How about some sense of Mercy?

“I’m tired of hatred, Dr. Garrigan, our country is drowning in it. We deserve better.”

This line from the film “the Last King of Scotland” reminds me so much of our country. It is precisely hatred that has provided the downward pressure to the upward force of a surging economy and I am very much tired of it. But hatred has permeated deep in our society and I am actually quite amazed at how quick even regular citizens are in sowing speculations and conspiracy theories. It is quite clear that what we have now is a culture of hate.

Who do we blame for the current state of our country? The President, yes, ofcourse, the President is guilty. BUT SO ARE YOU AND SO AM I. The Media, the Church, the Business Clubs, the Academe, and yes, must I forget, the great orators, the senators, are all equally guilty of why we are in this sad state.

We have failed this country because we have chosen hate over unity, animosity over goodwill, hostility over stability.

Upon reading this, the arrogant, those who believe that they have the monopoly of rigtheousness, with their nose pointed up in the air, would say, YES, of course, we choose hatred, hatred of corruption, hatred of evil, that is. Evil? Everybody hates evil. It is a matter of how you effectively address evil. How you confront it and what results do you achieve after confronting it the way you decided to.

Hatred has been used to drive the search for justice. Hence, many of us look at justice as the legal method to crucify the sinners depending on our moods and whims. A Witch Hunt. A Vendetta.

This sense of justice would make us blind followers to a cult whose blind goal is to raze this country to ground until every living being that ever walked or crawled this land will have to either leave or suffer the subsequent economic deterioration.

This sense of justice promotes hate, further division, and utter destruction.

How about the millions of Filipinos living in poverty? What do all of these mean to them? What about those without food and clothing? Is this the justice they are looking for? What about those without jobs? Will this justice give them paychecks?

You see evil. You confront it. Many see this as the end of the struggle. I see this as the beginning.

Hatred has blinded us so much that we think that through hatred we can create jobs, produce food, and build roads. But this is not the case.

Hatred has blinded us so much that we think that just by hating we are already achieving something.

I have made this point again and again, but I cannot reiterate enough that the more we allow our hatred to violently confront the ills of the current system the more we push these ills, the more we solidify them and further entrench them in the system. Hence, we achieve nothing but create a vicious cycle.

A few weeks back, I read an article comparing Gibo's supporters to a bunch of guys satisfied eating their burgers with somebody else's phlegm on it. You can read hate between the lines. Obviously, the writer's initial goal was to convert some soft Gibo supporters into voting for someone else. But using hate as the driver to achieve his objective, He failed miserably. Those who were thinking of voting for Gibo, upon reading this hateful article, moved towards solidfying their ties with the Gibo team. This is what happens when hate takes the driver seat. We forget about effectiveness, we forget about results and we make hating the end-goal.

We have seen so much hate and it brought us nowhere.

So now, I ask you... I dare you... How about some sense of mercy?

Mercy: not for anyone but for our country and for our people.

Mercy: to provide hope, unity, stability, and progress.

Mercy: so that for once, we may have the chance to become a strong united country with the noble aim of finally being able to take our rightful seat among the world’s most respected nations.

It is only through mercy can we forgive the sins of our painful and hateful past.

Only through unity can we take flight towards our bright future.

Only one leader offers us unity over hate, goodwill over animosity, and stability over hostility.

I think it is just wise for us to take his offer.

GIBO TEODORO FOR PRESIDENT

MAY 10, 2010