When I stumbled upon the Facebook page of "Mga Gwapo for Leni", I thought it was a brilliant idea for a 'label' to use for the campaign for Leni and Kiko.
So, I had tarpaulins with sizes of 2 feet by 2 feet made, those that would exactly fit at the back of tricycles.
I have given away a few already to some tricycle drivers in the city, and they were happy and, at times, flattered with the 'label'.
On one occasion, when I took a tricycle to catch up with the other Leni-Kiko volunteers, the driver asked what my tarps were. I told them they were Leni-Kiko tarps. He asked for one.
And during the ride, we talked about why Leni and Kiko are the best candidates for president and vice-president, respectively, at the May 2022 Philippine elections.
I told him, we should not entrust our future to anyone else. He agreed.
Be a "Gwapo for Leni and Kiko".
Let's be smart with our choices. Let's vote for Leni, Kiko, and their Ka-TROPA senatoriables.
We got up early that Friday morning, November 5, 2021, as we had to be at Bay 6, our designated area at the Circumferential Road in Silay City (in Negros Occidental).
That morning, VP Leni Robredo and Senator Kiko Pangilinan were arriving at the Bacolod-Silay Airport to attend meetings and inspect some projects in Bacolod City and in Negros Occidental. And since it was IATF Level 3, gathering a lot of people indoors was not yet allowed.
So, we gathered outdoors! 😃
The organizers divided into bays the ten-kilometer stretch of the circumferential road from the airport up to Bacolod City and assigned the Leni-Kiko supporters based on their city and municipality.
We arrived at our designated area before 8AM, just as the mountains of Silay and Mandalagan were waking up. As we were looking for a spot, we saw these colorful motor vehicles along the way, filling the southbound lane that led to Bacolod City.
As we waited for their arrival, I got out of our vehicle, looked east and was mesmerized by the morning apparition of the fog lifting its veil from the faces of the mountains that seemed to portend that, in the coming days, more Filipinos would lift the blinders from their eyes and be awakened to see the corruption, incompetence, and injustice of the sitting government.
As the circumferential road used to be sugarcane fields, all you'd see around that morning was haciendas and all you'd feel was the coolness of the new morning. The clouds, too, gathered at the east as if to shield us from the heat of the rising morning sun.
(I brought along a pink snack just in case)
Being the only highway connecting the airport with Bacolod, the circumferential road would only hear the roars of trucks and other vehicles during an ordinary day. But on this special morning, it was filled with the echoes of the "Kay Leni Tayo" jingle, drums, and the excitement of her supporters.
We didn't really mind waiting for Leni and Kiko that day as the atmosphere was cheerful and fun. It was like a festival right in the middle of the haciendas.
And as we were constantly updated online, we would know the minute they landed and the time when they would leave the airport to start the motorcade.
Word then got around that the motorcade left the airport. We all stood facing the north, craning our necks as we stepped a meter out into the highway to get a better view of any incoming traffic heading our way.
Then someone from a white van, perhaps a part of the advance party, was calling out that Leni was just behind in a black van. In form, his words were like the information relayed over the public address system of an airport when a flight arrives, but to us her supporters, were in essence a harbinger of hope that we had been waiting for all these years.
And from meters away, we could see blinking lights and a parade of black and white vans that was slowly moving towards us.
"She's here! Leni is here!", we cheered!
Meter by meter, the motorcade came closer towards our spot. Although moments like these felt surreal, we realized this was it! Leni and our group were in the same time and space breathing the same fresh Negrense air.
And right at the door of a moving black van, Leni in a pink mask, fuchsia blouse and black pants was half-standing with her left hand on a car handle while her right was stretched out to shake a Negrense hand. As she passed us she said, "Salamat!".
After her motorcade, Kiko's was following close by. He sat by an open door of a white van expressing "Thank you! Thank you!" to everyone standing on the road.
After Leni and Kiko's motorcade passed, we all felt more awake even without coffee, an awakening that not even caffeine could induce. It's the awakening of the spirit that would push us to rise and fight for what we deserved as Filipinos.
Leni's voice saying "Salamat!" still echoes in my ears until now. I heard it not from a video or television; I heard it from her an arm away as that word floated through the fresh morning air, now full of hope.
No, Leni. Kami ang dapat magpasalamat sa 'yo. Sa iyong sakripisyo para sa aming lahat. Sa iyong ginagawa at kaya pang gawin para sa ating bayan. Hayaan mo, kasama mo kaming lahat sa laban na ito, at hindi lang sa sampung kilometro. Kasi kung sama-sama tayo, mas malayo pa ang ating mararating.
The Negros Island, just like most islands in the Philippines, is a very agricultural area. It is planted mostly with sugarcane. That's why it is dependent on the sugar industry.
And as this 2022 election campaign goes grassroots, our group of Leni-Kiko volunteers in Victorias City is sharing Senator Kiko Pangilinan's plans for the sugar industry, farmers, and fisher folks here in the Negros Island.
Senator Kiko's plans:
1. Order the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to stop the importation of sugar during the milling season.
2. Order the Department of agriculture to cap on the price of fertilizers and release immediately P500 million fuel subsidy for farmers and fisher folks.
3. Strengthen the local agricultural sector to avoid importation of farm products.
4. Bring attention to the plight of the farmers because they are the ones who bring food to our table.
5. Walang nang public bidding sa pagbili ng gobyerno (national at local) sa ating mga magsasaka at mangingisda. Wala nang 'middleman'.
6. Agrikultura, trabaho at pagkain - ang plataporma ni Senator Kiko.
Sabi nga ni Kiko, "Hello Pagkain, Goodbye Gutom".
Kaya, wala nang iba kundi si VP Leni Robredo at Senator Kiko Pangilinan na tayo! 😎
(Kiko will also work to create more
farm-to-market roads.)
Please click to watch Senator Kiko's video message:
About two weeks after Leni Robredo announced her candidacy, her supporters in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental organized a motor caravan around the City of Smiles.
On October 23, 2021, a motor caravan of about 500 vehicles cars assembled along the national highway at the boundary between Talisay City, Negros Occidental, and Bacolod City.
Decked, decorated and festooned with pink and fuchsia ribbons and balloons, and covered with Leni Robredo tarpaulins, these private cars, vans and jeepney-type vehicles left the assembly area and paraded around the streets of Bacolod City. The excitement of the caravan and its participants were contagious that day that not even an Alert Level 4 status could suppress. And as it was a Saturday, traffic around the city wasn't that bad.
Not to be left behind, the Victorias Leni-Kiko Volunteers also joined the caravan along with #Kakampinks from other towns and cities in Negros Occidental. Victorias is 34 kilometers north of Bacolod. We were there as early as 9:30AM, excited to raise awareness to Leni Robredo's campaign of good governance and genuine public service.
I should have written about our #LabanLeni2022 activities here in my hometown as soon as we were able to hold them but having focused on the campaign and the activities, I wasn't able to produce the blogs.
But writing them only now is really perfect timing because, this time, I am now able to see how the effort one individual or group of individuals has contributed to a tornado-like force that created and continue to create this unstoppable momentum that, each time we come together, inspires more to join.
It turned out that what happened that day showed us, to borrow the words of H. G. Wells, "the shape of things to come".
Yes, since then, everything has snowballed. Slowly, the movement to support Leni Robredo, Kiko Pangilinan and their senatoriables grew one supporter at a time. From a handful of volunteers in our city, it has grown to, not just hundreds, but thousands with many more quietly supporting in the sidelines.
That morning, as the motorcade cruised through the streets of Bacolod, I saw crowds on the sidewalks waving with some pedestrians stopping to watch us pass as we shared our renewed hope that, finally, there is someone who will lead us to a future of #AngatBuhayLahat .
As I sat there at the front seat of the car of a fellow supporter Nonalyn, I realized that the route the caravan was not just path to create awareness and momentum, but was a path that would lead us out of this gloom of injustice, corruption and incompetence.
It has been five months since the caravan, and look how huge the movement is now, not only in Victorias (I'll write more of our activities soon), but in the whole #Philippines .
For overseas absentee voters, we had a month to cast our votes before the May 9, 2016 elections. This was allowed under the law so that registered Filipino voters in South Korea (or in any other foreign country they were in) could travel and visit the Philippine embassy in that country to vote.
(I took this photo of the Philippine Embassy
in Seoul, South Korea in April 2016 on the
day I voted for the 2016 elections)
And since the Philippine Embassy in Seoul was just a few minutes by cab from my workplace in the Yongsan District of Seoul, I took a quick break from work and hurried to the Philippine Embassy. I could have done this on a Sunday when the Embassy was open for voting but there was always a long line.
After the 2016 elections, when the candidate I did not vote for took over the presidency, a lot of savory things happened in the Philippines. Some things were humiliating to us Filipinos living outside the Philippines and some things were humiliating to us living in Korea (like when he kissed a married woman in Korea).
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