JUST a few days after the elections, I saw a meme in social media challenging the 31 to 32 million voters of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President-elect Sara “Inday” Duterte to send one peso each as a sign that they are united. On one side, why not?
Just a weird thought. What if the 31 to 32 million voters would voluntarily give one peso, just a peso, every month? This is equivalent to 31 to 32 million savings a month.
This amount can build hospitals in the barrios or evacuation centers for calamity-prone areas or infrastructures for the aged, the street children, abandoned individuals or clean public toilets or parks where families and friends can bond together or livelihood projects for the marginalized sector.
Isn’t this the true essence of people empowerment?
We empower the Filipino people to help the nation. We empower the Filipino people to build infrastructures or to come up with projects that would benefit a large number of people. We empower Filipino people, above paying their taxes, to decide what benefits the majority.
Just a weird thought.
One peso every month would not hurt us. It is just a matter of little sacrifice. Instead of that cigarette stick or junk foods or piso-piso pusoy, tongits, and other bet games, we set aside one peso every month to build something for our fellow Filipinos. And who knows, our community might just be the recipient.
It’s like adopt-a-community project where our one-peso every month goes to a particular community with a detailed project proposal so the community members can benefit from it. This way, we create ‘everyday leaders’ in the community to look after the welfare of its members.
This may revolve around the essence of development communication where the goal is to support the people’s agenda and to develop people to develop a nation.
A one-peso coin nowadays is almost unnoticeable. Its value only becomes evident when summed up with many other coins. But it if stands alone, it could not provide what we need. But if we all together donate one peso, let’s say the number of those voters, this constitutes a very big amount.
And who knows, the other voters would also donate later. Contrary to Mother Teresa’s “give until it hurts”, this one-peso weird thought wouldn’t hurt at all.
Just imagine, we send one peso thru GCash or Paymaya or any mobile wallet for that purpose or any coin box in the barangay and then we can access and monitor the money donated in an app anytime. Isn’t it exciting? We can witness the true essence of bayanihan and love for country and fellowmen.
As they are empowered, the Filipino people will identify major projects and programs as recipients for that savings and everything will be detailed and transparent. Every progress will be registered in that app and everyone sees where the money goes.
We are hitting many birds with one stone.
The community-recipient will benefit from the project, we generate employment, we strengthen our bayanihan Filipino value, and we eliminate corruption.
Isn’t this just wonderful? It may look complicated as to the use of technology in collecting one-peso and maintaining transparency, but it can be possible. It may look like a funny idea to those who do not believe that we have the power to change our situations and we have the power to help the government, but it can be a miracle.
Yes, just a thought. Just a weird thought. But who knows?