I'm Here to Stay
92 days ago, I was totally unknown outside of my immediate family and close friends. Without spending a single cent on tv and radio ads I may just get a million votes, and in my heart, these are the votes that matter because none of these are “command votes”, none of these votes arose from political machinery, quasi-religious blocs, cash purchases, intimidation, fraud, misrepresentation. It will probably take close to 12 million votes to land a seat in the Senate and a million does not appear much but wasn’t it Fidel Castro who said that all he needed to take the entire Cuba was 70 men?
What I am saying is we were converting people at a rate of more than 10,000 each day, nothing to be ashamed about. Considering it felt like we were campaigning in the Soviet Union circa 1950’s at some places when supporters would confide that they could not be seen attending our rallies for fear of retribution, and not a few people would refuse to take our handbills because they were ordered by their religious superiors to toe the church line or face damnation, or be told by fearful government employees and timid school officials we were not welcome to address even small gatherings because of the pervasive fear of “electioneering” while the incumbent administration bets were campaigning with impunity all over the country. We are always proud to crow about our free press but this is far from reality. It is far from free. It is really very expensive. Wealthy traditional politicians routinely grace the front pages of the big newspapers with their carefully retouched mugs and get quoted with prepared material written by staff members.
No wonder we will never progress with this kind of an inefficient and corrupt system just as the lumbering Soviet bureaucracy sealed the fate of communism. What feeds this system is our choice to do nothing. It is from our choice to accept this scheme as our destiny and fate.
I have been asked what my plans are for the immediate future. This I know: I will not work towards any particular position. I thought that participating in the electoral exercise of 2007 was an effective way to render service to my country. I will find a worthy cause like a national smoking-cessation campaign, tree-planting or the eradication of tuberculosis in the Philippines. I am here to stay.
38 comments:
Face it people, this was an exercise in futility at the expense of deluded voters who were made to think that change is possible. This was egoism/egotism, pure and simple. Own up to it Dr. Bautista, everything about you reeks of self-importance; self-righteous blather from someone with a superiority complex serves no one but the source.
youarenohero,
Nakakatawa ka!
It's people with talangka mentality and inferiority complex like yours that put this country where it is.
I see envy written all over your mocking comments.
You and your kind's days are numbered.
Buwahaha,
The likes of you and your deluded kin can go on trumpeting "victory". You are lost amid the din of reality tolling its bells.
Youarenohero, smell yourself. What have you attempted to do for your country? No big change can happen without anyone starting from something. Dr. Martin Bautista did that something. It is about waking the people up to the fact that there could be ACTUAL options. It may be the case that we are not used to that idea yet, but we Filipinos can pick up good scents too. Unfortunately, many people are just too impatient for change and they do not understand that real transformation takes time.
It is apparent who you voted for youarenohero... but no one blames you if your comfort zone is the kind of politics we have now. Talk about egotism and self-importance. Unfortunately for you, there are people who love their country more than you do. Sincerely though, I really do feel sad for you... I'll pray for you.
Poor thing, i believe he's reflecting his own life right now. Youarenohero, there are good people. They exist.
Makes me curious why a person like you would visit Dr. Bautista's site and read his blogs, only to rave and rant. Seek a counselor, psychologist or a priest if you have to vent out your guilts and frustrations.
Mind you, your acts assist in the deterioration of society rather than helping to build it up. Quit picking on good people like Dr. Bautista.
If you want to see good people around you, that won't happen unless you stop pushing them away.
Good luck.
Youarenohero... If there is anything you can't deny, it's that many of us have been given hope.
I guess in behalf of all the others who've been given hope, I'd like to say my thanks to you for playing the devil's advocate.
So there, THANKS. thanks for showing us what we do not want to be; thanks for showing us who we don't want to be with; thanks for showing us what we do not want for our country; and finally, THANKS for emphasizing well enough for us, that there are still many God-centered people who are "foolish" enough to risk everything for everyone.
What a blessing you are. Thanks! God bless you and everyone like you Dr. Martin Bautista. Godspeed.
Dream on, poor deluded folk. It's apparent that reality hitting you smack in the face can't wake you up.
Apparently youarenohero's the one who is not waking up to this reality he insists calling a dream...
Sir youarenohero, this is reality right smack in your face.
By the way youarenohero, you honestly sound like a TraPo's conscience.
dream on...
Listen to yourselves and revel in your self-righteousness. Yes you are all correct. But I am in no way aligned with the corrupt trapos and the status quo and I despise them as much as those of you longing for change. But take an honest hard look at what Dr. Bautista has done. Apart from touring the country and mouthing the obvious, exactly what has he accomplished? Read this blog from the beginning and tell me if this is not a paean to himself and his self-imposed sacrifice of giving up golf every morning to fulfill a personal dream of "serving his country"? He says he plans to stick around. Good for him. he can bask in the glory of all this adulation and his abbreviated sortie into politics. It was an adventure. He can now go back to golf every morning.
If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking. ~Buddhist Saying
Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down. ~Charles F. Kettering
One may go a long way after one is tired. ~French Proverb
When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
~Author Unknown
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. ~Henry Ward Beecher
It would have scared me had Doc Bautista gotten himself in the top 15. Think of all the bored Filipinos now in the US with money... a good Doc-Bautista performance would have been an invitation to many more like him to come and try their luck in experimenting with the Philippines instead of... playing golf?
Actually those bored-rich pinoy overseas are the real hope of our nation. Just look at India and China, part of the immense economic leap those countries had undergone during the past years are due in part to investments made by returning Indians and Chinese.
youarenohero:
it is you who reek of the stench of a person dying inside: sad, submissive, masochistic, coward and ignorant.
you probably would make a good caddie for dr. b.
People choose to look at life either positively or negatively. Those who look at the glass half empty tend to label people trying to change the status quo for the better as self-righteous, egotistic individuals who have a superiority complex with an impossible mission. But why call Dr. Bautista all these? Is it because he is well educated and an educated man does not do things like these, especially not a doctor? If he was a farmer with the same cause, how would he be labeled? If he took up arms, he would be labeled an insurgent or even a terrorist. If he succumed to status quo of politics, he would be labeled another trapo.
The country needs more people like Dr. Bautista who actually do the seemingly impossible. The effect of his efforts may not be obvious to some right now (especially the nay sayers) but I believe it is another raindrop that shall eventually fill up the ocean.
Glad to hear you're staying. :O) Any interest in helping your dear sis in uplifting the health conditions here in Quezon City? (hehehe) ...
We did our best.. and more importantly, you've proven a point. I am proud of you brod!
- Dra. Doray Delarmente
District 1, Quezon City
Sigh...youarenohero, why the spread of negativity in here?
You are putting the man down because he has that audacity to provide hope and offer possible solutions to the boils of our country. You are accusing him of having a superiority complex when he chose to leave the sweet life here in the United States to do something with whatever is left of our country. And yes, Mr. Youarenohero...life is indeed sweet here. But Dr. Martin wanted to do something. He loves golf, big deal. he is a product of bourgeoisie, so? He educated himself and made good use of that education. He chose to be part of a solution rather than a liability which our entire nation at this rate economically and in my opinion spiritually is. And with that, mind you, if it were not for us who chose to toil and do something outside of our nation that potentially breeds mediocre and sad minds like you, our poor country is going to eat nothing but the words of bitter individuals like yours.
Do yourself a favor, do something extraordinary with your life for once and let us see if you still could fathom Dr. Baustista's choice as self importance. Even if he is supposedly driven by ego to do so, aren't we all? At least he is brave enough to be out there. Ikaw, ano ba ang ginawa mo?
Kaya walang nangyayari sa bayan natin dahil sa mga madidilim na pag-iisip tulad mo.
youarenohero,
"...Read this blog from the beginning and tell me if this is not a paean to himself and his self-imposed sacrifice of giving up golf every morning to fulfill a personal dream of "serving his country"?... "
For a non believer you certainly took a lot of effort to read Martin's entries "from beginning".
Aminin.
Pinoysaamerika,
You know nothing of who I am or what I do. I am "out there" and do my damndest to contribute and apart from that statement, never have had the need to speak of my own efforts to be "of sevice". So I'm sad at the state of affairs. But definitely not mediocre. I'm a realist though and refuse to be drawn into this grand illusion of political candidacy as "service to the country". This exercise served his personal purpose. Of course I'd be glad to admit being wrong and eat crow if indeed anything comes of these "seeds" he has sown. Negativity is not always counterproductive. The devil's advocate has value in allowing others to take a step back and get a different perspective. And although the temptation is great to tag this negative view as inherently wrong, at least allow yourself more than an emotional response. And if you have the temerity to ask what I have done, ask the same of yourself. At the very least, Dr. Bautista's efforts should speak to each one of us and make us take stock and think of what we are doing and perhaps take that extra step and do just a bit more. But there are better ways to serve than tell people what they already know is wrong, wax poetic about the ills of the system and the unfulfilled potential of our people. Dumbing down dialogue and dismissing uncomfortable discourse is not one of them.
stop fanning the fire so it will die out- mang pandoy
I am glad that you are here to stay. We need more people like you — real everyday heroes, with the courage of their convictions and who have not consigned their country to the junkheap. I watched you (and Sison and Paredes) at the "Isang Tanong" program and I felt proud to know there were still people like you who are willing to sacrifice everything because they believe this country is still worth fighting for. I told friends and forwarded emails about you and Kapatiran, in the hope that in my own small way I could help. I've been told that, as youarenohero said, "this was an exercise in futility". I disagreed. For one person to make a difference may be difficult, but it's not impossible, as long as he's willing to try. And I thank you and your colleagues for even trying. Because you did make a difference. Perhaps not enough to get a seat in the Senate. But enough to make the common people think and reconsider their votes, their future. If you will notice in the returns, almost all the artistas have lost their hold on the public's fascination and, consequently, the elections. (Except for Vilma, but then she has accomplished so much for Lipa and has what it takes to do more for Batangas). So as far as we who believed in and voted for you are concerned, you and Sison and Paredes are not failures. You have succeeded in a way. And I hope that you will not lose hope in our country and you will not give up the fight to restore our national integrity. I, in my own small way, am right behind you. In the immortal words of Goethe: “Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.”
Take it easy friends and fellow Filipinos who love our country. Nothing personal going on in this exchange I hope. youarenohero will be proven right in labelling this campaign as "an exercise in futility" if I stop at this point, pack-up and re-enroll my 4 children in America. Ain't happening. Give me a chance to prove myself. You treat this election as some kind of a final test. Give me a little more time.
Not a "hero"... yet. But most definitely a big wave. Someone told me big waves come in threes. I'll be catching one of those after you... and hopefully more will come and keep pounding them shores.
Thanks for the inspiration (though much is to be done, this alone should be enough for you to proclaim victory).
Godspeed, Doc Martin, to you and all those who believe.
Kudos Dr.Bautista if you happen to run in 2010 we will vote for you again ;)
Ever since we came to know about you and your party, you are already no. 1 in our list. We never knew that there were candidates like you with no illusions of grandeur whatsoever, only armed with the initiative to make things right in this country.
We hope to see you again Dr. B. We will support you all the way.
I can see through youarenohero. He is egging us on. Thanks for that. I think his real concern is that Doc Bautista and the likes of him may lose heart at this setback. But it isn't a setback really. It is a step forward. The issues at hand are greater than this effort of Doc Bautista. Personal motivations aside, if those who care, care enough to make a real effort, to shed personal cocoons of comfort and safety, to sacrifice selfish pursuits to further this movement for change, we would all be better off for it. Egotism? Sure, we believe in ourselves, we believe Filipinos deserve better. But futile? No! This struggle against such a massive pervasive system of corruption is certainly frustratingly difficult. But perseverance will pay off. We all have our part to do, even you youarenohero, and we are glad we have Doc Bautista along for the ride.
youarenohero...thank you for responding. i am not dumbing down uncomfortable discourse. As a matter of fact, I believe this part of any exchange of thoughts and sentiments, if I may, is a valuable phase for beings who value personal and cultural evolution. For on a given physical day if we are actually for a resolution of something, we have to brave through talking about uncomfortable things provided we stay with truth and sincerity.
This is not the venue to tally our personal works and endeavors. But to answer your throw-back question, I know what I have done. Like Dr. Bautista, I have made good use of my education, worked for my hopes and dreams, sought my evolution just like many folks like me back there in our country or over here in the U.S. And I have given back and continue to do so. That is why I am saying in my response, do not insult the Filipinos who have toiled outside the country or the many in here who show support to the good man's cause. Like many Filipinos, we were not born with a silver spoon in our mouths, nor do we have "powerful" last names. But I love my country. Maybe you do too. And wherever a Filipino is in the world, he will always be a Filipino.
The point in my reaction is when we exchange ideas, thoughts, and opinions in here, let us not reduce ourselves to give out harsh judgments.
I am not siding with the man. But I am for the principles he values. And I think he made a bold move. And I am honored to have "met" such a man in my lifetime.
doc martin- thought about changing this blog's name to- i AM home ?
ps:
youarenohero...perhaps we fight for our love (of country) differently, that is okay too...that is a right..as long as we keep on going in our own unique ways to actually help and do something...but we must go beyond dark thoughts and insults to others who oppose our ways...
Dr. B...Tuloy po ang panalangin at pag asa...hindi lamang para sa indibidual na tao na makakatulong sa bayan kung hindi higit sa lahat sa layunin at makatotohanang loob na mayroon sa mga taong ito na manunungkulan sa ating mahal na bayan...
Doc Bautista... I think unfair for you to say that a reason you lost is where some people ..."refuse to take our handbills because they were ordered by their religious superiors to toe the church line or face damnation". I voted for you, but your statement is unfair.
pinoysaamerika,
Well said. I regret that my words may have been unduly harsh but I keen at the thought of our countrymen grasping at straws, worse, embracing straw men that knowingly speak the words they know we want to hear. Doc Bautista is not the first and will not be the last to offer hope. Perhaps one day our perseverance will harvest more than disappointment. After decades of deepening despair and frustration my thoughts may have indeed gone to the dark side. I appreciate you seeing beyond them. Despite the bluntness of my opinions, I, like you yearn for a better future for all Filipinos. I guess Dr. Bautista has indeed given us a glimpse of possibilities but more to the point he has, for me anyway, reinforced just how almost impossible it is going to be to change the way things are. But there is always tomorrow. But I despair at just how much more time is needed. But you are on to something I think. If we can't get the right people in, how can we reach those already there?
delfin, you are right that it is unfair for a religious follower to be ordered not to accept campaign paraphernalia so as not to be able to form a personal opinion on a poltical question; unfair to be commanded who to vote for; unfair to be deprived of the right to choose.
ian, this has always been a journey to me. I hope that I am not home yet!
Now such a discourse gives me hope :)... eventually, in all our outward actions, we have to constantly ask ourselves what intrinsic values we seek.
I guess who we - who know we love our country - really are rebelling against are those politicians who SEEM to love themselves too much to love their country enough. Is this correct?
Galing. God has His ways...
With humble pride, i would dare say: Thank you everyone here for being a small hero by the very act of loving your country. I have no doubt that you all want the best for your country. Each note counts.
Let this love for our country always be our premise for hope and peace, rather than despair and war.
tito cesar,
Idiots are only those who aren't smart enough to see that there are always more ways to see things than the one you personally think is right. I applaud any discourse that brings out more than just the one popular view. I deplore those who seek to propagate only their view and muzzle those they do not agree with.
doc B, let me say this to you simple.
i have done a lot of work to convince my friends to vote for you and after reading your blog, what did they all tell me?
"OK, I'LL VOTE FOR HIM. HE KNOWS WHAT HE CAN DO."
so let me just tell you this sir, if you are still planning to go on all-out on the next elections.
please let me help you once again to achieve what you want.
Look again at your own blogthreads. People did not hear of your campaign, did not even know about your pro-choice stand while you were in Oklahoma.
dreamsatopanashtray said...
my only regret dr bautista is that i had only heard about your campaign after the elections.
" After decades of deepening despair and frustration my thoughts may have indeed gone to the dark side. I appreciate you seeing beyond them. Despite the bluntness of my opinions, I, like you yearn for a better future for all Filipinos. I guess Dr. Bautista has indeed given us a glimpse of possibilities but more to the point he has, for me anyway, reinforced just how almost impossible it is going to be to change the way things are" youarenohero
My sentiments exactly, youarenohero. I was appalled at first reading through your personal attacks at Martin. That was uncalled for. I voted for Ang Kapatiran. In fact, like many of my friends and relatives who believed in what they stood for, I wanted to vote for just the three of them. But today, I expressed my frustration to my husband and said, "How long, how many more decades do we have to wait for this country to wake up! Look at what's happening in this election! It's like we've gone back to the old days. I mean, wasn't the garci scandal and the president short of admitting that cheating indeed took place in the last elections enough for them to put a lid on Mindanao? No! Days before the election started, I already heard of a rumor that elections in some part of Mindanao was over. That no elections would be happening? And then it happened. That's truly in your face! I mean you'd think they would think twice about repeating it since it would be watched. And why is our Comelec taking so long to act on it? Isn't that a sign of things to come in 2010?
How long do I have to sacrifice my daughter's future and wait till this country really wakes up? i was sooooo ready to pack up our bags and just go!
A lot of the "devil's advocate" type comments in this entire blog and even Martin's own posts have insights that we can learn from.
May I suggest some for 2010:
1. I say be active, enlist and help Kapatiran or a similar party with more realistic or specific platforms (action-based and not motherhood statements that a lot of people have heard or don't understand) build a stronger team, not just three, but a complete slate, including local positions!!! That will show everyone that we are indeed a force to reckon with and we are truly THE ALTERNATIVE that can make a BIG DENT of a difference!
2. Go for an all-out media campaign guys! Spending (though not an exorbitant hundreds of millions) is not a sin! Quit saying that going for traditional media campaigns make you a trapo. It's how you do it. If it's not tacky and of poor taste! It's marketing! Any new product needs to generate awareness! If people aren't aware of you, how can they vote for you? It's as simple as that! We can't go saying that the Philippine electorate isn't mature enough. We gotta do our part in informing them about us. I know you had little time to do this. After all, you just got into it literally at the onset of the campaign period. But perhaps in the next three years, you can make noise, Do some strategic moves that are relevant to your campaign. Continue lobbying actively as part of civil society for your advocacies. Make noise. Make a lot of noise that makes sense before the next elections.
3. No matter how you look at it, packaging is key. You need to package yourselves well, plan and mount a more organized campaign. One that shows you all in force and not individually. It always looked better when the three of you were together. What more if you have an entire slate!
4. Your platform needs some tweaking. A lot of the statements are old/dated, Vatican Zero, tired, impractical, and some are even irrelevant.
Eg. Martin, talk to people in your homecourt now and ask them how CARP has turned out. Research this well from all parties, landbank, landowners, recipients of VOS lands, CARP recipients. It is a glaring failure! Maybe you can scrap this out and have something that will really benefit the farmers or agriculture in general. I think Adrian had said something about this at the onset of your campaign.
5. Pro-life or Pro-Choice? This is a sensitive issue because your party is church-based. For that, okay we will let the other parts of government handle the pro-choice part, which I believe is the more logical way for this country! You can't please everybody. But geesh, over-population won't help. I say, give condoms for free to all the households in this country!!! Unlimited supply! Haha! I mean sexuality is part of being human. you can't stop that!
Go more for human rights, rather than saying pro-life which is almost always confused with just church-based family planning alone.
The point is, your platform-based party is COOL but you need to MAXIMIZE on this uniqueness by being more relevant with the times and be more specific and benefit-based! Sure you say, abolish the pork barrel! But to the man in the barrio, what does that mean? In marketing terms, you need to translate that to "what benefit void are you filling"? And you need to say it in a short, crisp way, in a language that they will understand.
You already got the vote of the upper and upper middle class this round. But the votes of the majority of our population are what will win you a Senate seat.
There's more that I can think of, but this post is getting too long!
If 2010 is still a go for you, Sison and Paredes as a team and hopefully more, then you better get started working on it now!!!
Dr. Bautistsa, what do you mean by a "preferential option for the poor"? Birth control pills? Condoms? Abortion? I hope you can clarify this.
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