A heck of a fight to save our country

Reader, do you really want a president who:

Lies about his accomplishments? Up to 2016, he told us he had degrees from Oxford and from Wharton. Lies.

Is a coward? He refuses to face his opponents, or even media, to defend the claims and promises he makes (e.g., bring rice prices down to P20 a kilo—patently ridiculous), all in the name of unity.

Has been unemployed for the past six years, with no visible source of income?

Refused to obey a final and unappealable order of the Supreme Court 25 years ago (1997) sustaining a Court of Appeals decision declaring the Marcos estate to have a deficiency of P23 billion? After 25 years, interest and penalties have raised the bill to P203 billion. He has ignored the BIR and the PCGG’s demands for payment.

Failed to file and pay his proper income taxes while vice governor and governor of Ilocos Norte? Was convicted by the Regional Trial Courts, upheld by the Court of Appeals? Should actually be disqualified from running in any election?

Is too stupid (or acts stupid) to realize that the buildings and homes in the United States, the old-master paintings, the jewelry bought by his parents must have been bought with money stolen from the Filipino people?

Any rational Filipino, any one with even a smidgen of common sense would answer with a resounding “NO” to any and all of these questions.

So how come this candidate for president is claimed to have a commanding lead in the election surveys?

Two possible answers: 1) The Filipino people have been brainwashed or are not aware of the facts and 2) the surveys are wrong—as what happened during the 1948 and 2016 US presidential elections, and closer to home, during the 2019 Pasig mayoral elections, when Eusebio was given a commanding lead by the pollsters, only to be defeated resoundingly by Sotto.

I hope that it is the second answer that is correct, although that answer involves also answer (1), because the Filipino people, albeit brainwashed, must realize the truth before Election Day.

And if those six questions weren’t enough—the facts are verifiable, as you know—there is a seventh: Is this candidate for president a cokehead? Some friends and relatives say he is (so did President Duterte, but he is unreliable). Unfortunately, they will not say so in public, without getting into trouble themselves. Others point to characteristics common to cocaine addicts, such as poor hygiene habits, runny nose/nosebleeds, dilated pupils. Not having gotten anywhere near the candidate, I cannot attest to these. But I can attest to the unimpeachability of my sources.

Anyway, it is now going around that around 18 percent of Filipino voters make up their minds on or just before Election Day, 33 percent within seven days. To you, I dedicate this column.

And things are really looking up for those who want only the best for the Philippines:

You have the Iglesia Ni Cristo youth who, in an unprecedented move, have written to their leader, Ka Eduardo, that the Iglesia should treat them the same way it treats the international members—he does not tell them who to vote for. They don’t want so-called bloc-voting. They have shown the emperor that he has no clothes. High time.

On the heels of that, you have a recent statement from 1,200 Catholic priests, bishops, deacons, members of the organization Clergy for the Moral Choice who, also in a historic move, endorsed the Leni-Kiko team. Plus a previous endorsement by 1,000 priests. (I don’t know whether they are the same). The support of Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of his congregation’s choice. And the endorsement by some religious orders. All unprecedented. Those who have endorsed Leni represent anywhere from 15 percent to 25 percent of Catholic clergy.

All these, together with the unprecedented number of volunteers—including a lot of my friends and students who are engaged in campaigning for Leni-Kiko—are excellent signs that we are putting up a heck of a fight to save our country.

There is no doubt that a lot is at stake in any elections, Reader. But because of the many crises our country faces, because of the real possibility of saying hello to autocracy and goodbye to democracy, because of the fact that Leni represents a once-in-a-lifetime real opportunity to deal decisively with corruption and dynasties, this election has much more at stake.

Let’s vote for Leni and her team.

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