The Philippine Online Chronicles

Dear Noynoy,

The People have spoken and they chose you to lead this battered ship of State. Nine years of sailing through rough seas and here we find ourselves picking up the pieces of wreckage. You say you are up to the challenge. You say you are ready. Dare we believe in your truths? Dare we believe in the magic of your lineage? Dare we believe in your manifest destiny? Time will tell. You have six years to prove your mettle. But first, there is the business of proclamation.

The nation had but a brief respite from the heavy-handed politicking. On May 10, millions of citizens braved the sweltering heat and suffered patiently the inconvenience of casting their votes. It was, as they say, an uneventful day. Contrary to the doom and gloom of naysayers, the country’s first attempt at automated elections did not result in chaos.  Pre-election jitters were such that people could only make jokes. Will there be a Philippines left standing after May 10?  Stock up on supplies, you’ll never know.  Hold on to your cash, banks might close.  Prepare for the worst we did. But people held on to a kernel of hope. Despite mistrust in nearly all of the State’s institutions, despite the last-minute mix-up with the CF cards, the electorate went out to vote. It was, perhaps, a supreme exercise of trust in ourselves as a People. We believe in our democratic project. Despite the many mistakes we have committed in the name of democracy, we continue to hope that this time we will have made the right choice. And are you the right choice sir? Will you deliver us from evil? Time will tell.

It may be true that in this country, there are never any losers. There are only those who were cheated. Now there is all this noise about election fraud. A marsupial bearing witness to high-tech vote-padding tests the limits of the farcical, even by Philippine standards.  Would that the creative, fantastical politicking be given a rest.  Is it any wonder that the People have elected entertainers to office?  When our political discourse is circumscribed by clowns masquerading as politicians? When the public is rarely ever treated to a serious discussion of what is at stake both in the public, collective realm and in our private, individual lives? Politics is a serious business. Your parents, sir, have given their lives for it. Your family has sacrificed much for it. Surely we all deserve a measure of sincerity, a sense that all our actions stand for something.

I do not know you. I have only met you that one time. And I felt you to be sincere. When you take office, would that you continue to communicate with those whom you would serve and lead.  I never liked how this president has a dozen people speaking on her behalf. It is as if she prefers to keep her distance from those whose lives her every decision affects. I never like to be made to feel as though I were an inconvenience. Speak to us only of truths. After the hardship and heartbreak of this decade, we deserve to hear it. Every time. Even if it is bad news, look those whom you would serve and lead in the eye and present your case. Even if it painful, even if we do not like it, we will listen.

And in turn, promise to keep your eyes and ears open.  Truth speaks only to those who would listen.  By all sorts of measures life has gotten more difficult for many Filipinos. I suspect that many of our so-called leaders harbor an illusion that they live in a grandiose setting as befits their grandiose selves. This is simply not true. We live in a country as broken and battered as any random stretch of pot-holed streets all across this glorious capital. We live in a country so barren of opportunities lands lay fallow in the hinterlands. But the People continue to dream. We continue to chase that promise of comfort, of a life fully-lived, if not here, then some place else.

In the end, isn’t the achievement of the good life the goal of all politics? Will you deliver us from this old administration’s regime of legal acrobats? Will you restore honor in public life? Will you honor the memory of your mother and father? They who were symbols of resistance, visionaries who dared dream the impossible, they who represent the Filipino servant-leader at his very best? Will you, sir, rise to the challenge?

On the evening of the 10^th the nation sat stunned at how quickly the tally of votes went.  At first the numbers trickled slowly, and then a torrent.  As I clicked on the interactive maps of the networks and obsessively refreshed the official COMELEC website, I literally had the future in my hands. There they were, the regions, the hundreds of thousands of unnamed voters at my fingertips. My People have made a decision and there it is, reflected back at me. I wonder, now, did you feel the same as I did? Did you, like me, feel not a little sense of awe and magic? As Monday gave way to Tuesday, despite the worst scenarios our imaginations could conjure, the world did not end.  It felt as though we had a lease at a new beginning. We knew the President-elect. As Monday gave way to Tuesday, the nation released its collectively-held breath.  The patient still has a pulse. We look to you, sir, to nurse her back to life.

Caffeinesparks is a professional student. She belongs to the first generation of bloggers who started out as a diarist. Through the years she has written more and more about her great passion - Politics. She blogs at caffeinesparks.blogspot.com

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