I WENT on my first protest outside the campus the day right after the midterm elections.

I was nervous but at the same time excited to finally go out to the streets and shout these calls written on placards. But in my several years of attending at an institution which molds its students to think critically, why have I decided to rally and join the mobilization that day?

Well, most of the calls showed dissent about the elections and voiced out claims that there was a manipulation on tabulating the results.

But why was I there?

To put it simply, I, just like the others who organized and joined the protest, was disappointed with the results. Am I blaming someone for this? Surely.

But definitely not the masses who do not have the time to research and get to know these candidates. Not the people who have to work under the scorching heat of the sun just to earn a day’s worth of pay.

Not those who received money in exchange for a vote, because how good is it to not worry what to eat and think about what work to do to for a couple of days.

We should not blame these people but instead make these situations the very reason why we have to educate, to talk to them and discuss what they could do to end being unjustly poor and victims of the state. But how lucky are we, how lucky am I to have been given access to education and access to information in order to know who to vote.

In the end, it’s not activists who save the nation, but it is the people. (By Ada Guerrero, Talisay City)