance and that translated to a better economic environment which brought in a lot of investors. Corrupt officials were caught (pork barrel scam) and our debt was reduced which gave us good marks for credit.[more here] Of course, the administration had it's ups and downs, but I was so inspired and contributed back to the country where I could. 

The past six years was full of disappointment. I couldn't even continue the crisis response projects I started during the previous administration. I let things stew for awhile and then had the opportunity to contribute again. It was harder, but I pushed hard until I succeeded (read here). It was challenging, but I told myself to focus on the students and what was needed. That was what helped me have the strength to fight for what was right.

I know it hurts. I have friends both older and younger than me who are still having a hard time. Embrace the pain, but learn for it. Allow it to make you stronger. In time you will be able to use it to help others and contribute back to your country. We're lucky now because VP Leni and Senator Kiko are there to lead us and hone us to be better citizens.

"At alam ko ang aking kaya, alam ko ang hindi 

Alam ko ang kailangan upang makapagsilbi 

Hangga't may kabutihan, hangga't may pag-ibig 

Liwanag ang mananaig"

- Nica del Rosario, from the song "Rosas"

#BeKind #StaySafe

Shine Your Light

I did not want to get out of bed today. I felt paralyzed yesterday and had to prioritize taking care of myself. The anxiety attack felt like I was having another PE and it's not a good feeling. I had to create a safe space for myself to recover. I still have so many questions and wished my Dad's still around. He would have helped me understand and make sense of what's happening. 

Art by Robert Alejandro

I was in a better headspace last night and asked Kuya if he could do NLP for people in pain. So many people are going through the different stages of grief. I decided to keep silent for now so I could recuperate and think more clearly. I snoozed (and removed) a lot of the enablers and apologists in my stream. I realized their moral values are different and I don't need them in my life.

Last night I realized that the government that is supposed to protect its citizens has been compromised. They worked on it for decades. The whole electoral system is controlled by them. There are many videos of rampant cheating circulating and many stories of vote buying being told. Comelec claims there has been no report submitted. This morning Comelec said that claims of cheating will be hard to prove. It looks like they are not interested at all to investigate even if complaints are submitted. 

I wanted to ask my PolSci professors last night what should we do if the system has been compromised? The answer came even before I asked - 

Professor Danny Arao was one of my favorite professors. He created "Kontra Daya" and has been out in the streets protesting. My other professors have been serving as political analysts. Much as I'd like to join, my health would not allow me to, so I looked for other ways to help. 

I thought about changing my profile photos and the theme of my blog. I realized that's not the right thing to do. The fight is bigger than the candidate I voted for. The fight is to save our country from ruin. VP Leni Robredo stood as our liwanag sa dilim (light in darkness), but each one of us can shine our own light. It's not the time to feel downtrodden. Our option now is to accept or to fight for what is right. 

There are many ways to help, here's a list to check where you can contribute:

PPCRV - FB, website

1Sambayanan - FB, website

Kontra Daya - FB, website

If you are a witness to cheating/vote buying, have information on VCM breakdown etc., do report it. You may also contribute by sending food/drinks where needed. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

The Pink Movement Brought Out Our Best

It seems just like yesterday when VP Leni Robredo announced that she was running for president. I was overjoyed because I prayed hard for it. I immediately changed my blog colors after the announcement to show my support. It's the first time I've openly supported a candidate since former Senate President Jovito Salonga ran. I was either part of PPCRV or prohibited at work.

A lot of people were hesitant about VP Leni in the beginning. There was a lot of criticism about her chosen color and campaign slogan. She won people over with her track record, integrity and good character. She was simply herself and that convinced people to admire her, even fall in love with her. 

VP Leni shared during her campaign in 2016 how she campaigned for a seat in Congress for the first time. A friend gave her a portable speaker and she'd go house to house.  She had no money to feed supporters and they would just buy bread from the bakery. Her sorties were small, done by family. Her sincerity shown through and she won by landslide.

It's unprecedented to run as an independent for president. People started supporting her by making their own campaign materials. Artists like Robert Alejandro made designs, allowing anyone to use it. Sorties turned into grand rallies organized by volunteers. More and more people showed up and supported house-to-house. Senator Franklin Drilon in a recent interview said he hasn't seen anything like this since the lead up to the EDSA Revolution in 1986. 

I would have also been out there to campaign if my health allowed me. What I couldn't do physically I made up for it by contributing where I can and praying. I'm equally as stressed as everyone else haha. The best thing about this election is seeing how Filipinos still love their country. It brought out the best in us. What that tells me is there is hope.

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Revenge of the Fifth: Be Vigilant

The fact that our country is on the precipice of peril is really alarming. That disinformation and proliferation of fake news is a contributor to it is depressing. A neighbor sent me a reminded this morning to be vigilant when I vote next week. The message sent information about how cheating can happen. 

BE VIGILANT. Don't take your eyes off your ballot until it is safely inside the ballot box. Make sure no one marks it or makes a tear on it. If your ballot is compromised, your vote will be invalidated. Also make sure to use the pen that Comelec provides to shade your votes. The machine will only read votes made with the Comelec pen. It's already 2022, you'd think the technology would be better for automated elections. 

But BE VIGILANT to ensure that your vote counts.

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

The Reality of a Bad Political Climate

I came across several tweets yesterday from BPO employees sharing the thoughts of their foreign bosses. They said they would consider moving their contracts to India if the dictator's son wins. It's a good discussion point because it's important to understand how the economy is affected by politics. 

I went through three Philippine Presidents while working for a foreign company. It didn't have a local office in the Philippines when I was hired as the country representative. My main job was to prove the need to have a local office. I had counterparts in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Pakistan who had the same task. 

I did everything I could to "prepare the market". I wore many hats, business development, marketing, community management, sales and I also did work for engineering and product. I was laser focused though on getting an office opened because I knew it would potentially bring a lot of jobs and get budget to run programs. For many years I did not have any budget to run programs. 

I watched enviously as Thailand and Malaysia opened their offices (Singapore was organized by my manager). No matter how much good work I did, the political climate just negated all my arguments. The president at that time was GMA and she didn't have a good reputation internationally. I also had to be very careful working with government. 

PNoy's win opened the floodgates for me. A year after he took power my goal to open the Philippine office was granted. The Philippines was also included in product launches. The Philippines was also the only emerging market included in the Chrome launch. We were the only market to launch YouTube with a program with the president (YouTube World View with PNoy and RTVMalacanang). I got a lot of support also for crisis response and other projects. 

My job as country rep ended when the office was opened. I didn't want to do sales so I had to look for another job and fate brought me to Singapore. I continued to work on projects for the Philippines. The ones I started slowly dwindled when DU30 took over. I tried to work on it, but the political climate was once again bad. My programs for the Philippines once again did not get budgets. I had to be creative and pushy to get support for the programs I was running for the Philippines. 

That's the reality of working for a foreign company. I really had a hard time getting funding for my projects for the Philippines when the political climate wasn't good. No matter how you prepare your market to be viable, decisions are influenced by the political situation. So yes, BPOs can easily move their business to other countries if the next president isn't politically respected internationally. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Focus on the Truth

A friend told me I should write about what I feel, what I'm thinking about. He said that when I re-shared a post he made. I realized then that I have to do more since I have family and friends who are still deeply embroiled in the lies perpetrated by the dictator's son and his minions. It is exasperating and frustrating.. I cannot understand why they do not believe in facts. They even continue to share pages and sites perpetuating fake news. 

The election season just runs for a few months. Our family and friends will still be our family and friends. I must admit, I am not a very patient person. I told myself though it's more important to keep my relationship with my love ones intact than answering back the lies they have been (maybe unknowingly) sharing. It's been really hard. 

I just finally watched "The Kingmaker". It an honest third party view of what happened to our country. My heart broke again and again while watching the documentary. From thousands killed during martial law to thousands killed because of the drug war. Not to mention the billions robbed from our coffers. Watch the film and understand why you shouldn't support people who would treat you as mere objects. 

I have resolved to keep sharing the truth. It may be that my loved ones are stuck in their echo chamber and only see fake news and lies. I hope they also see why it's important to vote for someone who has the right values and the right qualifications. I wrote about how I would assess candidates in 2016 and it's still useful since the job description hasn't changed. 

If you follow the news, you'd see similar activities from martial law happening now. The loans that we are still paying for through our taxes. The debt though has ballooned to 13 trillion and will be paid again by citizens through tax. When I was an OFW, I was only taxed 15% as a foreigner. If I worked here, my employee income would have been taxed at least 32%. Have you ever wondered by Singapore is able to do that even though their population is only 5.86M compared to 109.6M in the Philippines? 

I hope we can just focus on what is real and what would really be good for the whole population. Let's not allow just a few families to benefit from all the hardwork we give through our taxes. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

  

The Other Candidates

I was surprised when one of my friends admitted he voted for the dictator's son in 2016 for vice president. He did because he didn't know anything about VP Leni at that time. Now he's voting for VP Leni for president after seeing all her accomplishments. The debated hosted by CNN Philippines last weekend is a good way to get to know the candidates. They invited all the candidates and most showed up. Seeing them side by side for the first time and answering the same questions was a good way to assess them. 

2016 presidential elections

It was my first time to hear the other candidates since the other networks did not include them. Here's what I thought about them:

Ernesto Abella - former presidential spokesman of President Duterte. He was eloquent, but I didn't get a good grasp of his platform. I read a bit about him and found out he has a good academic background, was a preacher, got abducted and his release was negotiated by then Mayor Duterte. That's when he started campaigning for him. His government appointments seemed to be due to a favor. 

Leody de Guzman - Ka Leody is labor leader. He's very knowledgeable when it comes to labor related issues, but lack experience in other aspects. I hope he can eventually provide inputs for government so that the lives of laborers could be improved.

Norberto Gonzales - he was secretary of national defense for a few months during GMA's time. He seemed to be a troublemaker based on Wikipedia and I didn't see any concrete contributions to government (correct me if I'm wrong, just basing it on what I've read). He was very calm during the event yesterday, but I did not get a good impression that he has enough experience to be president. 

Faisal Mangondato - he was introduced as a businessman. In answering the questions he mentioned that the hardships we are going through are due to the abuses of man that's why we are being punished by God. He didn't have a good grasp of the issues and had no solid platforms. Sorry but he struck me as a nuisance candidate.

Jose Montemayor, Jr. - a doctor supposedly with an MBA. I don't think this candidate took the questions seriously. He answered and questioned other candidates more to be noticed than to make sense. He is supposedly a cardiologist... sorry but I wouldn't want him to be my doctor nor president. 

I always go back to the post I made on how I will assess presidential candidates. It's been mentioned several times already that they are applying for the job and the 1987 Constitution provides the job description. I went back to my review of Jessica Soho's interview and my thoughts remain the same with regard to the more known candidates. I'm going to need to make time to watch the vice presidential debate of CNN also so I can get to know them better. Those always absent for debates and forums will not be considered by me. When applying for a job, one should show up for the interview noh. 

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Let Your Light Shine, Be Vigilant

Darkness is creeping in. This past week there's been incidents that's very alarming. There's Dr. Naty Castro who was forcibly taken from her home (read more about it here). A VP Leni supporter was harassed at Camp Crame for having a pink ribbon tied to his car's side mirror (news here). Comelec painting over a mural painted on private property. Several supporters were also harassed by rivals (news here). If we're not vigilant we'll soon be living in fear. 

I'm a martial law baby and my parents protected me during that time. They were very strict though and the only times I got to play outside was when I would go over the bakod to play with my neighbors. Everyone was required to be in the house before sunset. No one was allowed out at night. Speaking about the government anomalies was done in whispers. 

Even though I was still very young during Martial Law I understood that there was danger. I understood that displeasing the regime would be disastrous for you and your family. I remember Tito Ben would call my Mom whenever there was unrest. When that happened my parents would get stricter. My siblings probably did not enjoy their teenage years so I'm still kinda lucky. I was ten when the EDSA Revolution happened. 

The last three and half decades wasn't easy, but at least we did not live in fear. I got to enjoy my teenage years and I got to live a normal life when I eventually joined the workforce. I never feared about what I blogged about. I was also able to work with government on some projects. Things started to change though since 2016 so I focused on other countries and other things. 

If we're not careful, darkness will come back. The behavior of government agencies and the police is starting to lean towards what it was during ML. Proverbs 13:3 says, “Those who control their tongue will have a long life; opening your mouth can ruin everything”. At this time we need to foil the plans of evil from coming back. We have to be vigilant and do what we can to stop them from coming back. The past should remain in the past. 

#BeKind #StayHome #VoteWisely