I Live in the City of Auda

Have you ever thought of living in the City of Auda? The residents of this city boldly believe everything is possible. In fact, in recent times, one of the more famous citizens was an African American man. This man had the temerity to believe that he could be the forebearer of change and representative of the possibilities of hope in his country. From almost out of nowhere, this man’s message of hope and change captivated his country and propelled him to becoming the leader and symbol of infinite possibilities. Barack Obama truly showed the world that great things happen if people believe, hope, and contribute to making change become reality.

But he was not the first nor will he be the last. Even among our own people, we have Auda Citizens living amongst us. I want to cite how Manny Paquiao defined the word audacity and shocked the boxing world, showing that a small Filipino can confidently and brashly rewrite boxing history and dominate seven titles and along the way become a living legend and the best pound for pound fighter the boxing world has ever seen.

But I also want to humbly present Efren Penaflorida, who may not have the audacity to believe he could be the hero our country and the world needed to see, but he inspired and moved people to become audacious about the possibilities of large positive change arising from small sincere action.

AUDACITY. It is a big word. It is commonly defined as a supreme boldness to the point of disregarding normal restraint. To me, it means the boldness to dream, to ask, “Why Not?” and to move into action with the vision of disputing the often asked questions of “Why can’t I?”

There is going to be unprecedented presidential debate happening today in Cebu. For the first time, three of our City’s major business chambers have come together to host the debate. There will be six great men who will be quizzed and asked to explain, what is the vision that they are offering in exchange for the chance to become leader of our country. It is a chance for the business community to listen, discern and get to know, who they feel would be able to bring about positive change not only in Cebu, but to our country.

This is of utmost importance. The right selection of not only national leaders but also local ones will be the cornerstone of our country’s progression to the dream that we want to see. We have to discern properly. We have to be able to look beyond empty slogans and promises and see what is important. We have to be able to see the character of these men as well as the principles that they abide by. We also have to look at what motivates these leaders to aspire for the highest position of our country.

But after all is said and done, I also would like to remind others that irregardless of whomever will be chosen and elected, it will be all for naught, if we the people do not believe and participate in the task of nation building.

Real transformational change will not occur if we are not willing to be active agents of it. We cannot expect greatness for our nation if we are not willing to demand it of ourselves. If we truly want our country to be great, we need to be able to demand greatness from our people. It is also important that we bring back responsibility in government, and instill the sense of responsibility back to our people.

I believe this can happen. The country that I dream about, and my children will grow up and live in is slowly happening. But we have to be willing to be part of this process. We can longer stand back and individually prosper, while our country wallows. We have to be willing to commit to whomever we have chosen that we will hold them to their promises, that we will expect them to be responsible and most importantly , we will be there to contribute to make it happen.

I have filed my residency in the City of Auda. I hope you will too. For we definitely need a certain amount of audacity to believe that we will soon be the great nation and people that we always believe we can become.