Volunteers For A New Philippines – Volunteerism at its Best!

We are in the end game - hell week, last two minutes, the final homestretch. The competition and they who have such little faith have totally written us off.  Media spinners, opinion makers, political analysts and election experts using the surveys have already dismissed our candidate and our cause.

But we are not throwing and will not throw in the towel.  Why?  Because we are in very, very familiar territory.  This is a state where we are at our element and where we begin to see things even more clearly and more constructively and begin to fight back with all we've got realizing all the more the justness of our cause until we attain victory not only for ourselves but including those who doubt us. While others cringe, bow down and give up, not us.  This is our zone where the hard and impossible way is always the best way.

To classmates and contemporaries....

"Ubing ka pay laeng" (you are still young) they said to our face.  We met disapproval of professors when our candidate took a leave from law school to run against the entrenched political family in Zambales for a seat in the 1971 ConCon.  We had no money and no machinery yet the power of our words and our dreams were shared by the people that defeated the stronghold that imposed Guns, Goons and Gold to stay in power.  In our Youth, we showed the hard and impossible way is always the best way.

To the people of Olongapo...

"Sin City" they called our city due to the huge social cost of prostitution and crime that we bore for hosting the US Bases for the greater national interest of security and stability not only for our country but for the entire Asian region during the height of the Cold War.  Despite the national stigma, together as a community we rediscovered our core values and excelled in every aspect of governance - peace and order, sanitation and cleanliness, discipline, team-work, education and civic excellence becoming a Model City for the entire country.  We redefined ourselves and held our heads up high ever since.  We proved perceptions wrong and that the hard and impossible way is always the best way.

To the Subic Volunteers...

We faced death and destruction when Mt. Pinatubo erupted and fine ash fell as far away as the Indian Ocean. To those who were not there ...just imagine how it was at the heart of such an eruption.  As if that was not enough, the US Bases closed down, 42,000 jobs lost over-night and Subic -given up for good.  Naysayers said Subic will be pillaged and robbed.  But we banded together, stood our ground and volunteered. From the senior citizens and balikatan ladies who packed dried fish and rice making sure what happened in Clark will not happen in Subic,  to the bright eyed fresh graduates from the most prestigious Universities around the world who brought with them uncompromised ideals ...we all listened and came to share a common vision of a Freeport transforming a former bastion of military rule into a hub for business and commerce for the entire country.  We made honest people out of those who opposed the bases and showed the country that the hard and impossible way is always the best way.

To fellow Red Cross Volunteers...

After hard work, sacrifice, unflinching vision and 8,000 volunteers, others who turned their backs before then came to look and covet the title (though not the job) that came with being Chairman of the country's first free port.  When in Erap's first act as president, he kicked us out -we actively earned for the Red Cross P50 million+ -offset for the country for a job we were offered in the middle East that would have paid us personally the same amount for a year's work. In that time, we made the Organization come to be known not only as a blood bank but also as the most if not only Disaster Prepared Organization in the country -always first, always there.  Once again proof that the hard way is always the best way.

To the DOT and Tourism Industry...

Political turmoil, SARS, bombings, Abu-Sayaf kidnappings amongst others rocked the national landscape and it was a big joke to invite tourists to visit the Philippines in early 2000.  The tourism post was an Despite the insurmountable odds, we organized ourselves as a unified tourism sector and in one voice spread the message of Wow Philippines that educated the nation that Tourism means jobs and the alleviation of poverty.  In no time, tourist arrivals turned positive and jobs and opportunities coupled with pride of history, culture and national treasure spread among Filipinos across the globe.  We instilled self-respect and rediscovered our roots as a proud race and showed the world that the hard and impossible way is always the best way.

To the Senate and Committee Staff...

We were said to place 29th and we landed 5th. We fought tooth and nail for 6 years on the floor for all our bills - Automation, Tourism Act, IHL, Veterans, etc. to become law.  We left no stone unturned and remained firm and fair in our hearings and investigations.  In all, we engaged our colleagues in lively debates, interpolations, answering their every question, not once ever turning our back even to their whim and sometimes very unparliamentary tactic.  We did the same to our counterparts in the House of Representatives and stood up against every lobby group and vested interest including the Executive Department when we performed our oversight functions when their objectives ran counter to that of the national and public interest that we swore to protect and defend.  More often than not, even the public misunderstood us, unaware of the behind the scenes manipulations that happen before and after a press coverage.  Our legislative accomplishment speak for itself.  Legislation is filled with compromise and in the end we proved that doing the right although unpopular thing the hard and impossible way is always the best way.

To the New Volunteers...

"Sayang daw ang boto mo."  "Just vote for the lesser evil."  "Hindi naman mananalo iyan eh."  Those words are still very fresh in our memories, we hear them everyday since we set our minds to do what is right in spite and despite of what others say.  And as the day of reckoning draws closer, it has become even louder -the call to settle is now a chant echoed by survey purveyors and media practitioners alike.  We each have our stories of how we have won hearts over, converted minds and added one more captain to our steadily growing fleet.  With patience we studied hard, we took it upon ourselves to find out what each and every candidate had to offer and so -unlike the others, we know the whys and the hows.  As we come across friends who have opted to ride the bandwagon, "kahit na alam naman nila kung kanino tunay na sayang ang boto."   We forge ahead -no matter how unfriendly and how scary it can be, able to sleep at night because we made our choice for all the right reasons.  If a great many do settle due to the much celebrated mind massaging happening around, though we wish not to be proven right all along - the hard and impossible way is always the best way.

"Wala ng pag-asa ang bayan."  "Bobo talaga ang mga Pilipino."  "Sayang lang ang pagod mo."  All too familiar -the doubts, the taunts, the insults.   Again, we have heard it all at one point in some form in the above-mentioned instances but overcame the fear and made it our friend.

Everyday we deal with -indifference, apathy, and seeming defeat as many would want us to believe in the coming May 10 elections.

This one more time, for country and people, for our children and future generations to come, it is time to meet our old and familiar friend called fear ...and make him our best friend.

Tayo ang Bagumbayan....

TAYO ANG BAGONG BAYAN!

TOGETHER WE CAN!

BAGUMBAYAN - VOLUNTEERS FOR A NEW PHILIPPINES

Vote Dick Gordon for President

"Pag nagsama ang Lider at ang tao,

Lalabas ang galing ng Pilipino."

-Dick Gordon