While Governor Gwen works 12 to 18 hours a day combating COVID-19 and Odette, her opponents merely criticize all her moves. While Mayor Mike spends sleepless nights planning, leading, organizing, coordinating rehabilitation and vaccination activities, his critics merely bash all his moves. Criticizing is the easiest thing to do. But to be in charge and be expected to do all things for all people all the time, and still be blamed, is the most painful thing to handle.
That is the culture of the people in this part of the world, or perhaps in all parts. Helping people during and after a disaster is a formidable task. We have seen the governor even immediately after the landfall of Odette. She braved all the rains and the winds, she risked her life riding “habal-habal” in mountain trails where the highways were impenetrable. She traveled bravely to the south, which was hardest hit. She was out in the fields checking after people and looking at the damage and the devastations herself. She cried looking at the people without food, water, and fuel, with their homes totally wrecked. She acted immediately and deployed help without delay. Where were her opponents and critics, all males? Most probably safely hiding in their comfort zones.
Consider the sacrifices of Mayor Mike Rama. People who are the beneficiaries of all his plans, decisions, and actions are being fed fake news and distorted information by his opponents and detractors. Mike goes out to the remotest barangays both in the north and in the south districts, in the downtown and uptown, in the urban center and in the mountain villages. He wakes up at dawn and arrives home to his wife and son past midnight. Still he is being criticized for the debris and the garbage, the lack of water and electricity and he is made responsible even for fortuitous events and force majeure. His critics are unrelenting and unforgiving, bashing him with very cruel words while they enjoy the comforts of their mansions.
Even the president, in fairness to him, while we do not like many of his styles and his language, did his job in rushing to Siargao, Surigao, Dinagat, Bohol, Leyte, Cebu, Negros, and Palawan. No matter what we say about his unorthodox ways, we should give credit where credit is due. The president was very visible and mobile and his presence gave hope to beleaguered people. The presence of a leader, whether president, governor or mayor, always creates a feeling of being cared for. That is what I saw in President Duterte, Governor Gwen, Mayor Mike Rama, Bohol Governor Art Yap, Dinagat Governor Kaka Bag-ao, and Cagayan de Oro Mayor Oca Moreno.
To the bashers, I share US President Theodore Roosevelt's most acclaimed speech on April 3, 1010: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
To my own bashers too, I thank you for criticizing my opinions. That is the best evidence that you keep on reading my columns. I think that by repeatedly reading my write-ups, the most probable suspicion is that, whenever you criticize, you are merely envious or resentful. To each one I ask: why don't you write your own column yourself? And experience also being bashed.