(I posted this on Facebook to console myself and friends who are weeping and asking me to have a drink with them. I am on everyone’s speed dial when they needed somebody to drink with. So tomorrow night I may be breaking my sobriety.)

Had a conversation/chat this morning about the grand scheme of things and we touched on Vico. I’m not a Pasig voter and I left Pasig after Ondoy. Many people are cancelling Vico Sotto for staying silent about Leni and all that. I think Leni knows where Vico stands. They even had a photo together when they met. She understands that Vico needs to be pragmatic. Vico’s concern is to clean the system first. It’s hard to work with a rotten system that’s why his first steps are: 1) remove all Eusebio’s henchmen in Pasig City Hall and make his slate of councilors win; 2) then once they’re singing one tune, they can clean from inside out.

Because change doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t start with one person. You attack the system. You clean the system, starting from the inside. This was demonstrated in the movie and real-life situation shown in the movie Spotlight. Marty Baron said, “You don’t start with individuals, you go after the system.” It’s long and arduous. But think about it, the rotten system we had been working with has been there for decades. It’s hard to break. But you know it’s the system that you have to break first.

If you want change, start with where you are. Small wins. Now I understand why Leni didn’t win. Based on the posts of Joey Salceda, Leni knows but it was worth a shot. That’s why she’s calm, Her face is open and bright. She didn’t concede first for us because we’re still hurting.

Just the same she didn’t use the pandemic to campaign and make herself look strong; she just quietly did her job. Many people said that’s one of Leni’s big faults; but she was being pragmatic. The country needed a functioning VP, not as President candidate, at that time. You see if she used the pandemic to make herself more prominent, no one would donate to the OVP since they would think she is just politicking. Bayanihan Konsulta was a success because people believed it wasn’t politics, just pure service.

We cannot fault Leni or the people behind the campaign for this loss. The Marcoses had been planning this for decades. Since 1992 when FVR allowed them to come back. FVR is a cousin of the Marcoses. We just started 5 months ago.

I believe in what Bishop Rey, Diocese of Imus said that God “sent Leni to make us realize that there is innate goodness in the Filipino…that God never meant for Leni to win. Her mission was to waken us up.”

God let the Romans invade Europe. You know why? He used a sinful Paul, a Roman, to be his instrument. So that Christianity can spread. And that’s what the Romans did. The Romans pillaged countries. They were “bad”. But that’s how God used the Romans to spread Christianity. He used Paul, who writes well and used Latin, the lingua franca of that time.

I think that’s how I’m looking at this tragedy. It’s hard to accept but if we work according to God’s timing, we will be better in the end.

The Philippines has to be brought down to its knees before it can build a truly clean and functional system and how we behave and how we treat our brethren while the country falls–that’s the challenge for us. That’s why the Rosas movement was formed to show us we can do so much in such as short time. What more if we have thought this through and planned it well—that we can be decent to one another and we can feed those who do not have anything at all.

Just think about it, no one went hungry in those Leni rallies. If we put that into a bigger movement, no one in the Philippines will go hungry while Marcos destroys the country. The enemy is dirty. Demon moves. If not Leni, there would be somebody else who can ride and play this game with the demons. Leni has showed us what we can do. Trust in God’s provident hands, all in His own timing.

I never thought I would see Makati filled with a million people with one color. I thought it will only be in 1983 and 1986—but in 5 months we were able to mobilize people. Singing one song. It’s like a miracle in this darkness, right? It doesn’t have to end with Leni. What we should do now is mobilize above-ground and underground movement—may above-ground ops, and black ops. It’s painful to say but this is the only way because these people don’t play fair. Just look at how they hijacked the elections. The odds were stacked against us.

Why did this happen? Maybe to give us food for thought? I don’t know. I’m still processing this. It’s like stream of consciousness.

Now people are thinking why did Edsa1986 fail? Just like what my mother said yesterday, we became complacent. We thought that’s the end all, and be all. No, it’s not. Freedom and democracy–it is an ongoing fight, you don’t keep your guard down.

We need to go through this so we can learn that change doesn’t start in the middle, but we include those who are in the fringes of the society. The work for change should be at the bottom and at the top and meet in the middle. To help and be with those who are in the fringes. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It should not be “let me educate you.” But instead, let’s educate ourselves about the plight of those who were misinformed, who believed lies because they no longer had anything to believe in.

Grassroots movement, that’s where Leni and Chel Diokno came from. As long as all of us are not moving to help those who are in the bottom of the pyramid, we will always be like this. This is why Leni campaigned so hard in the provinces. It’s not only because she needs to win but to tell the people, hey we have not forgotten you.

She may not have won but at least she gave hope to those people that there is someone who will listen to them.

Now the challenge to me now is: am I listening to those at the bottom of the pyramid or my line is “let me educate you”?

PS. I wrote this so I can process things that I did not initially understand, not because I want to lecture people. I needed to understand so I can plot my next steps because I’m just starting with the role in this long battle.