Don’t forget how we stood together as a people

An election supposed to be safe and insulated from vote-buying, fake news, convicts as candidates, and so on, was never on the agenda of this batch of Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials, thanks to them being President Duterte’s choice.

So now we ask: Are we truly facing another Marcosian presidency? Will the lies and distortion of facts and rewriting of history continue in the days and years to come? And in typical Filipino fashion, I ask: what is God trying to tell us?

The world is undergoing a catharsis. Things are happening in the US (Roe vs Wade), Ukraine and Putin’s Russia are at war, there’s climate change, fires, hurricanes, etc. Maybe the cleansing and suffering are there for a reason? Whatever the reason, Vice President Leni Robredo has asked us to remain hopeful and continue to do good.

Filipinos believe there is value in suffering. And the poor know this more than those who are well-off. Yet, these past few months, we have stood together as a people. Together, we’ve joined rallies, done house-to-house, people-to-people campaigning, watched campaign sorties on TV or online, and mixed with the swell of humanity ready to forge ahead with a vision of a better Philippines. Are we going to forget that we stood together as comrades-in-arms for a worthy cause just because the election results are showing something different and, we suspect, may not be accurate? Let us not lose sight of our shared humanity when we go back to our regular lives, lest we repeat the same cycle of indifference that happened after Edsa 36 years ago.

In VP Leni, we saw a leader who actually led us to rediscover the goodness in us. For decades, we were selfish and thoughtless as we tolerated so many things that culminated in a murderous climate and uncouth language that we have been subjected to in the last six years. VP Leni showed us how truth works and how to really care for one another. We, the people, know that a Leni win is actually us winning.

Historian and professor Ambeth Ocampo, in his interview with CNN, said that an entry of Marcos Sr. in his diary (one of many that were left in Malacañang when the family fled) was that the late strongman was surprised at “how little resistance he encountered to his declaration of martial law.”

I’m not saying we should mount an uprising, but we have to reflect, ask hard questions, and act more wisely this time around.

How do we push back the lies and stand up for truth? We have the tools and the weapons of social media, aside from our rediscovered charitable regard for one another that VP Leni as a leader has shown can really happen. We should always be the “poor in spirit people.” This means we should be one with our brothers and sisters in this common journey to becoming better Filipinos. It’s up to us to show each other what true goodness means. That is what VP Leni has been teaching us.

Let the youth lead and guide us out of the deception we are forced to deal with again, even as we seniors walk with them on this journey for love of country and of our people.

JACQUELINE CANCIO VEGA
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