Move Forward: A Message to all Gibo Supporters From a Fellow Volunteer

During the month leading up to the elections, I began to take a more active role in Gibo’s campaign. I joined several campaign sorties and motorcades while I continued to write on my blog in the hopes that people would realize that he is indeed what we need now: A Modern Leader.

Yesterday, May 10, 2010, I shaded the oval right before Gibo’s name.

Today, May 11, 2010, all signs point to his imminent electoral defeat.

Today, May 11, 2010, I will mourn.

Today, I feel frustrated. Almost all my national candidates lost, same as in 2004 and 2007 elections.

Today, I will try to make sense of how and why Filipinos overlooked Gibo.

Today, I will rant. Yet again, we have another casualty of our political immaturity, as we passed up the chance for Roco’s leadership in 1998 and 2004, we have done it again to Teodoro, yesterday.

Today, I am bothered. When will we ever learn? How will we learn?

But as the day turns into night and as the dark sky gives way to the morning light of the 12th of May, I believe I will be comforted by the fact that my trust for Gibo is not based on him being the 6 foot tall-good looking-great public speaker that he truly is.

I voted for Gibo because of his platform.

I voted for Gibo because of the realistic ideas he presented on how to move this country forward and one thing I know about ideas is that ideas do not die.

More precisely, these ideas will not simply die due to an electoral defeat.

I am supremely confident that Gibo’s ideas are now planted deeply in our hearts. This is our glimpse of what new politics, what modern leadership, is all about. No more useless politicking, no more vindictive actions, just plain and simple focus on the issues to produce effective results.

Now, they are no longer Gibo’s ideas alone. Gibo has shared it to all of us. Whether or not Gibo will run again in 2013 and 2016 does not matter, it is already up to us, up to each and everyone of us, who believed and continuous to believe in him, to nurture these ideas and further spread it so that it may reach every island of this country and tear down every dividing wall, regardless if it is a wall of concrete or a wall that blocks one's social consciousness.

The responsibility to grow the idea of Modern Leadership now rests upon our shoulders.

Part of this responsibility is our obligation to promote unity, peace, stability and progress. And in advancing these, we must support the new and/or re-elected leaders of the Republic.

We must exercise positive activism, not destructive and vindictive politicking.

We must help in healing past wounds, not in further deepening them.

We must help in breaking down barriers, not in creating new ones.

We must take an active role in being part of the solution, not the problem.

If we continue to push for all his ideas, then Gibo did not really lose.

If even just a few of us would carry on his message of peace, stability, unity and progress then Gibo's electoral defeat bears no importance.

If we spread this message and develop the Filipino people into being ready and willing to accept and believe in new politics and modern leadership, then Gibo actually won.

Yes, we must always be vigilant. This is true. But this is more of a message of support. Because we have always been vigilant, to a point that we may have already overstepped our boundaries, which is counter-productive. Maybe it is time to take a different approach by stretching our hands in support and assistance to our new leaders in any capacity we can, keeping in mind that we can only move forward if we move as one.

We may argue, for days and days, about the specific ways and methods to solve our problems but these arguments should not outweigh the basic fact and the unifying force of the idea that all of us are united in the desire to create solutions.

Noynoy Aquino won fair and square. He will have a clear mandate to govern. Whether I like it or not, I have to recognize the fact that I am just one voice and that he will inevitably and rightfully be the 15th President of our Republic.

I will respect and recognize that.

Best of luck to him and with such massive support from all classes of our society, I hope he would be able to put this into good use to be able to truly lead us to prosperity and sustainable growth.

Kudos to Gibo for his high level campaign and clear cut policy direction. He proved that in a time where damaging and destructive politics is the trend, a leader can rise above it all and illustrate to us that modern leadership is actually within our reach.

Kudos to all the members of Green Team and other Gibo volunteer campaign movements, I think all of you worked harder than I did. We fought a good fight and we should all stand proud. I hope that Green Team will soldier on and that our group will not fade away. We can continue helping the society in many different ways. The relationships we built here will last a lifetime.

Today, I will mourn.

Tomorrow, I will move forward.

I sincerely hope you can do the same.