“Moving on is a choice”
This rhetoric may be an overused phrase but true to its being cliched it can aptly apply to almost anyone and practically to everything – be it in love or in politics. Also, the act of moving on is an oxymoron – an easy thing to say but very difficult to do.
On a personal note, even though I fell in love and waited for more than three years for someone I can be with only when hell freezes over, I stayed to be in love. Even though such acts are often called as being a hopeless romantic or to some extent, martyrdom, I still made the bitter-sweet decision of continuing to love despite non-reciprocation.
I have had many experiences of rejections and false hopes that lead me into actually closing my eyes from the adverse and sad reality. In fact, at one point I sticked to the thought that so long as the person I love is not yet married with another, hopes of a romantic relationship with him is still something to cling on.
Sometimes if not most of the time we are blinded by subjective emotion from the objective truth. Love must be mutual and not a one-way traffic relationship. Instead of blaming people from the past for our misery, acceptance and being critical to one’s self is the best way to move on and become a better person even though it could be an incredibly painful process.
This process could be a thought which is either dismissed or plainly beyond the comprehension by no less than the President of the country resulting to his incompetent and non-directional leadership.
Based on what the President has been saying for four years since he assumed the most powerful post in the government, it appears that our country is trapped in the horrors of the past administration and his leadership has been so occupied into fixing the errors of his predecessor that he can no longer do anything good at all for the country.
The midterm period for the President has passed but all his blame-game never ceased. From all of his State of the Nation Addresses to interviews regarding corruption. And even outside the country, blaming others seem to be an itch the President cannot resist. During his recent Europe and US tour, President Noynoy Aquino must not have any achievements at all in his administration that all he is able to take pride to the international community is babbling about his struggle of rectifying the almost irreversible effects of former President and now under hospital arrest, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s misdeeds. While not exempting the lady tyrant for her own atrocities during her 10-year presidency, doing nothing but to point fingers is one thing most annoying with the Aquino administration.
But it is still worth noting that ‘moving on’ is not the same as the moving on proposed by the Marcoses in an attempt to erase the gross human rights violations and plunder to the country from the annals of history. Accountability should remain, but a sitting President should never use it as a cloak to hide incompetence.
But the blaming fiasco is not an exclusive game of President Aquino to Arroyo. It can be remembered that after the onslaught of super typoon Yolanda at the central region of the country, his icompetence and criminal negligence exposed, the good President resorted to simply blame the disaster-paralyzed local government of Tacloban for the poor disaster response. Also, on the stalled peace negotiations between the Government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) the President pointed to the other party despite cases of the Government not honoring its prior commitments and accords it entered into through the peace talks. This even made the President gain the title ‘Boy Sisi’ as just like any other romantic or diplomatic relationships, every moment wasted staring back keeps us from moving forward.
The art of moving on can be related to the twists and turns of love and politics of the country under President Aquino. During his 2010 presidential bid, he made a lot of promises as if a suitor attempting to woo a tired and almost hopeless person.
Years after he was catapulted into power by a hype created through his mother’s death, the promises of the yellow man until now remained as such. He vowed to end corruption but until now public coffers are exploited through different forms of pork barrel even devising his own, the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP); the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill which is yet to be passed in the Lower House which is actually dominated by Aquino allies; addressing poverty which is a problem that rages on an on; ending of state-sponsored Human Rights Violations (HRVs) which obviously continues and is even seen by rights group to outnumber the HRVs of the past presidency.
After four years of a rather turbulent relationship with the President we are now able to prove more than ever that he betrayed us, we were not only neglected but also battered with all his anti-people policies.
Worst, the man who swore all the stars in heaven pulled in dark clouds making our skies and horizon utterly bleak. Given this tragic and uninspiring love story it is then our noble task as people tied to this yellow-suited suitor to do our part in this miserable relationship. The answer to the question of letting go and moving on amid the unhealthy relationship lies up on whether to continue or instantly end the affair.
We must decide objectively on the following:
- How can we go on if our partner continues to live with the ghosts of the past?
- How can we continue if our partner remains insensitive on how we think and feel?
- How can we still love if our partner cant make us feel the same?
- Will we fight for the relationship when issues remain unsolved and unanswered?
- Will we still trust our partner if betrayal of the trust we gave seems to be a habit?
Well, as what Congressman Egay Erice claimed when he was defending his move to ammend the Constitution to give way to a second term for President Aquino, “President Aquino is married to the country,” and if we are to subscribe to the notion of this delusional solon, we are then in dire need for a divorce. But the decision is still up to us because indeed, ‘moving on is a choice.’
