The willingness to serve our people in whatever form is always a must for every Filipino who has malasakit sa tao at bayan. No, not because it is pay-off time as we worked hard for a successful run, but because one wants them to succeed and keep their promises.
There is a biblical phrase, “Many are called but few are chosen.”
I was a reluctant comeback public servant but back then when former President Fidel V. Ramos had asked the same question saying, “When it came to the more difficult problems of this country, only a few are granted the gifts to solve them, and if those few did not accept that responsibility, they are betraying those talents, which in the final count meant that they are betraying themselves. Summed up, simply, many are called but few are chosen.”
Thus, the same stand goes for the next six months or so, and if it doesn’t work out, then the thought of being considered shall serve as a monument of my folly in actually believing. Then and there, I would no longer feel the glow of its exhaustion or taste of its wonder, but one thing that can never be taken away from me is that, for a brief period between two great darkness, I was once one of the chosen.
As a former member of Congress, we are as a privileged to take part in the historic proclamation of the newly elected leaders of the nation.
The last proclamation I attended was when former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada won and I remember the Batasang Pambansa being filled to the brows by legislators from the Senate and Lower House, past and present, party mates or not.
Of course, we, who stood by Speaker Joe de Venecia, huddled in one end of the floor of the august halls. To his credit, Erap went our way and spoke in his usual macho voice, “Kalimutan na natin ang eleksyon, sama sama na para sa bayan.”
Of course, the hands and hugs of reconciliation floated in the air and everybody lived happily ever after.
To his credit, Erap was true to his word and we became friends and I would go to his Greenhills home or he would come to Baguio and cook his favorite “bakalaw” dish.
I would bring Baguio friends with me – Bobby Burgos, Dhobie de Guzman, Ernie Abellera, Fred Ballesteros, even Cris Tandoc, and he would welcome them, as he would welcome me and we all ate at his dining table, drink wine or coffee at his veranda.
Anyway, the deluge of traffic discouraged me from attending the proclamation of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. by the House of Representatives and the Senate as President, together with his running mate Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio.
The win making him the 17th president of the nation was an impressive 31 million plus votes or 58.77 percent of the electorate with a lead of 16 million plus votes, a first in our history.
Apropos is Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
That time is now.
Officially, the duo now becomes the hope to make this country great again and along the way, we will be there with them.
Sigh.
May 18, 2024
