The future of our country and the next generation of Filipinos are at great peril. With undermined democracy, direct attacks on human rights and civil liberties, and servility to China, the present regime has caused more damage to our national fabric second to dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

In a recent piece, I bluntly postulated how baneful it is to our national sovereignty if we have a surrogate Duterte presidency in the next six-year term of national leadership. Indeed, there is so much at stake in our national life for the 2022 national elections. It will be the most crucial electoral exercise in our modern history. It would go down as another history-defining moment for us, a turning point on which much of our future depends.

This will be again the time that our fragile democracy will be tested. And if it will speak for the Filipinos, it will elect pro-Filipino leaders. That’s why all registered voters, especially the youth, must vote to defend this democratic lifeline for the future. We need to restore the government and return it to the people.

We are in the midst of a deep crisis and there is no instant solution to it. But we need a leader who does more on working than on talking (or lying). We need to be courageous to choose that kind of leader over politicians who — aside from having known family names or huge funds to mount their campaigns, or are heir-designate to the tongue-wagging, Filipino-mocking, woman-bashing, and killing-machine president — have nothing else to show but represent a political dynasty and extend it till kingdom come. Enough of the Davao mafia and their China backers. So too of politicians who think little of the ordinary Filipinos, and whose agenda is to hold power and whose main loyalty is to their political ambitions and interests.

We need a leader who can inspire actions and mobilize the vast talents and intelligence of our people now that we are in the throes of a pandemic. One who will think of our farmers and fishermen and improve their yields and income for sustainability and our food sufficiency, rather than one who would always open the market gates to Chinese goods. One who would soundly manage the public funds and who would not, as a default solution, tax the people, increase members’ premium, and tap lending institutions, creating a government that acquires more debts than wealth.

We need a leader who can put to use the science and inventions of our scientists; who can rise above criticisms and allow media organizations and independent press to fulfill their mandate; who can create institutional jobs rather than deprive some sectors of their jobs; who will actually go after corrupt officials and real drug lords instead of killing suspected users and innocent bystanders or red-tagging activists; and who will resolutely address government corruption and not recycle corrupt appointees.

A leader who will always maintain friendly relations among nations of the world but will remain firm in the aspects of national interest and Philippine territorial integrity. A leader who would act, think, and speak as one who is leading an entire nation, and not one who acts like a petty emperor for his allies and their small fiefdom in the South.

The invasion of China of what is ours in the West Philippine Sea and the compromising position and statements of Mr. Duterte and his coterie of enthusiastic interpreters have wide and far-reaching effects on our national territory and marine resources, including the livelihood of our fishermen, and the dignity of Filipinos in the face of foreign abuse and bullying. But what’s hurting us even more is having a president who would rather feed us to the greedy dragon than to defend us from it.

A president must always be pro-Filipino, whatever is at stake, whoever is involved, whichever is affected, against foreign powers. This President is unabashedly pro-China, to the extent that he would unashamedly mock the Filipino voters as stupid just to defend China. Realpolitik, as long as within the bounds of the Constitution, has a place in the sphere of decision- and policy-making, but never treason and subservience to abusive, foreign powers.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will not subside any sooner even with the coming of various vaccines because, as shown by our neighboring countries, the pandemic is as virulent a health problem only as how the government would respond to it. More lives can be saved only if this regime is systematic and dedicated to finding solutions than hunting perceived political enemies.

The combined effects of the pandemic and other domestic and foreign issues are reaching far into the future. But the challenge for us is now. We have to decide as early as now to chart our destiny as a nation and deliver it in 2022 against China-backed candidates and China’s possible manipulation of our electoral process through lies, propaganda, and cyber-hacking.

Trusting Duterte’s lies and propaganda during and after the 2016 elections has proven to be costly, that to trust him and his candidates again is already selling the future of our children to the devil. We must be courageous enough not to repeat the mistake many of us committed in 2016, when instead of choosing a leader who will harness our strength as a people, we instead looked for a false messiah who will save us. Despising the elitist political system that bred trapos, the people in 2016 unwittingly voted for the most abhorrent product of that same system, the political warlord.

There is no messiah who will set this country right for us. For 2,000 years, the Jews wandered the world only waiting for that moment when their messiah would come and deliver them from their historical persecution as a people throughout the world. For almost 2,000 that messiah still did not come. Finally, near the end of those 2,000 years, many of them realized that they have had enough of waiting, and decided to chart their own destiny as a people, but this time as a nation. Thus, was born the State of Israel.

For once, Filipinos should trust themselves and their capacity to solve the nation’s problems by choosing a leader who trusts in that capacity and who will show them how to use it. In 2016, people thought they were voting for a messiah. In 2022, they should vote for the exact opposite. They should not vote for someone who will promise once again that he can deliver the Filipinos from evil in six months, but for one who will make no such fundamentally absurd and deceitful promises.

Except for one: the promise to always believe in the capacity of the Filipinos to be their own savior. – Rappler.com

Senator Leila de Lima, a fierce Duterte critic, has been detained in a facility at the Philippine National Police headquarters for several years over what she calls trumped-up drug charges.