Duterte, FAH & FVR: 71, 77 & 88. Not Too Old To Change!

MANILA: Lea Salonga has spoken; Agot Isidro has spoken; and here is FVR speaking still. Ms Lea tells us to unite behind the man, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, new President of the Philippines. Ms Agot tells us to unite againstthe man. And in-between, here is FVR continuing to say something like, "Man, you've got to change!"

Lea Salonga is hard to resist when she speaks because she is an international star. Now, somebody calling herself Diane Abne (not Abno) has just come out with "Lea Salonga's Meaningful Message To Filipinos: Unite Behind Duterte" (no date given, pinoyspeak.info). Reading her piece, I see that Ms Diane is neither here nor there. She writes ambiguously to hide the fact that what Lea had written was more than a month ago yet, before Agot Isidro spoke, before FVR. Ms Diane argues poorly, and writes poorly too. So I will dismiss her outright, right here and now.

Lea Salonga's real message in her actual post, her last paragraph is this (if you want to read the original Facebook post of Lea, click this link: "For some strange reason."):

This is on all of us. We're all in this together. It's pointless to stand on one side and place all the blame on someone that isn't us. WE all did this. All of us. So it's going to take all of us to fix it.

Yes, Ms Lea, that's why we are all speaking and in so doing, doing something about it. If WE did all this, we have to find out first what WE did wrong before we can fix it, right?

And of course, we have to begin with the leader. Because this leader has been leading us in the wrong directions! All sorts of directions. This new President is dead wrong, according to the old President. If we are to unite behind him, we have to agree with him first. And yes, he has to be agreeable first of all!

The original of the image above that I have changed (posterized) is from the story of Pia Ranada ("Duterte stuck in '20th century thinking' – FVR," Rappler, rappler.com). Ms Pia's teaser is this: "The 88-year old former President also tells the 71-year-old Duterte that he's young enough to change his ways." To quote from Ms Pia:

At age 71, [Duterte's] still young enough. Me at 88, I'm (still) changing every day, learning from my grandchildren who are millennials in terms of my attitude to life," said Ramos, who Duterte is known to admire, even mentioning him first in his inaugural address as the man who convinced him to seek the presidency.

Doesn't Mr Duterte want to be great? We can learn from the great in history. When he was 71, in 1946, preparing for war that no one foresaw, Winston Churchill said after riding on the Canadian ship that brought him to North America (winstonchurchill.org):

Yesterday I was on the bridge, watching the mountainous waves, and this ship – which is no pup – cutting through them and mocking their anger. I asked myself, why is it that the ship beats the waves, when they are so many and the ship is one? The reason is that the ship has a purpose, and the waves have none. They just flop around, innumerable, tireless, but ineffective. The ship with the purpose takes us where we want to go. Let us therefore have purpose, both in our national and Imperial policy, and in our private lives. Thus the future will be fruitful for each and for all, and the reward of the warriors will not be unworthy of the deeds they have done.

Mr Duterte is a warrior, but he seems to have no purpose, only to flop around like the waves for innumerable, tireless and ineffective times. We all have to have purpose in our private lives, but especially in our public lives.

Ms Pia also wrote:

The former president dismissed sentiments that the public should not expect Duterte to change his brash ways of handling criticism because of his old age. He even pointed to himself as proof that old age is not an excuse to reject change.

And yes, FVR said that in going back to American historical atrocities in the Philippines, Mr Duterte is engaged in "20th-century thinking." Rip Van Winkle-like, Mr Duterte has been sleeping in the last hundred years. Wake up, Mr Duterte! Like FVR says, "Kaya natin 'to!" We can do it!

I'm 6 years older than Mr Duterte; I had been a sinful man myself by commission and omission, but I have changed beginning more than 20 years ago after friends brought me and my wife Amparo Medina Reynoso to a Bukás Loób sa Díyos Marriage Encounter in January 1991. If you practice your faith, if you believe, you can change yourself. Just don't ask God to change you – this is a DIY job, do it yourself!

I turned 77 just last month. I have changed many times and much since high school. I am an Ilocano and I write much better than a native in American English. Like, I taught myself writing and now I have the unchallenged claim: "Frank H, world's most highly original, creative writer online" (see my collector blog A Magazine Called Love, blogspot.co.id). Like, I taught myself desktop publishing and now I have desktopped 12 books, 10 published, 7 abroad. (Challenge me and I will produce your autobiography in 100 days, a one-man job; frankahilario@gmail.com.) Like, I'm using twin monitors right now to write this, one for my notes and the Internet, my Lenovo ThinkPad Flex2 with a screen of 14", and one for this essay, a ViewSonic 22" LED monitor that I also taught myself how to use. And yes, I taught myself to use Microsoft Windows 10 and Word 2013. And yes, I recently learned on my own to posterize photographs. And I am the first and so far the only awardee of the title "Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing" given by the University of the Philippines Los Baños Alumni Association in 2011. I know I'm still learning, and I thank God I can and do. Where there is a will, there is a win.

What do you say I can notdo? There's nothing you cannot do if you think you can.

Before all that, when I was in high school, with no writer in the family or among any relatives, I didn't know I had the innate talent for writing, but I was brave enough to take part in the search for the Tagalog Editor for our high school newsletter at the Rizal Junior College (HS Dept), and I won! I was the first Tagalog Editor who was an Ilocano. How do I explain that? I had been reading voraciously Liwaywayand Kislap Graphic. I knew I was a full-blooded Ilocano, so I said to myself something like this:

So my talent lies in writing. So I'm going to teach myself and be the best.

Note: I did notsay "I'm going to... be the best me as a writer." I told myself I'm going to be the best. Period. And here I am.

So, my personal advice to Mr Duterte is this: "Change your way of thinking first." Don't tell me you're too lazy to change your way of thinking. Mr Duterte, many, many more than 16 million Filipinos want you to:

Be the best President you can be!

Yes Sir! Yes Ms Lea. Yes Ms Diane. The public has the right to expect the President to change his ways, to stop his cursing and control his temper and, yes, to change his identity.

Never mind me, but let Mr Duterte learn from the great minds. Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right." And Albert Einstein said, "The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking."

This Philippine burnout, unlike the Samsung Note 7 burnout, is not a leadership problem; rather, it's a leader problem. The leader comes first.

You can if you will. If you will not, you are a weakling hidden in your bravado or bluster. I repeat myself: "Where there is a will, there is a win." Now, the question is:

Mr Rodrigo Roa Duterte, President of the Philippines, do you have the will to change your way of thinking? 

13 October 2016. Essay word count, excluding this line: 1417