Philippine politics talk. Mar talk.
I don’t like talking about this, because there’s so much room to attack me for it. And it would require a very brief introduction into my childhood.
Long story short, I wasn’t born into a rich family. We started from the bottom. I literally lived in one bedroom with my older brother and my parents, at the ghetto way way North in the city. We had one bathroom, where we’d line up in the morning before the crack of dawn, so that my dad can drop us off one by one - first at my school, then my brother’s, then my mom’s office at Makati (which is south of the city). Public transport is shit, so my dad had no choice. Things were like this for a really long time! Although that was our living condition, we still lived quite comfortably, and happily because we were together. Call it Filipino resilience. Still, comfortable.
But you know, certainly not as comfortably as I live now. When current president Noynoy Aquino came into office in 2010, our lives changed because the economy changed for the better. Like proper economic theory, as the economy improved, our well-being improved. Money was coming in and production (GDP) was increasing in the Philippines, and inflation wasn’t bad at all! Things started looking up for my parents who worked so hard for a better life! Under the GMA administration, perhaps results didn’t reflect so much because the governance was shit, and the president stole their money. Anyway.
By 2012, my parents have earned enough money to build a house from scratch at a respectable gated neighbourhood, where my high school was, with cash. Not on mortgage--cash. After I graduated high school, I went to the top private university in the Philippines, where my parents pay full tuition every semester. My brother went on to go to the State University because he was smart enough to pass (LOL). But still. Top bracket, no discounts from a government school. My parents saved enough to buy a car each for me and for my brother, that we could use for ourselves, so that my dad didn’t have to drive us everyday. Recently, my parents bought a condo in Makati, so my mom doesn’t have to wake up before dawn to get to work!
So it’s very capitalist, why I’m set for Daang Matuwid. Rome didn’t build itself overnight. Six years was not enough for the program to come into completion, and I need Mar to keep this going. I need Mar to make sure that the work my parents have been doing, that the money they’ve been saving for me and my brother, and for the healthy progress of the Philippine economy--those things--will not go to waste. I need Mar to beat Binay, who would steal my parents’ hard-earned money. I need Mar to beat MDS, whose corruption is shrouded by her allure in humour and academic achievements and accolades. I need Mar to beat Poe, who is inexperienced and too doe-eyed to run a country “with a heart.” I need Mar to beat Duterte, and be the quiet warrior (with Leni!) defending human rights and due process. I need Mar to keep Daang Matuwid going because I want my parents to continue living the comfortable life they deserve.
And I know that this is problematic, because I may be one of only so many cases. One of those whose lives got significantly better under the Aquino administration. And I realise that in the same administration, people have grown poorer, and hungrier, and more devastated.
I believe that’s why so many find hope in Duterte; he’s a new man who could bring change. I see where you’re coming from if that’s the case. But please do understand where /I’m/ coming from as well.
Six years ago, life was good, but it was subpar. Although I was happy with my family in our little room in Fairview, life could have been so much more enjoyable, more... more like life. And I see my life now. I see my parents now. I see the comfort (dare I say luxury?) that they enjoy. How could I take that away from them?
So yeah. I’m not trying to convert Duterte supporters by telling my sob story. But I do expect you to understand we have different backgrounds. I can’t begin to understand why Duterte draws followers from other people who do not have their background as a justification of their support, but alas. Agree to disagree.
