This morning, I woke up very early for two important things—to run and to encourage others to run. And while endorphins are rushing throughout my whole body, I was happily distributing our flyers and registration sheets for the fun run we will be having this June 3 (on which I encourage you, dear reader, to join J). This run, entitled, ‘Run for Hope’, is organized by the Liga ng mga Barangay-Taytay Chapter, where I am a volunteer staff, the Mabuting Taytayeno Movement, a local group I co-founded and many other people’s organization and NGOs within the municipality.
The very concept of the run is to be able to sustain our “Box of Hope Project” (BHP) that our group has been doing for the past three years. The BHP aims to give hope to the less privilege students in elementary public schools by providing them with school supplies that they need for school. To encourage community participation, we ask concerned individuals to donate even a single pencil, notebook, paper or whatever school supply they could give, together with a message of hope to the would-be-recipient of their donation. All these are placed in a recycled shoebox and are distributed to the students at the beginning of the school year.
As I was completing my laps, I passed by a cluster of people probably at the age of 60s and above. I stopped and for the nth time, discussed the details of the run to persuade them to join the cause. Then a man, who seems to be the eldest among the group, asked me who the organizers are. As part of my spiel, I mentioned our group and the Liga ng mga Barangay, and upon hearing the word ‘barangay’ he waved his hand saying, ‘Ay barangay, di ako sasali dyan. Wala ng matino sa gobyerno ngayon. Dati maayos pa ang mga namumuno, ngayon wala na’.
That was such an unexpected response, but I manage to say, ‘Sir, I don’t think that you’re argument is right. There are still a lot of good people in the government and we can’t just generalize like that.’ He then argued, ‘Maniningil kayo, e kukunin lang yan ng barangay.’
On that point, I felt that I am on for a debate. I responded, ‘Sir, to assure you of the transparency of the project, we will be posting financial reports after the event. At kaya din po sumama kaming mga organizations sa pag-organize, e para ma-ensure na may patutunguhan ang pera. We even invite you to join us on the actual date of the distribution of the school supplies.’
Sure of his conviction he said, ‘Dapat yung grupo nyo na lang ang nag-organize, di nyo na sinama ang barangay’. I then argued that it is very important that people engage themselves in the government and that the civic society should be working hand in hand with their LGUs to make sure that their government are accountable and transparent.
As if not hearing my response, he said, ‘Wala na, wala ng pag-asa ang gobyerno na yan’. Now understanding how cynical he is, I tried ending the conversation by saying, ‘May pag-asa pa po. We are conducting this run for hope to show the people that there’s still a place to hope-- that through working together with the government, we could change the course of our politics. Kung di po natin kayang paniwalaan yun, e wala po talagang mababago.'
He just shook his head, signifying either his disagreement to what I said or it may be a sign that he realized he was wrong. I am still hoping that it was the latter.
I find this conversation very alarming-- imagine how many of our people think like that? How many of us are becoming cynical that change is still possible? If a great number of us do, then our country is really doomed.
I always believe that for our country to move forward, it should not be the effort of the government alone. Instead, we should be rowing our paddles together, duly synchronized with the government. If we have trust issues with our officials, then the more there is a need for us to talk to them, to engage our selves with them and to influence them to be good.
It's just a few weeks before our run and I am still hoping that more people would be supporting our cause-- that more hopeful people would be able to provide hope to those who need it badly.Cynics may argue, but hey, we're proving them wrong.
