Saturday, March 24, 2007

Lost Cause

In my newfound political peregrinations, I am invariably asked why I am fighting a lost cause. I always begin by asking them what's lost because I certainly don't see anything lost in my cause. And here's the time they allude to a certain amount of pity that they feel for me, a sweaty and sunburned physician asking for their vote. I still haven't paused long enough to think of a perfect response because I am treating this challenge the way I have conducted myself throughout my life. I am going to pour everything that I have into this very worthy cause. Many people seem to have no idea how many Filipinos graduate from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine, complete a specialty in Internal Medicine and a subspecialty in gastroenterology in the US, become board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, build a solid and successful medical practice in the buckle of the Bible Belt...while I will appreciate pity if it comes with a vote, I hope every Filipino understands the gravity of our situation. This is without question a battle for the heart and the soul of our country. The next 6 weeks will tell us whether the 3000 Filipinos who leave for other countries daily will swell to 6000, whether we will condemn entire generations to mediocrity, whether we totally become numb to all these human rights abuses, whether we want to continue being treated like a doormat by the international community, whether we as a nation are prepared to sacrifice, to pay the steep price required to get off this deep rut of corruption, loss of identity, poverty and hopelessness.

I have said it before and I will say it again, we do not have to continue going down this well-traveled road to more failure. We need to take our country back from all these pretentious and pompous politicians because we have seen what they can do and there is no reason on earth why they will change course, why they will veer from their tried and tired formulae that has brought us to where we are--most corrupt in Asia, highest infant mortality rate, lowest life expectancy, 500,000 abortions each year.

I gotta go. There's a high school graduation nearby. When you don't have radio and tv ads and all you have are pocket calendars, you need to hustle for votes on a person-to-person basis.

5 comments:

pinoy said...

I truly admire your sincere desire to make a difference by making so much sacrifices to pursue our DREAM PHILIPPINES. But my take is, the Filipino voters are not yet ready.

Unless a considerable percentage of our population become GOOD CITIZENS, the kind of politics that ANG KAPARITAN offers will fall on deaf ears. Sayang lang. What we need to do is to lay the foundation and groundwork for Filipinos to embrace the ANG KAPATIRAN kind of politics.

Yes, this is a battle for the heart and soul of our country. Before we can win the people's hearts and minds, we need to inspire them, capture their imagination. We need to look at things from their perspective. But the way the ANG KAPATIRAN campaign goes, it hardly captures the imagination of the public. Sayang lang. All the efforts, time and resources will just go to waste. It's really futile.

Unless Filipinos become good citizens, the kind of politics that ANG KAPATIRAN offers will have difficulty getting the attention of our people.

Just the same, I salute you!

Angelica Viloria said...

You don't only have pocket calendars. You have ads on the internet too on www.viloria.com =) I wish your party well in the coming elections. May you win a seat in the Senate. It is time for change.

MDUSA said...

If today is not the time to forward a good cause then when is the time? I truly support your cause and even though you don't have access to the resources the political machinery your opponents has, Filipino ingenuity has always conquered insurmountable challenges in the past. I would start a text campaign forwarding a vote for you and encourage everyone to forward your name to their contacts as well. By the end of the day, your name would have reached thousands of cellphone users in the country. I would do this as often as I can. Good luck and God Bless.

mae ann said...

Lost cause? Baka ang bayan natin at mga kababayan ang maging lost cause. Please, Dr. Bautista, don't give up on us. I'll say the same to Attorneys Paredes and Sison. Fight the good fight! You, three, are good men doing something big here for evil to not triumph in our country. You are right. Kawawa tayong lahat kung mananalo ang tulad nina Legarda at Sotto at hindi kayong tatlo. If they win, they win for themselves alone; if you win, we all win. I don't even wanna think about the same old faces and the same old names lording over us again.

pian said...

I believe in your cause that’s why I want to assist you by providing some suggestions in the event that you hopefully decide to run again. I see a bright future in our country with you around as well as other ANG KAPATIRAN candidates. Just recently learned about you in the Inquirer blog. I was searching how I can get in touch with you and I was given this blog. In other words, kulang kayo sa exposure.
Debates are not enough for our populace comprise mostly of the masses (C, D, E). It may work for industrialized nations but certainly not for us. I made a suggestion to Attorney Sison of Philippine Star in rebutting his article about the anti-Dynasty that educating the public is the key and to request their editor to at least include you in their segment but he flatly refused saying it’s already campaigning. And he added that besides, you can serve in other ways without going into politics. But I rebutted him by saying it’s a good start. He didn’t get back to me.
So I would suggest maximum exposure, I hope you and the others would run again. Try to understand the needs of your market (mostly poor). To obtain that kind of exposure, you need to be known widely by the media. I would suggest contacting people from Philippine Star, Inquirer to feature you and what you do at least weekly. You may not like this but it’s necessary to make you guys known by our voting populace. Note that those who made it in the Senate are mostly those who attack the First Family to gain media mileage and free publicity. So that’s what you also need: free publicity in other ways, by showing the people what you do.