No regrets, please

Filipinos have every reason to support the incoming administration, whoever they voted for last May 9. It now behooves all of us to do our part as one people, not as red, blue, green, orange or pink. We have no other recourse but to heed the plea of president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr., “Ask you all, pray for me, wish me well.  I want to do well because when a president does well, the country does well.”

Well said.  But we wish him ears (and heart) too to be open to the voice of reason when his moves and policies are opposed or criticized because, likewise, he has no way to go but succeed, just as the 31 million who voted for him should have no reason to regret should he fail. No bullheaded, calloused, politics-driven, selfish president has ever succeeded anywhere in the world.

Hear this my dear countrymen: Elections are more a test of heart for any people than freedom of choice to vote. Our life and future cannot be any better than the men and women we voted into positions of power. Corruption, criminality and all sorts of hideousness and wrongdoing in government and society start during elections, indicating perhaps of awful governance to come.

Consider the practice/habit of vote-buying, cheating, clowning, acting, pretending, killing, violence, trolling, fake news spinning, bribing and accepting of bribes (“donations”), “utang na loob,” celebrity politics, “Kamaganak Inc.,” blind allegiance, church endorsement, ballot-snatching, overspending, illegal campaigning. All these, and more, are handwriting on the wall for a people that would err in electing the right leaders.

So let us live with our choice/s and hope for the best in the coming months and years. But if (in hoping) expectations are betrayed and shattered anew, and the opposite is what happens (yet again), sulk and brood, but we have no right to complain. And no regrets, please. – Reni Valenzuela, [email protected]