There I was watching the latest interview I found of presidential candidate Leodegario "Ka Leody" de Guzman and then boom! I realized something I never really thought of before. Me? Pro-socialism? OMG. ๐ฎ
It must have something to do with my parents. Haha. Good Lord. To belong in the kind of family we have is indeed something. ๐
First of all, our family is not rich at all. Maybe my mom's parents seemed like they had more money than the rest but they were most probably just middle class. My father's parents? I have no idea, but I know for a fact my late grandpa was a farmer.
So anyway I mentioned in my previous article that I didn't know who to choose as president yet. At first I was hands down a Leni supporter, especially since she has been doing a lot for our country as a vice president (VP). Isko would also be a good choice because he was able to transform Manila into a better city.
After watching the Jessica Soho Presidential Interviews wow, Ping did great too! He was able to answer hard questions well. I was also surprised with Manny because he knows how important caring for the environment is. โค As for BBM, well sorry but their family's past mistakes have not been forgotten as it is still negatively affecting many people today.
If I was to rank them after the interview it would be like this:
Leni
Isko
Ping
Manny
BBM
But after all the ruckus about Jessica Soho / GMA and then Boy Abunda / ABS-CBN not inviting one presidential candidate for interview I got curious. Why are they disregarding a presidential candidate? What is going on with this shocking and sudden discrimination? ๐ฎSince when has Philippine media been biased against a presidential candidate?
For me this is a first. I have never known other candidates to be ignored like this. Why isn't Ka Leody being given a chance to share his thoughts to the general public?
Something fishy is going on so I went and checked his answers to the Jessica Soho interview questions. He did his own live video because he wasn't invited. It wasn't as nice or pleasant to watch so I skipped some parts. Eventually I searched YouTube and out came the interviews of him back in 2019. Well hello there, I never knew he ran for senator too? Hmmm... ๐ค
I watched a few more interviews and even a debate with fellow senatorial candidate. From there suddenly something clicked.
No wonder I couldn't choose out of the five candidates. This is the guy I was looking for. Everything he was saying was making me agree and say yes. Whoa. I got sold to him as president on the same day Leni declined to be interviewed by a radio station. (Yes she did say there was a conflict of schedule later that night but it doesn't change anything. I already made my choice.)
For some reason I was happy, really happy that I have chosen Ka Leody as my president. You know that unexplainable feeling when you meet a person but you just hate them for no reason? Or how about the people who say they felt love at first sight? Well for me it is like that, an unexplainable thing made me happy. It's like I feel I finally belong to something.
It is the same thing I felt when I stepped inside my college university for the first time. I felt like I belonged even if I didn't really know much about the place. Even if it was one of the many schools that had the course I preferred, I chose to study there because of how it made me feel, because it had a library and a university store and wide open space, etc., etc.
(Some people may call it destiny but I dunno. Maybe. It just felt right so I was happy being there.)
And then late at night after checking on facts about Batangas, somehow I ended up searching about Ka Leody again. Why not when all I could see on Twitter and FB was Boy Abunda and his interviews trending plus BBM, etc., etc. My goodness. ๐
So I searched for something about my candidate instead. That one person mainstream media has been ignoring.
I didn't want to watch any 1 hr long interviews of each candidate. I much prefer to watch a non-monotonous video like Jessica Soho's interview style. Even if it was edited I actually enjoyed watching that even if it was more than 2 hours long. That's how you keep people glued to their screens. Haha.
Going back to my search... On one social media site, I saw there's a new interview of Ka Leody by a blogger/vlogger. Wow good job! Kudos to those people for giving him a platform to air his side!
And so despite the trending Boy Abunda and his interviews topic, I opted to watch something else instead.
Yes folks, this is it, let's see what he has to say. First few minutes of the interview and I was again agreeing to what he was saying. I'm like, whaaat? ๐ And then... Oh my... And then here's the kicker:
And then I heard the word socialism. Wait what? And then they mentioned socialism again. Oh dear lord, his platform is more on the socialist side? Huh??? ๐ฎ
I got shocked. I could not believe there is a label for agreeing to what someone is saying. What?!? My mind has been labeled by these two people in conversation? Are you for real? Socialism? ๐ฑ
But I didn't really know what it is exactly. ๐ All I know is socialism = Russia/Soviet Union or something. Oh no.
So I did a quick check online on what Socialism is and on Wikipedia it says there are many kinds of it. Okay... ๐ค I quickly checked on countries that are socialists and guess what, China and Venezuela are in the list. Huhu.
But wait there's more...
China is more of a communist as far as I know. Those two are different, as also explained in the interview. Socialism and Communism are two very different things but it seems it can be combined. Popular opinion online says Venezuela is also more communist than socialist. What now? ๐ค
It all seems like bad news but wait, I heard what Ka Leody was saying. You have to listen and watch the above linked video to know why I am rooting for Ka Leody. Listen listen listen. (Sorry for non-Filipino readers, it is not in English.)
At this point I am in too deep that I cannot vote for anyone else as president. I agree more with Ka Leody's statements than all five of them.
Only God knows who will win in the May elections and I am praying he will win. Against all odds Ka Leody should win. Of course he will not win IF people only go for the popular choices. That's what happened to the late Miriam Santiago. She did not get the votes because others think she would not win. Duh, how could she win if people didn't vote for her? ๐ All I can say is, nothing will change if we keep choosing the same thing.
Imagine if what this media-ignored labor leader is saying comes true? Wow. Seriously I would be happy if Ka Leody becomes president.
The question is, will the capitalists and the rich people listen to him?
Will they respect the people's decision when he wins as president? Will he be able to implement his programs and platforms just like he planned? Well, those are the questions for all the candidates (except the one about the rich people).
And look at this: I found out Norway, Sweden and Denmark are considered socialist countries. (Another way to look at it can be read here.) Those countries aren't third world/developing ones right? Hmmm seems like a good thing to me. ๐ค
I look at it this way: What is six years of his kind of socialism as opposed to decades of capitalism? Six years is short if you compare it to all those many years starting from the Marcos dictatorship to today. Why go parliamentary or federal when we can go the democratic socialism route instead?
For once, just this once I am rooting for this kind of change in the Philippines.
Would it mean China will eat us alive?
No I don't think so. As Ka Leody said, we will ally ourselves with the rest of the countries in ASEAN to be part of a group and not join the "war" between US and China. We do not need to be part of that. They keep involving us but no, we must be strong and stop getting involved as an individual country. And what he said about China is corroborated by other people as well. If the US doesn't "taunt" China then they wouldn't encroach on our waters in the first place. Eherm.
Aside from my choice as president, I am also looking for a VP. Oh and I will choose senatorial candidates who will champion the environment. It seems there are three of them. I will have to check on nine other candidates to see if they are all worth voting for.
We all need to do research on them all. It is our assignment and our exam will be the election day. Even though it seems too much of a hassle to do research on each candidate it will be for our country's good if we do so. If you do not check on the people who are running for office then you will just vote blindly on election day.
Voting for a president (and other people in various government positions) in the country is not a joke because the entire country's future is at stake. We cannot do hula hula (guessing game) like when we take an exam at school. Come on, we are adults now and we have responsibilities. We are not children anymore who do not know how to think for ourselves. We should be wiser now than before.
Vote for someone you can be proud of and can make our country better than before the Marcos era. Do your research from reputable sources and make that choice. Let us be brave and not just join the bandwagon. Be wise and look at the reasons why majority of people do not like one candidate. Find out why others are ignoring another candidate. There is a good reason and there are bad reasons too.
Lastly all I can say is, despite the socialism label, Ka Leody is still my president. All five of them just say the same thing. How can we have change if we always choose the same candidates? This is why it is time for me to vote for people like Ka Leody.
Oh you don't need to agree with me if you don't want to, I am fine with it.
Anyway I am still just getting used to such a label for my way of thinking. ๐ Oh my gosh. I really cannot believe it. ๐
Have you ever experienced something like this? Like you didn't know you were some kind of person until someone mentioned the word for it? ๐ Oh such a shocking revelation indeed. ๐
XOXO,
P. S. The official voting ballot has been printed and released to the public. "Surprisingly" it shows more than six presidential candidates. Oh my... So many people ignored by the media. ๐
(Edit: Apparently his political stand is called democratic socialism. ๐)
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And here is one individual who has been granted wisdom and discernment! Bravo! May others follow your lead...