Tingog.com

The priest who became a governor, Ed Panlilio is now battling the forces of status quo. Change is hard to exact in a culture so ingrained in putting self before country.

If Governor Ed Panlilio of Pampanga thought that the campaign was grueling, no doubt he is finding out that governing is the actual fight that he should have been worried about all along.

There is a great problem in the democracy of voting. It is the notion, and often reality, that the poer of the people ends at the vote.

Without the people to rally behind Panlilio against his daily fight with the establishment, the establishment itself has been able to regroup and has started its campaign from the day Panlilio took office. It never looked back.

If the voters truly want to see change, then they must follow through. The voting is only the beginning. To realize the preceding statement is to realize our own duty and our own power not only to dictate who holds office, but to defend the person who we put there. In this sense, to support our candidate is an ongoing task.

If Panlilio holds on, it is only a matter of time that this trend spreads to the grassroot level all across the country. The establishment, which is rooted in corruption, sees this as a possible beginning of the end.

The establishment is fighting for their livelihood, their way of living, and their life of profiting from corruption. This has been taken away from them. The situation for them is desperate. And it is the desperate that we should be worried about. The extent to which they will try to regain power and to revert to the status quo should not be underestimated.

This is why Panlilio, whether he knows it or not, must be steadfast. And this is why those who voted for him must now defend their choice as there are those, especially Lilia Pineda her husband and their allies, who are trying desperately to unseat Panlilio.

Let us clamor again, in support of Panlilio.