Bam’s record does not make him voice of the youth

While Bam Aquino can trumpet his achievements, both in academics and in social entrepreneurship, I don’t believe that these are enough for him to deserve getting elected as senator of the republic.

True, he is young and dynamic, but he does not inspire us. The youth in my barrio, gangsters and all, cannot expect anything from this young man. We need someone who can send the message to the youth that we have to continue to struggle against the tyranny of an elite political system that deprives us of the opportunity to build a decent life.

There is nothing so extraordinary about his claim that he has helped thousands of small entrepreneurs. Many men and women have done the same, and yet they remain anonymous—for the real value of what we do is not for us to be glorified but, in the end, to be interested only in helping those people realize for themselves a life worth living.

Bam is no Dado Banatao, the great engineer who invented the 10-Mbit Ethernet CMOS, who had to walk barefoot on a dirt road several kilometers to his elementary school in Cagayan. I believe that Banatao has transcended the worldly temptations of politics.

Bam thinks that because he has led in implementing some worthy projects, he is the voice of this new, religiously isolated, and “portable” generation of young men and women who spend most their young lives using FB.

If Bam, who uses and takes advantage of the image of the great Ninoy Aquino, were to win in May, it would be because he is an Aquino and nothing more. The youth need a bigger inspiration than a Bam Aquino. We need someone who can inspire us to believe and trust that even in the midst of utter insignificance and misery, there is a way out of the gutter.

—CHRISTOPHER RYAN MABOLOC,

Faculty, Philosophy,

Ateneo de Davao,

[email protected]