Hope

There are a lot of reasons to celebrate today. Actually, there are a lot of reasons to celebrate everyday. But what happened today is very meaningful and historical. It is a re-defining step in the face of Philippine history, hopefully. I'm not really a Noynoy fan, but nor am I his critic. I would assume everyone agrees that at this moment in time, it is better to give the man the benefit of the doubt and do what we can, to help him change our country.

Let's take a step backwards and not forget the first reason we are celebrating today - "the exit of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime". I won't even go into the details of how people so much hate this outgoing government. But speaking for myself, the things I'm most frustrated about are the "unsettled/unresolved issues". There are just too much of them - the election cheating/fraud accusations, the ZTE-NBN scam, the fertilizer fund scam, the questionable SALN (Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth) of her family, and just recently the midnight appointments. There could be a lot more, but these were the most talked about. I mean why would an outgoing government try to force appointments of his allies, friends, or families before the end of her term? I just hate the way the government for the past years, have treated the Filipino people as if we're uneducated fools. They even have to produce video advertisements of what they call "accomplishments" of the government. If someone has really accomplished a lot, she wouldn't even have to say a thing. The successes will speak for themselves. 

Actually, it is more likely that these things they're showing us, are "failures", wrapped around with manipulated statistics to make the package look good. In one episode of a TV news program, they looked deeper into how the government counted the number of Filipinos employed and according to the media, the government multiplied the number of new houses built with the number of supposed workers needed to build a house. So if there are 100 new houses built in a town and it takes 10 workers to build one house, the government assumed that a thousand workers were employed during the course of the construction of these 100 houses. So tell me, how could someone who is supposed to help and protect the Filipino people, do things like this to us? I can't believe these people can even have a good sleep at nights, and even show their faces in video advertisements.

Hopefully it all ends now. We've been longing for true change and real accomplishments. I really hope the new government will have the will, dedication, and wisdom to do what it's supposed to do. I hope that in the next coming years I wouldn't be bitter about paying taxes, I wouldn't feel helpless against corrupt politicians and organizations, I wouldn't feel supportive of revolutionary movements or beliefs, and I wouldn't feel confused or suspicious about government decisions. Instead, I would not only be proud of my country and it's people, but also, of my president.