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The following write up was posted on facebook by Sam Manlosa, a Chemical Engineer by profession and my former English 4 student at the MSU Marawi.

An Open Letter to the 13 Million Filipinos Who Voted for Noynoy Aquino

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Congratulations! The yellow army has taken over! You now have, in your hands, the collective aspirations of 90 million Filipinos. Whether the rest of us should be thankful or cower in fear is something we'll postpone to 6 years from now. Just know that while we had somebody in mind who we felt was more qualified and was slighted due to our endemic and unique brand of popularity pageantry - the type where the death of one's esteemed mother earns you sympathy votes and a one-way ticket straight to the presidency - we are equally very much grateful that your collective will of 13 million strong managed to block the quest for power by one shrewd businessman who managed to mortgage half of his assets to buy the electorate and one former president who has been convicted of graft and corruption, plunder, and making bad movies but still has 8 million people who believe in his capacity to end poverty! Without your devotion to the ideals of all things yellow, we would have been more afraid today! We are truly grateful.

Now, I suppose all the petty arguments regarding Aquino not accomplishing anything while he was a congressman and a senator is now moot! There is now no reason to cry over what could have been because your actions have already brought us the future. We will now look to you to hold your bet accountable. We pray that like us, you will rehash in your minds over and over again the mantras "Dito tayo sa matuwid na daan", "Kayo ang aking lakas" and "Hindi ako magnanakaw." because we hold this to be new realities and no longer futile daydreaming. We implore you to wish with us that Noy learns the vagaries of political will fast because there is so much to do and only 6 years to do it! We pray that he grows the balls to be decisive, not like his dilly-dallying prior declaring his intent to run for office. We hope he actually learns the intricacies of politics and governance, not just the guile to winning an election, but actually giving credence, justification, and validation to his constitutionally bestowed obligations, responsibilities, and mandate.

I do not wish to remind you that never in the history of the world has there been expectations as great as this (unless your name is Barack Obama) but I know I have to. Your campaign egregiously capitalized on that one calling - CLEAN GOVERNANCE - and in that your guy will be measured. He will be held against the most lofty of expectations. He promised to rid us of the things that ail us; he vowed to put the villains behind bars; we will put our trust in him. May his term serve as an example of how to succeed in office without compromising your ideals or giving in to the enumerable temptations that come with power, not another glaring testament to the harsh reality that come every election that only change we can ever expect are the methods by which politicians screw us and how the outcome remains the same - greater, deeper, more gripping poverty!

We will stand beside you, we the ones whose wishes were not heard this time around! We believed in the same things - the thirst for change, growth, clean politics, and more food on the table. But we placed our burdens on the shoulders of another man! Whether our now-snuffed-out choice was better, we will never know. For that reason, we have lost our prerogative to throw "I told you so's" and "This is in your hands" at you. And for that same reason, we will be vigilant. We will not rest! We will defend our rights and cry for the things that this government ought to provide for us. We will be aware and informed, more now than ever before. We will be staunch critics, but only because we want Noy to do better! We will pray harder that God keeps Noynoy's conscience clean at all times, and should he stumble and reach a crossroad where he will be forced to pick between a moral and a political choice, that his conscience will guide him. These are tumultuous times, none more than the 6 years that's coming! We wish us all luck!

There is nothing more to say. You know very well why we digress. Whether the power to galvanize the nation and the gift of a clean, spotless, near-blank track-record is enough to pull us forward remains a polarizing debate that will now finally be answered. Our only consolation, underrated as this may sound, is that your guy won over other, more dubious, personalities! If this were a pick between lesser evils, Noy certainly fits the bill! Whether that is enough, that is something we postpone for another time!

So here we stand; a new era, a new term, a new model of governance! May this yellow represent the sunrise, hope.. The start of something new! Not some other yellow we'd all rather not talk about!  

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