May 4, 2016

Dear Sen. Grace Poe,

Like you, I am a mother, albeit a parent who has brought up her children solo. I have been the single breadwinner in all these years and through painstaking hard work, I have learned to sacrifice my personal interests for the sake of my children. Now, by the grace of God, my youngest will graduate from college. And my children, like yours, continue to enjoy the fruits of peaceful progress and freedom.

In a few days, however, our country may fall into a precipice of change that perhaps may be very different from the one we were all hoping for. If the surveys are to be fully believed and whether their sampling methodology is credible or not, such surveys have managed to shape the minds of the people into expecting a Mayor Duterte presidency.  And God forbid what will happen if results do not believably come up with such expectations - violence, anarchy, a strongly divided nation?  Do we want destabilization efforts and coups again instead of continuing smoothly with the achievements of the current administration? We all know that no one and nothing is perfect, and that all the decades of corruption and being the sick man of Asia cannot be totally erased nor can the improvements to them trickle down to the frayed edges of society in a mere one presidential term of six (6) years.  Continuity with improvement is key and continuity likewise calls for good change such as that you have been espousing.

However, going back to the math of such surveys, we are beset by the reality of an eleven (11) point lead in the latest Pulse Asia survey by Mayor Duterte.  You and Sec. Mar Roxas are statistically tied. And the results have been trending significantly upward for Sec. Roxas and have shown a stable performance for you.

For the love of our country and for the love of our children, may I ask you to please consider setting aside your personal interests for now and close ranks with the group of Sec. Mar Roxas in order to provide a credible reversal to the momentum of a Duterte presidency?  You are still young, you have time to your advantage and a more seasoned and prepared Presidential material will definitely emerge in 2022 after your admirable stint in the Senate. Can you imagine what consequent following and support you will gain after such a monumentally humble sacrifice on your end?

I ask for your sacrifice not because I am a RoRo follower.  To be honest about it, I ask this on the basis of the trend of the surveys and the individual momentum of the candidates. Had Sec. Mar Roxas still languished at the bottom, I would have definitely written this letter to him instead. We need credible electoral results in order to fight the ominous winds of change. We need to call on our love of country AND love of our children to find a peaceful solution to this dangerous precipice we are edging nearer to.  May I therefore ask for this supreme sacrifice from you for the sake of our country and of our children’s future?

May I humbly request you to please seriously consider this petition.  Thank you very much.