The Indie

Quite a number of our supporters and friends have been asking me about the current political situation and how it affects our own plans for 2010. I thank you for your genuine interest in our preparations for the campaign and I owe it to you to provide some clarity and direction amidst the confusion brought about by the quick turn of events. After all this is what leadership is about: Providing clarity and direction amidst the dizzying confusion.

It has been 4 years since July 2005 when the ‘Hello Garci’ controversy led to the Liberal Party call for the resignation of President Arroyo. Since then I had been searching for an alternative political path for our nation.

From 2000 to the present, our nation has been plagued with grave political crisis after political crisis brought about by leadership that failed to provide real solutions to the country’s ills. To my mind, the old, inutile and bankrupt political order had to give way to a new, dynamic, people driven political alternative. The urgent task for those who wished to see genuine change happening was to help work towards providing a viable alternative to ‘trapo’ politics. The people together with reformist leaders needed to work towards providing genuine leadership that was inspiring and principled.

I told myself then that our bankrupt, mindless, trapo politics had brought us to the political mess we found ourselves in. What we needed to chart was a new direction for the nation provided by leadership with vision, with courage and with principles. It was this type of leadership that would inspire our people and lead us towards the ‘promised land’.

It was this burning desire for an alternative to ‘trapo’ politics or ‘politics as usual’ that led us to assert that we needed to do things very differently if we wanted real change to take place. That doing the same thing over and over again in our politics and our elections would yield the same ugly results and would not bring us the desired change. We needed to experiment, to be creative, to think out of the box, to take risks in order to lead and inspire our people to act.

It is my belief that only when leadership is inspiring can it mobilize a critical mass of our people towards an agenda for real change. Only when the people themselves take on the burden of reshaping our nation, only when they are mobilized, can we move the nation to greater heights. If we are to reshape our communities, if we are to reshape our nation, the people in the millions must be mobilized to actively pursue change.

It was this desire for an alternative and the firm belief that we needed to do things differently that led me to run as an independent candidate in 2007. It was this same belief for an alternative that likewise led me to pursue an independent Vice Presidential bid. We needed to be willing to stick our necks out and do things radically different.

It is with all these in mind that I made the controversial yet necessary decision to urge Senator Noynoy Aquino to seek the Presidency. The events that developed and unfolded right after the death of former President Aquino has reshaped the political landscape entirely. The death of the former President, a beloved leader, unleashed a torrent of emotions that pined and yearned for the days of heroic leadership and sacrifice as exemplified by the death of Ninoy Aquino and the simple, unassuming and selfless leadership of President Cory Aquino.

In less than a month, the impact of President Cory’s death and burial snowballed into a clamor for Senator Aquino to seek the presidency in 2010.The reluctant Noynoy did not ask for this. He was literally pushed into the limelight by the sudden turn of events.Yet the clamor for his candidacy continues to grow. It is, to my mind, snowballing. In fact, other prospective candidates have began to make way for his candidacy in recognition of this clamor. The urgent need to have a rallying figure in whom the people will be willing to sacrifice and give of themselves for the cause of change has been filled.

After my own prayer and reflection, I came to the conclusion that it is Noynoy, given the unfolding of recent events, who is in the best position to bring out the massive outpouring of support of a people so tired and exasperated with bad governance and failed leadership. He can, as an icon and symbol of the Aquino legacy of sacrifice and honesty in public service, inspire the broadest support from all walks of life in effecting real change for the nation.

Noynoy alone no matter how well intentioned will not be able to single handedly solve the nations ills. He must inspire the people to do their share in sacrificing and contributing to the cause of reforms and genuine change. Amongst all the prospective presidential candidates, I sincerely believe it is Noynoy, whose family has sacrificed so much for the cause of democracy and freedom, who can achieve this.

What we need to do to usher in genuine change and to effect sweeping reforms is to launch a people’s ‘electoral revolt’ come 2010. It is only in a ‘revolutionary atmosphere’ can sweeping reforms be effected by a leader with a fresh mandate. I sincerely believe that Noynoy together with committed reformists leaders can and should lead this people’s ‘electoral revolt’. Only when we win differently by way of an ‘electoral revolt’ of the people can we hope to govern differently. It is not just about winning in the elections but the manner we secure the victory that will determine how we will govern and effect reforms. It must be a people’s victory brought about by a people’s electoral revolt.

In effect, after years of searching, I have found the leader who I believe will inspire a critical mass of our people to rise up and act and rally behind an alternative to ‘trapo’ politics come 2010.It is for this reason that I did not hesitate to immediately support his bid for the Presidency early on.

I have also said categorically that I am willing to give up my own independent VP bid in order to help unite and rally our people behind Noynoy’s candidacy.My independent VP bid was meant to pursue an alternative path to politics but now with the outpouring of support and sympathy for Noynoy and the legacy of his parents, I can see that it is in his candidacy that the alternative path to politics, that the people’s ‘electoral revolt’ can best be pursued. At the proper time when I am called upon to do so, I will give way to the Vice presidential candidate who can help unite all reform forces behind Noynoy.

For all those who continue to support us and our bid for higher office, I can never thank you enough for your trust and confidence in our candidacy. But I will continue to need and seek your support and this time to include supporting the bid of Noynoy for the presidency. We will need all the help and support we can get for the ‘electoral revolt’ to succeed. The battle therefore is not over. It is just about to begin.

Above all else, we are firmly committed to genuine change and are resolutely committed to finding solutions to the problems of genuine public sector leadership for our nation. If someone else will be more effective in resolving the problems and achieving lasting solutions, I will not hesitate to have him or her step up and I step back to be a committed supporter in the background. Our country cries out for solutions and for sacrifice to see these solutions through. We must all act towards achieving this, regardless of the personal costs.

Also posted in my Blogspot account

From my visits to various parts of the country I can sense a brewing political upheaval, a massive outpouring of people in their millions–all geared towards the 2010 elections. People want regime change, and they want it through our electoral process. The urgency of building a national consensus for genuine change cannot be underscored enough.

We urge civic groups such as Kaya Natin!, Ang Kapatiran Party, Movement for Good Governance, Akbayan, Bayan Muna, PAGASA, and Bangon Pilipinas–as well as religious groups such as the Iglesia ni Kristo, the El Shaddai, the CBCP, among others–to come together and unit for the sake of genuine change.

Our country is in a mess. We need to do our share and help free our nation from decades of failed leadership. We are headed towards greater political disasters unless something is done to help change the course of our nation.

Faced with these challenges, do we simply watch and wait? Do we throw our hands up in surrender? Do we just stand idly by? Do we stare at the mess and do nothing? NO! WE FIGHT! We struggle mightily against the old bankrupt order and this is how we will defeat it and help usher in real change for our nation, for our children.

Let us help build a national coalition for change!

1) WE ARE LOCATED IN THE ‘CENTER’ OF EAST ASIA. We are strategically located at the heart of East Asia. North East Asia (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, HK) and South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos) combined makes East Asia. Every major city in East Asia is 4 hours or less away from the Philippines by air transport. If ours were a real estate venture in a commercial area, ours is a location to die for. We can be the shipping and air transport hub of East Asia. We can be the top tourist destination of the region. We can be the cultural center of the region for performing arts.

2) WE ARE NO. 1 in AQUAMARINE RESOURCES WORLDWIDE. We have the most diverse aquamarine ecosystem in the entire world that if managed properly will feed not only our hungry people but will be a source of huge revenue coming from a world in dire need of aquamarine resources such as fish, seaweed and other similar products. The Seafood basket and aquamarine resource center of the world. We can be the aquamarine resource powerhouse of the world.

3) WE HAVE A HUGE TOURISM INDUSTRY POTENTIAL. Our people are by nature extremely friendly and hospitable. We are only doing/achieving some 3M tourist arrivals annually while our neighbors are doing four or five time more with 12 to 15 Million tourist visits annually. It has been said that other countries in the ASEAN are doing so much more with so little in terms of natural wonders and beautiful sites while we are doing so little with so much. With the right infrastructure such as highways and airports and seaports in place we can be the number one tourist destination in Asean if not Asia.

4) WE ARE NOW NO. 2 IN THE BPO INDUSTRY WORLDWIDE AND CAN BECOME NO.1. We are, I am told currently second to India in the Business Process Outsourcing Industry. I am told as well that this industry expects 30 percent growth this year despite the worldwide recession as foreign companies look aggressively to lowering costs of doing business and therefore look to business outsourcing.

5) WE ARE AN EXTREMELY CREATIVE AND ARTISTIC PEOPLE. We have been called the songbirds of Asia. Our reputation as performers is legendary throughout the world (although we have never been boastful about it). We can be the center of performing arts in Asia wherein millions would visit the country annually to marvel at our cultural performances and our artistic productions.

6) WE HAVE THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW GENERATION OF PROGRESSIVE AND RESULTS ORIENTED PUBLIC SECTOR LEADERS. Since the restoration of democracy in 1986 and the passage of the Local Government code in 1991 (or some 20 years now), public officials have began to work with new resources (40 percent of national taxes are now plowed back to LGUs compared to less than 10 percent in 1986) made available by decentralization. Today a new generation of public sector leaders is emerging that is empowered, that is vision driven and results oriented. This explains why we have successful Local Government initiatives in Marikina, Makati, Naga City, Davao City, Iloilo City, Cebu City, Calbayog City and General Santos City among others. Hence from a generation of public sector leaders that by and large was corrupt, lacking in vision, lacking in creativity and innovation, we now have the emergence of a new generation of public sector leaders with integrity, with proactive leadership and with a commitment to reform and genuine change. New governance models and templates that are solving age old problems in the field are being forged, being tempered as we speak. A new brand of political leadership is emerging focused on solving age old problems in governance. The old, failed methods utilized by the trapos will soon be crushed and defeated.

7) INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT IS ENHANCING OUR SENSE OF NATIONHOOD. We are fast becoming one nation, rather than a ‘country’ of many languages and many islands, now being connected by information communication technology. The ethno-linguistic barriers that used to keep us divided are being shattered by the interconnectivity of information technology. Today an entire generation of Filipinos fully understand and can connect with the Filipino language because of 2 decades of television news in Filipino (all TV news used to be English until 1986). The 3 elements of nationhood are common language, common territory and common economy. We are now becoming a nation because information technology is breaking the barriers that have prevented us from becoming united as a people. It is also now reconnecting some 10 Million Filipinos overseas to the motherland. We are becoming one nation and one people.

WE HAVE A RE EMERGING MIDDLE CLASS MINDSET. After over three decades of the OFW boom, we now have a new generation of citizens steeped with modern ideas coming from the highly successful host nations like Japan, Honh Kong, Singapore and the United Sates. Europe too has become host to hundreds of thousands of OWFs. The OFWs who have experienced life in these highly developed nations can now compare and contrast these experiences with the experiences in the motherland. In highly developed nations there is to a greater extent, a greater sense of accountability and a greater sense of justice and fair play.Our OFWs bring all that back home and having been enlightened by the experience will demand greater of their leaders back home. People are beginning to say enough is enough and are actually doing something about it.

9) WE ARE A YOUNG NATION. Close to 30 million of our 45 million voters are 18 to 35 years old. Very young. If harnessed effectively, these young voters can usher in the political and electoral change that we need to happen for genuine political and economic reforms to take place.

10) WE ARE A PEOPLE WHO LOVE TO LAUGH, WHO LOVE OUR FAMILIES. We are a resilient people. We can draw unimaginable strength and fortitude in times of difficulty in order to move ahead. We know how to survive despite so much pain and suffering. We know how to cope. We are willing to sacrifice so much of ourselves in order to provide for our family, our loved ones. This strength will not only bring us out of the mess we are in but will ensure that we are able to reach greater heights in our collective desire as a people to have a better life for those we truly care for, for those who mean the world to us. Our resilience in the long run will not only make us survive but will also ensure that we will triumph in the end.

We have enough reason to hope. We have, as a people, enough reason to act on these hopes and when we do, the genuine change we all seek will finally see the light of day and yes, by all means, in our lifetime.

K