Afraid of having another Duterte at the helm of the government, some people are saying that former vice president and current Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo is the only person who can give Vice President Sara Duterte a serious challenge, and suggested she throw her hat into the presidential derby in 2028.
However, Robredo said she would rather run again for a local position.
She also added that Filipinos shouldn’t succumb to the ‘savior mentality’.
‘Ako sa tingin ko dapat, alisin ‘yung mentality na may isang savior. Dahil wala namang ganyan. Wala namang monopoly ng kakayahan,’ she said in an interview a few days ago.
Yes, Filipinos all are desperate to get out of this situation we are in. By this ‘situation’ we mean entrenched corruption, incompetent governance, patronage politics, lack of accountability when it comes to public funds, and a seemingly endless cycle of poverty that results from the earlier mentioned problems, among others.
And it would seem we all just expect one person to show up, take the top position in government and, with a wave of the hand, make all these problems go away.
She’s right. It’s not actually just up to one person to change how things are in this country. It’s up to all of us, especially the voters.
Only we can save ourselves from putting inept people into positions of power where public funds are used for personal gain instead, only we can take down political dynasties that turn public service into a family business, only we can save ourselves from this cycle of poverty where the poor get even poorer with each generation.
We can’t expect change to come quickly either. With the way corruption has become so entrenched in our everyday lives, with the way some political families have become untouchable or unquestionable, with the way the electorate has become too dependent on government dole-outs or how they expect candidates to be able to buy their votes, we can’t expect attitudes to change overnight.
Well, yes, there is actually a savior who will get us out of this difficult situation, but that savior is in each one of us.