Again, thank you for the comments e-mailed to me or posted in this blog regarding 2010. I am just finishing my teaching until March of 2009. Then I will be on leave from teaching from April 2009 to May 2010. So from now to March of 2009, I am visiting schools, donating books and giving free lectures. I am organizing groups of people as possible campaign volunteers when I go outside Metro Manila. The response has been overwhelming. I have a big map of the Philippines, where I have pasted Post-It notes that contain the names of people I have talked to in the provinces and who have agreed to help me. The Post-It notes are now fluttering like so many flags when the wind blows into my living room.
By April, I would have a campaign headquarters in a busy part of Metro Manila. We will also set up headquarters in the regions. By that time, I would have chosen which national political party to join. I am deciding among three parties in the Opposition as possible parties I could join. These talks take a long time, but by April 2009, the dust should have settled.
Because if you join a big, national political party, your nationwide plans should run on parallel tracks with theirs. The scheduling alone should be a killer job.
So what we are doing now is to go to as many places as possible and talk to people, convincing them to join the bandwagon. We are also gathering names, e-mail addresses, and cellphones for a huge database. This database should reach 1 million by June of 2009.
I am being helped by so many people who have offered free web domains, web design, scholarships I could give away to poor students, donated books, gave computers, lent secretarial services, lent their homes or offices as possible headquarters, gave services, etc. I am going slow with accepting money, since this is the tricky part of any campaign.
One day at a time, one task a week, one project a month, one and a half years to go.
By April, I would have a campaign headquarters in a busy part of Metro Manila. We will also set up headquarters in the regions. By that time, I would have chosen which national political party to join. I am deciding among three parties in the Opposition as possible parties I could join. These talks take a long time, but by April 2009, the dust should have settled.
Because if you join a big, national political party, your nationwide plans should run on parallel tracks with theirs. The scheduling alone should be a killer job.
So what we are doing now is to go to as many places as possible and talk to people, convincing them to join the bandwagon. We are also gathering names, e-mail addresses, and cellphones for a huge database. This database should reach 1 million by June of 2009.
I am being helped by so many people who have offered free web domains, web design, scholarships I could give away to poor students, donated books, gave computers, lent secretarial services, lent their homes or offices as possible headquarters, gave services, etc. I am going slow with accepting money, since this is the tricky part of any campaign.
One day at a time, one task a week, one project a month, one and a half years to go.
Comments
I suppose you may consider it bad luck that one of your unknown but consistent supporters (me!!!) is also very critical, (read pakialamero) and fond of offering suggestions even if unsolicited. But never mind.
Understand that I commit to work hard to make you senator not because you are gay (and therefore we share the same rainbow connection-the lovers, the dreamers and me), but because I see you as one of the finest young men who can potentially alter the disastrous journey that this country is going through. And I have never failed in my assessment of people.
Having said that, I believe that at a certain point in your preliminary campaign you will reach a crossroad where you have to choose between WINNING, and ASSERTING THE IMAGE OF AN ALTERNATIVE CANDIDATE.
I know that Senator Trillanes was able to combine both, but he had the advantage of a high profile media mileage courtesy of a coup attempt which today still remains the finest campaign strategy ever done by a political neophyte.
Now, unless you have your own hostage drama, you cant afford to have both, please choose WINNING!!!!
Sticking to your image as an alternative candidate gets you some primetime coverage, and perhaps a few votes from the intellectual crowd, and the youth, but that is not the same as winning.
Focus on a strategy that FIRST, assures you of a Senate Seat, and SECOND, rides on the maverick trailwagon (though am still nervous about this Young Turk machinery, it doesnt sit well)
But if and when it will happen that you need to abandon the second, I as early as now you have made a decision.