The Philippine Online Chronicles

Nation, I have received an unbelievable amount of hate mail over the past few months simply because of the fact that I profess nothing but the utmost support to our beloved president, GMA. I smirk in your general direction: the facts will never dissuade me, because if you refuse to accept the truth that I espouse whenever I speak in defense of our beloved president, then clearly, you are every bit a believer in the truthiness of what your gut tells you as you claim myself to be.

Nation, you find it so easy to ignore the facts. You find it so easy to ignore that our beloved president has achieved so much for this country. You find it easy to ignore the fact that everything she has done for this country has been nothing but for our betterment. You find it easy to ignore the fact that economically, we are better off than when we were stuck in the middle of the Estrada administration. You find it easy to ignore the fact that she is the best president this nation has ever had.

Nation, you may scoff, you may protest, but you need to come to terms with the fact that when it comes to what you believe in, you are quick to ignore the facts. You rely on your own gut about how you feel about the president, as sadly mistaken as you may actually be.

Which leads me to my question, dear nation: if it’s so easy for you to ignore the facts, why is it so difficult for you to ignore what the surveys are telling you?

When I said I was all for President GMA from now until forever, not at any point did I tell you that surveys were my justification. Clearly, if I listened to the drivel these surveys about her approval or trust rating fed me, then I’d stop supporting her altogether. But I never did. I never wavered. In the face of heavy opposition, in the face of vitriol and ire from destabilizers, I held fast to my faith in the president, and she has seen me through.

Nation, why then, does your faith in your real candidate waver? It doesn’t matter who he or she is (Is there really a she in this race? I could only be imagining it.), the surveys are certainly subject to change, and we’ve lost our focus. We cared about numbers. We cared about facts and figures. Nobody seemed to care who stood for what. Nobody seemed to care what electing this or that candidate meant. Everything became a mathematical exercise: an exercise of dehumanizing our presidential candidates as though we were playing a game instead of building this nation’s future through the power of suffrage.

Standing for GMA is not a game to me. It is a passion. An undying passion that only genuinely patriotic Filipinos could possibly understand, but a passion that has certainly gotten its point across throughout the election season. I need not remind you where my allegiances lie any longer. I simply need to remind you, dear nation, that you need to remember where your allegiances truly lie.

Are you for the bipolar guy whose only qualification is pedigree? Are you for the guy who’s a land-grabbing rabble-rouser? Are you for the petty hot-headed guy who raises hell over everything? Are you for the guy who can fly a plane but can’t float a rubber boat when we needed one? Are you for the guy who’s an ex-con? Are you for the guy with the messianic complex? Are you for the guy with a  messianic complex but with much less money and charisma? Are you for the guy nobody knows jack about? Are you for the girl who’s actually a guy? Make your damned mind up and stand by your own conclusions.

May 10 is not a game. It isn’t about voting for the highest bidder, or the one whom our minds have been conditioned to support even if we know that there’s someone clearly better among our choices. Winnability is a state of mind, and these surveys, while helpful, don’t count.

The only survey that counts happens on May 10. Of course, we assume the Comelec won’t have something to say about that, but ultimately, the surveys running around right now should not prevent us from voting with our gut. Who your gut tells you is who you ought to vote for. Unless you took the survey yourself, what the bandwagon is going with should not dissuade you from the choice your gut tells you is the right choice to make.

Nation, screw the surveys. Vote for what your gut tells you. Vote because it’s your God-given right, not a politicians statistic for the taking. It doesn’t matter who you choose: make it a choice that you made because you believe in it, not because you were chided or threatened or bribed into doing otherwise.

On May 10, exercise your right to participate in the only survey that matters. It’s for your own bloody good.

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