The Philippine Online Chronicles

It seems like a lifetime ago when Filipinos trooped to the precinct under the scorching sun and the soaring heat and in one mind, with a certainty to carry out their right before God and countrymen exercise their sovereign duty. It was a solemn pledge, and a quiet determination that said, 'we will be heard!'

It seemed like forever that the drama of PCOS raged, the threat of no proclamation, a possibility.  And in every avenue, the dying ember of the defeated continued to fight in scorch earth. It is like cursing heaven that the sun shouldn’t rise or that rain should not pour.

The challenge weighing down on this Aquino is a Herculean burden.

Aquino claims to be a human man.  His critics and some from his legion of followers both believe he is a hero like Muad'Dib that descended from the sky from a water-rich world to set things right.  Not yet president, Aquino's critics scream for proof that he can miraculously make the sky rain amidst a season of drought.

Seasons come and go the changing of the guard is no different.

This proper changing of the guard has not happened since Ramos stood down, and Estrada took office. That was about a dozen years ago.

Since then the land around the financial district has changed.  More man made trees have sprung to touch the heavens.  Pathways to and from the capital have changed.  Nautical highways erected, a pride of the disposition that held power for nearly a decade.

Amidst this perceived splendor is that cancer nibbling at the Filipino soul that makes the poor even poorer.

Beneath it all, why does it seem like cosmetic and artificial outside, and yet shallow and hallow on the inside?   Why is it that the nation’s economy is built on a shallow house of cards?  Why is it after all the analysis the puzzle of the Philippines can be best explained that the government has no capacity and private enterprise sees no benefit to invest back?

Arroyo and her merry men continue on to write history from their worldview.  Oblivious to the legacy they leave behind--- is that an arguable point?  Disingenuous perhaps?  Are they unable to come to grip that their time in the sun is over?  Like sinners before Saint Peter, they try desperately to justify the life they had led and at this time of accounting, why then the need to desperately rewrite history?

So this Aquino was voted in on the call to clean up government, to right the ship of state, to bring a sense of civility back to our nation.  He comes to put the house in order and set the nation in a path to greatness long promised it, but usurped by vested self-interest.

Tall order.

That is the great hope of our time.

On the other hand, Trepidation comes because cynicism continues to fester like a plague.  How can it not?  How can we expect it to be banished in the span of a single election, and in the weeks leading up to inauguration?  How can we expect heartbreak to be cured when the moon sets, and the yellow sun rises?

The trepidation comes believing that the challenges are too daunting that it is already too late.

No one man however honest can do it alone.  Nation building is a team sport.  We win only if each player does his part.

Who won and who lost are no longer the questions of our time.  Neither to a certain extent does it matter who Aquino taps.

Great hope has tempered much trepidation, but only through concrete results would trepidation be defeated.

Though our democracy is more fragile thanks to nine score years of darkness. The past nine months is a testament that the democracy that comes to us from Rizal to Bonifacio and Aguinaldo; through Quezon's commonwealth onto the hands of Laurel and finally independence from the rising sun, the eagle and dictatorship, lives on today!

Though it is Aquino and Binay who lead, the responsibility falls on each Filipino not only to put them to task when it is the proper moment to do so.  More importantly, it is in our hands that this nation can fulfill its destiny.

We ordinary citizens must take active part in our democracy.  It isn’t about the number of times we march to the streets, nor the many times one blogs about the atrocities of the current regime.  It continues to be about building lives, building families and continues to be about values we leave the next generation with.   It isn’t simply we take our leaders to task about how corrupt they are, but in our private lives, mold tomorrow by instilling a sense of taking the hard way over the easy.  It is about lining up to ride the jeep.  It is about crossing at the proper pedestrian lane.  It is about building businesses and making the best with what we’ve been given.  In short, it is to be citizens of a republic not just on Election Day.

That’s when we cease to be angry at our own race and racist towards our own people.  That’s when we begin to be pro Filipino and set on the course towards a nation that makes us proud to be Filipino.

Photos by Noemi Lardizabal-Dado. Some Rights Reserved.