The oft-asked question is: how difficult is it?
It is very difficult. Richard is running as an independent candidate and all the odds seem to be stacked against him. The very thing that gave him a comfortable life and made him who he is is the same thing people love to loosely throw at him in an effort to pull him down in his bid for a seat in the Senate, like it was some kind of curse instead of the blessing that it really is for the most part of his life. Artista ka lang (You’re only an actor). The last two words are what really hurt my ear, but not as much as they do my heart. Ka lang.
What he is and has now he has worked very hard for. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth and nothing was ever handed to him on a silver platter. He was focused, he was dedicated, he loved his craft, and it loved him right back. His business is show business, yes, but it is a decent job, and my husband is a decent man. What is so ka lang about that? And why should he apologize for being part of an industry that has been so good to him?
Growing up, my family was never into politics, and when asked about it over the past years, I never hid the fact that I neither desired nor welcomed it at any time in my life  past, present, or future. But little did I know that I would end up marrying a man who would actually tread its turbulent waters. That said, I have no regrets. I have had many surprises in my life, most of which turned out to be blessings, even if they did not initially seem that way. I just went along with the flow, trusting in a faithful God blindly. Who am I to say things can only be this way or that? I know better now to say that life’s journey is never just about gentle, graceful pathways. It is also a lot about seemingly scary alleys  scary if only because you never quite know what awaits on the other side.
Almost nine years into our marriage, this is who and where I am now  a woman (that sounds so much more grown-up than it actually feels) married to a man running for public office, whose candidacy she fully supports. Why? Simply because I know his heart is in the right place. He may not be a perfect individual, but he is a wonderful husband, and in all the years we have been together, there was never a day that I regretted marrying him. He is a devoted father to Juliana and in everything he puts his heart into; he is a very dedicated and hard worker.
The things he espouses are the very things he has integrated into his lifestyle all these years: an abhorrence of drugs, a love of sports, respect for hard work, and an enthusiasm for the development of the youth as future leaders of this country through the incorporation of the former three in one’s lifestyle.
Artista ka lang. They make it sound like Richard just woke up one morning, stretched his arms over his head, and, over coffee and pancakes, decided to run for the Senate. Just like that. Like the only thing going for him is his popularity as an actor. But his profession has nothing to do with his desire to serve. His life has always been an open book, and it is easy to see that his advocacies came way before the desire to run for any public position was ever toyed with acted upon. Unless you choose to look the other way, the signs were there all along.
It has not been an easy ride, but we are rolling with the punches. I say "we" because my husband is not in this alone. His battles are my battles, too, and together we have lifted it all up to God for Him to do as His pleases. The latter has been the easiest part. As a matter of fact, it is the very thing that has kept us going, the one act that gives us breathing space, a time to exhale. It has been the constant factor, the knot that has held our 15-man team together, from the very start and I dare say all the way to the end.
That said, the greater question is, how wonderful has God been? He is/has been/always will be wonderful. He is so wonderful it hurts. We are alone, we do not have a party, we do not have the money, we do not have the machinery, but, thus far, we have managed decently, we have survived. It can be lonely at times but never lonely enough to lose heart. There have been far too many angels, surprisingly a lot of them complete strangers, who have stepped up and offered help. How can we complain? It has not always been comfortable, but we have never reached a dead end. We are fully reliant on heaven’s providence and from day 1, and from one day to the next, the little miracles continue to unfold, so much that it has already turned into a happy game of sorts. "OK, now what wonderful thing is God going to surprise us with today?’
If there were two things our team can boast of, that would be hard work and the hand of God. We do what we can with what we have at any given moment and leave the rest up to Him. We can only do so much. But the more we commit every little thing to Him the more we feel His fingers on our shoulders. Our situation is not exactly what anyone would call ideal. It is almost impossible, but God has never been more active, more present in our lives. And knowing He is just there, whatever the content of the day, really does make all the difference. I know He will still be there, whatever tomorrow will bring.
Some people say it is brave to decide to run as an independent; most others say it is nothing short of foolish. But even on the hardest and most trying of days, you just have to listen to your heart. And then things are simplified.
On my part, I just always remind Richard that if guns, goons, and gold were the only things we would rely on to even begin to say we have a fighting chance, then we would be no different from those who define power and qualification by way of those alone. For all practical reasons and purposes, yes, money and machinery are needed, but they are not the only things that matter. There has to be something and Someone greater than all the money and the machinery in eight elections combined. I believe that, at the end of the day, although man proposes, it is God who disposes. We can be the richest candidate and throw away money nonchalantly, but if it is not meant to be, it will not be. Let’s not forget that heaven plays a role in all this.
People have laughed at me more than once in the past three months, and their emotions range from amusement, to bewilderment and pity. What do you plan to do about money, Lucy? I answer, "I pray." How will you guard and protect the votes? "I will pray." When things do not go your way? ‘I will pray even harder."
Someone very close to me finally said in exasperation, "Politics is a game where the devil is involved. You cannot just pray and pray." I say all the more we have to pray and pray. Yes, we all pray. And we do not just pray and pray. We work very hard, too. But still, I put a premium on prayer.
These are trying times indeed. What breaks my heart especially is when people come up to my husband and say, "We believe in you, we support your advocacy, but how are you ever going to win? You do not have the money. You do not have the machinery." There is still time to quit, they say. But then again, why quit? Because the assurance of winning is not absolutely there? A genuine desire to serve must rise above all odds, and whether the candidate is dehado or llamado, that is beside the point. You run because you want to serve, and you take your chances, come what may.
So many times, I feel like a little girl, lost in the maze of it all. But every day, I pray for a brave heart for every member in our very lean team. And strength for all of us to see it through the end, with our faith and dignity intact. It is not exactly a walk in the park, but no one ever said it would be. This is where we are now, and wherever God puts us after the elections, when all the results have been counted and all the excitement has died down, is exactly where God wants us to be.
Man’s first impulse is to pray and dictate to God how things must turn out, but every single day, I make both a conscious effort and commitment to step beyond that. It is not easy, but practice makes it easier. He knows what is best. He will decide what is best. May His will be done. All we need to do is trust him blindly, completely, with an attitude of prayerful surrender. And like I always say, that is the easiest part. It puts everything in perspective, to just be still and know that He is God.
My Tita Inday once said that her late father-in-law’s motto was "Work as if everything depended on you, pray as if everything depended on God." I’m just going to enjoy the rest of the ride as much as I can. And you bet I will continue to look up far beyond the clouds and pray. I know heaven listens.