GREETINGS to BARP on her 20th anniversary!
***
When Lydia indicated her desire to run for an elective position during the national elections last May, 2019, there were mixed reactions from relatives, friends and neighbors. Her town in one of the Ilocos province was not hers by birth but by the marital process. She could not even find a political party because they were already filled up by dynastic incumbents who had been in power administration after administration. She looked like a thorough neophyte upstart. But she took these things in good stride. When no political major party would accommodate her, she filed her candidacy as independent. That put the incumbents at ease.
Hither to no woman candidate had tried such a move and won. She would not win, why worry? As a kind gesture, they even advised her not to waste her money for campaign. But she did not listen. She had no money anyhow she thoughts.
To make the story short, Lydia stuck to her decision to run despite the odds and won. And she did not just win. She missed the first place among nine or so to win and so lost only by a freak of fortune to the first placer, who was a friend anyway who followed her way of campaigning. Their strategy proved to be something new in the locality. At least, that was what she though was why she won.
What was this strategy? It was something that lack of money led the two of them to use. For lack of finance, they made themselves the campaign materials. They went around with close supporters and listened to people’s concerns and answered them in warm sincere attention that could not be done by non-living flyers and tarpaulins as well as deft and deafening megaphones afforded by candidates of adequate means. But there was much that am sure of in the case of Lydia.
Long before the campaign, she had already campaigned and she did that not knowing that that would be her vehicle to victory. That would be her magic wand to attract peoples’ trust and confidence and therefore agreement to grant her request in return. “That’s why I am here to ask your help me now so that I can help you in your needs later,” she would say, pointing to how she had helped so many others before. Even as still a student herself, she would try to give aid to fellow students and do it on time. She followed that habit even after graduation and as a married person in her barangay as a social functionary.
This is the Lydia who in now councilor in her town-by-choice in Ilocos Sur. It is her second nature to help people even at the cost of deprivation from her side. Even already as a student, stories of her helping others spread around. All kinds of needy, the sick, the hungry, the unemployed, and ‘yes’ those who wanted to cross the seas and oceans to seek for better means of life. They invariably sought the help of Lydia. And she could respond not so much from her own pocket, of which she could not always afford to do but she would intercede successfully and get the help of these who can help. Prospective helpers trusted her as to character and style.
The sick, those seeking employment, not to mention those who die have tasted of Lydia’s effective care and mediation. Politicians, armymen, policemen and mediamen can testify to Lydia’s attentiveness.
Proactive action speaks louder than promising words. That certainly was the campaign strategy that catapulted her to the position that she occupies now. A position wherein she care practice her philanthropy to her heart’s content. Good for her constituency. Hope she will not change. She should be an exemplar to upcoming generations of Filipinos eying to raise their hands in solemn oath, punctuated with that holiest of words “God” for public service.