Congratulations to Senator Mar Roxas for making the heroic sacrifice of giving way for unity. We all have to make sacrifices for unity and the common good. It may be big or small but it is necessary to make sacrifices. We cannot have everything. Only in the next world will be able to have 100 percent happiness or all of what we want. In this world 30 percent happiness or 30 percent success would be great. We need to dialogue, give and take, and help each other to make the best for everybody. We have a wonderful country with excellent people. The only wish left is for us to have unity and with that we can tackle the world, poverty, corruption, and whatever troubles us and we can look to helping other nations and peoples.

They say that there is no candidate that loses an election in Philippines. They either win or were cheated.

Are we poor losers? A good sports program for the youth is where they learn how to lose and how to win and to accept that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose; however well prepared you are, and however hard you try. Elections have unwanted consequences. It has caused rifts in families and enmity among friends mainly because we take loss as a bad reflection on our persona. But somebody has to lose and it should not be taken as a reflection on our ability or integrity. If we take winning in a political contest as a prize and not an opportunity to serve the country then this is the expected result: Disunity. If taken as vying for the opportunity to serve, then losing is not a problem.

Election fever is on, nine months from elections. In informal surveys almost everybody is non committal. Recently a number say that will vote for Noynoy Aquino if he runs for President. The range of respondents runs from teachers and poor drivers to wealthy businessmen. We will have to see how this ground swell for Aquino pans out. Remember that whoever becomes President will not be perfect nor be an angel. He will have many defects. Provided the defects are not willful and he is willing to admit mistakes, he will be a success. After all we have had a number of less apt people starting from housewives to movie actors. Anything can happen in nine months. Newspapers say the present front runner is Sen. Villar. The next president will have a thankless job to which is added the disrespect that has become encrusted on the highest office of the land. If the next President can reduce corruption and is not be corrupt himself, we can have a prosperous nation. We can lick poverty in one term. That is easier said than done. It will need determination, a lot of humility and charisma to elicit the cooperation of the people, i.e., of everybody. We are in dire need of unity.

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