I Have Declared

This morning, my brother drove me to the Commission on Elections Office and I filed my certificate of candidacy for the Philippine Senate under the banner of the Ang Kapatiran Party (Alliance for the Common Good) with my running mates Jess Paredes and Adrian Sison. It felt as if a boulder was lifted off my chest.

Ang Kapatiran is a different party in that principles and platform come before candidates. The Party has clear and specific objectives that enhances the common good. It promotes the politics of virtue, public accountability and duty. I agree with the priorities of the Party: moral principles over political expediency; needs of the poor over the interests of the rich and powerful; common good over special interests; life and peace over death and violence.

I cannot help but grudgingly admire all these professional politicians because the decision to join the race was the most difficult one I have yet made. In my own case, the decision was so much tougher because of my young children and my almost-perfect life at the moment. In the end, I chose to declare, after I accepted the reality that I was going to do this for myself, as my way of sanctifying my selfish life.

Again and again I have stated that the odds are particularly long and I ask for your prayers because in so many ways this mission will require a miracle. Not to get elected, that would be a secondary gain, but to enlighten as many of my countrymen that all is not lost if only we realize that we the ordinary citizens hold the real power to change our nation.

Martin D Bautista
martinb@ptsi.net