We have a law here that requires all motor vehicle drivers and all candidates for public office to submit to a urine drug screen. In Oklahoma, only applicants for commercial driver's licenses need to pass this test. Over here, the test is a total farce. You show up whenever you want and nobody checks if you give your own urine. The chain of custody in handling the specimen is riddled with defects. In short, in an attempt to emulate a procedure that should adequately screen for drug users, stupidity rules.

The critical feature in this form of screening is in the randomness of the sampling. What we have is an entirely money-making bureaucratic hurdle that significantly adds to the inconvenience without accomplishing its stated task.

An estimate recently came out pegging the cost of each law passed to something like 200 million pesos, factoring the number of laws passed to the budget consumed by both legislative bodies. This is an example of of such a 200 million peso law and people continue to ask me why I tried to secure a seat in the senate.

This is GMA’s golden chance to do good to her country and leave a favorable lasting legacy. Now that she does not have to pander to anybody anymore, she is the only Filipino who can (just a partial list):

1. Definitely state that she will not extend her term of office by resorting to constitutional change because at the end of her term in 2010, she will have been the second-longest serving chief executive next to Marcos. She was elected to the Senate in 1992, she’s had more than her fair share of leading our nation, her husband almost died, life is too short, she should be eternally grateful.
2. Make Congress pass a bill that will abolish Pork Barrel. Legislators must stick to making laws and providing oversight. Public works should be the responsibility of the executive branch.
3. Make Congress pass an enabling law that will enforce the anti-Dynasty provision in the Constitution. She should provide an example and demonstrate her good faith by asking her 2 sons and her brother-in-law to immediately resign from their positions. That 119 families dominate this country is ridiculous and is clear evidence that this system is not healthy for growth and development.
4. Negotiate directly with the World Bank, IMF, ADB and other international banks for a 5 year deferment on interest payments in order to triple the budgets for health, education and infrastructure, recognizing that continuing down this path of borrowing money to keep up with interest payments is depriving our nation of the capacity to produce succeeding generations that will be able to effectively compete in a global economy. Implicit in this is the repeal of the Automatic Appropriations Law that handicaps our negotiating capability.
5. Automate the electoral process and join the world community in holding elections where the results are known within 24 hours.
6. Increase the taxes on tobacco products, SUV’s, gasoline and other products that harm people and nature.
7. Enforce the felony provisions on squatting that will disqualify violators from participating in the electoral process. This will not only emphasize the critical concept of property rights, it will also prevent traditional politicians from preying upon the poor and the dispossessed, from taking advantage of the vulnerable masses whose lives have remained mired in poverty and squalor resulting from the perverse preferential option practiced by trapos.
8. Call an immediate end to the all-out war on the NPA and seek the mediation-assistance of a Scandinavian country.
9. Mobilize a national research program that will harness solar energy. Lead a tree-planting campaign that will plant 50 million trees in 2 years.

Can’t deny the fact that we have a genius for getting things done when we want to. Fr. Ed Panlilio, erstwhile parish priest of Betis, Pampanga now the Governor of Pampanga province recounted in an interview how his opponents paid sums of money to people living in his hometown and in his bailiwicks so they would not vote. In exchange for the cash, registered voters voluntarily disenfranchised themselves by applying indelible ink on their index fingers on the eve of the elections.

In 2004, voter turnout in Pampanga was 75%. It was 61% for this election. In the end, despite all the malevolent machinations, Fr. Ed won by a little more than 1000 votes. It was close and we rejoice with the Kapampangans.

If only we could apply all these creative energies towards productive and honest labor. Instead we try our best to find means to get around immigration laws, licensing requirements, traffic rules, ethical business practices. We hurt our country whenever we avoid our civic duties. Part of the damage comes from the mentality that the poor who willingly sell their votes deserve their wretched lives. We no longer feel that it is our duty to be responsible for one another.

The struggle to retake our country will be long and difficult but it will be a meaningful one. We need to apply some of our genius on this struggle.

Pope Benedict XVI recently visited Brazil and clarified church positions on abortion and liberation theology. When John Paul II wanted to clamp down on what he considered a dangerous, Marxist-inspired movement in the church, he turned to a trusted aide: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now known as Pope Benedict XVI who once called liberation theology ''a fundamental threat to the faith of the church'' and a ''fusing of the Bible's view of history with Marxist dialectics” or declaring outright ''the theology of liberation is a singular heresy.''

In what is generally considered as a “softening” of the church’s position, no new warnings were issued and this can only be interpreted as a good sign. In the Philippines, over the past 25 years, as the Vatican fortified its conservative hierarchy, the socio- economic ills the movement focused upon have worsened. Now, more than ever, even conservative groups like Kapatiran include in their fundamental beliefs ''a preferential option for the poor'' because pretending that inhuman socio-economic realities do not exist has become an immoral act.

I personally find no problem in merging faith with works and I cannot agree with John Paul II’s observation that ''this conception of Christ as a political figure, a revolutionary, as the subversive of Nazareth, does not tally with the church's catechism'' because Jesus did preach an entirely novel revolutionary ideology that totally rattled the Pharisees of his day.

There was no way I could have appreciated present day realities in the Philippines from the US. And this is from somebody who had been previously exposed. The situation has gotten worse and we have to try new ideas and solutions. We cannot expect European and American observers to tell us what the most appropriate course of action is because they will not be able to fully understand the depth of our problems. We urgently need to solve our problems according to our conscience and best efforts.

92 days ago, I was totally unknown outside of my immediate family and close friends. Without spending a single cent on tv and radio ads I may just get a million votes, and in my heart, these are the votes that matter because none of these are “command votes”, none of these votes arose from political machinery, quasi-religious blocs, cash purchases, intimidation, fraud, misrepresentation. It will probably take close to 12 million votes to land a seat in the Senate and a million does not appear much but wasn’t it Fidel Castro who said that all he needed to take the entire Cuba was 70 men?

What I am saying is we were converting people at a rate of more than 10,000 each day, nothing to be ashamed about. Considering it felt like we were campaigning in the Soviet Union circa 1950’s at some places when supporters would confide that they could not be seen attending our rallies for fear of retribution, and not a few people would refuse to take our handbills because they were ordered by their religious superiors to toe the church line or face damnation, or be told by fearful government employees and timid school officials we were not welcome to address even small gatherings because of the pervasive fear of “electioneering” while the incumbent administration bets were campaigning with impunity all over the country. We are always proud to crow about our free press but this is far from reality. It is far from free. It is really very expensive. Wealthy traditional politicians routinely grace the front pages of the big newspapers with their carefully retouched mugs and get quoted with prepared material written by staff members.

No wonder we will never progress with this kind of an inefficient and corrupt system just as the lumbering Soviet bureaucracy sealed the fate of communism. What feeds this system is our choice to do nothing. It is from our choice to accept this scheme as our destiny and fate.

I have been asked what my plans are for the immediate future. This I know: I will not work towards any particular position. I thought that participating in the electoral exercise of 2007 was an effective way to render service to my country. I will find a worthy cause like a national smoking-cessation campaign, tree-planting or the eradication of tuberculosis in the Philippines. I am here to stay.