HOW CAN I GO AWAY?

It is exactly a month today since the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) provincial board of canvassers in North Cotabato said I lost in the election for Governor largely because of the results of the elections in Carmen, Pikit, Kabacan and Banisilan.

Of course, I have questioned the results from Carmen and Pikit where the turn-out was nearly 100% and where I received ZERO in many barangays.

In the whole town of Carmen, for example, I got only 610

votes out of almost 26,000 who “voted.”

I will be lying if I will say that the results did not affect me emotionally.

I feel bad not only because I did not win the Governorship but mainly because of the people who look up to me as their hope for a scholarship, for a livelihood program, for good roads, for better prices for their rubber and copra and most of all to address their direst problems.

Honestly, the reason why I have accepted all these trips now offered by boxing promoters – Okinawa, Japan; Johannesburg, South Africa and soon Dubai – was because I wanted to heal a wounded heart.

But yesterday, what I was really afraid of happened.

Students and parents, including a well-meaning journalist John Unson of the Philippine Daily Star, exasperated and frustrated at the seeming inability of the provincial and municipal leaders to address the problem affecting the University of Southern Mindanao, started sending me messages seeking help.

The pleas were encapsulated in one message sent by Lani Diasnes Reyes Tolentino who said: “Governor Pinol… ikaw na lang ang pag asa namin… please umuwi na kayo sa pilipinas… we need your help. God Bless… ”

How can I turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to this plea?

How can I go away?

(Photo caption: Jeff de Guzman and I in a cafe in the East Gate Shopping Mall in Johannesburg, South Africa.)

Source: Manny Piñol