THE SILENT MAJORITY

The SILENT MAJORITY isn't you and it isn't me. 

The silent majority are the people that make up the lower 60% of our population in terms of education, property and connections.

They are the janitors and clerks that get sacked for one mistake.

They are the taxi drivers that pay P10 at the airport gate just to enter and get passengers.

They are the farmers that plant and till for months only to receive a fraction of the amount we buy our rice for. 

They are the ones who have to pay someone just to get a firetruck to save their burning home, or before they can start a business.

They are the ones who have no other choice but to use public transportation to go places, at the mercy, every day, of pickpockets and pollution and road accidents.

They are the ones living on tapped electricity, dirty water and questionable food.

The silent majority are those who get turned away by private hospitals for not having health cards or the required deposit; and also the ones turned away by government hospitals because there just isn't any more room. 

They are the ones who wait in line for hours at a public hospital to complete a round of nebulization for their child.  

They are the ones who never get to know that what killed their loved one was preventable... Or, that it was actually a very rare disease. They do not understand what a doctor says, anyway.  They have no concept of second opinion.

The silent majority are those whose wakes feature gambling people because it helps finance the wake and burial.

They're the ones who do not get time off to grieve and heal.

The silent majority won't consider a Starbucks frappe a treat, but rather a scandalous way to spend P200. 

They may never even get to hold P30,000 ever while only thinking of how to spend it to make themselves happy. 

They may be people who never pay income tax because they never earn P100,000 in a year. 

They may dream of traveling and going abroad, but they will not plan for it. 

They are the Mangyan women who have to marry early lest they be considered too old by their tribe, or the Maguindanaoan who refuse to carry on with weaving, or the Ifugao men who leave their fields to seek better paying pursuits.

The silent majority are the corrupt in a hundred small ways... From taking home ballpens from work or stealing from donated goods. 

They are the ones without life purpose loitering our streets because they neither go to school nor have jobs to keep them busy. If ever employed, they live a hand to mouth existence, performing the most menial of tasks all their lives. They do not get to retire because not working for a day also means no food to eat. 

They are our brothers and sisters who have been living in war-torn areas, unsure when a stray bullet will snuff the blood out of a child. They're our fellowmen who get cat called, abused and denied. They're the ones who grow exposed to or entrenched in crime.

They are the ones who have to stop schooling at Grade 4, or the ones who graduate high school without ever mastering subject-verb agreement. Political correctness isn't one of their priorities. And they may never know they had special needs.

They try to be noisy, they do. But nobody listens to this silent majority. What they say, we often dismiss. And when they do force attention from us, acting like a misbehaving child, they are not silent indeed. However, just hearing the noise without responding to the need is not being listened to, and in this way, makes them silent still.

But no matter how hard life is, the silent majority prevails and perseveres. 

Now, out of this quagmire and darkness, hope has been awakened. The majority feels emboldened enough to gamble on the hope.  After all, they have nothing to lose but everything to  gain. 

I repeat, the silent majority isn't you or me. But they are the people we should advocate for. In lifting them up, we create more room for progress and growth and harmony in the country. In lifting them up, we also raise ourselves up. 

Let us think about the silent majority when casting our vote today, May 9. Let's give a voice to their dreams and plans. What's more, being blessed the way we are, let us put a stop to their lives, welfare and future being threatened the minute they are born. 

Let us heal our Motherland...