By Al S. Mendoza

 

IN his inauguration speech on June 30 as the country’s 17th President, Bongbong Marcos said:  “Ang pangarap ninyo ay pangarap ko.”

Not once, not twice but several times he had said that.

Who said the London-schooled BBM is not well-versed in Tagalog?

Roughly translated, his line would go this way:  “Your wish is my wish.”

Or, “Your hope is my hope.”

Or, “Your dream is my dream.”

Take your pick.

Whatever it is that you choose, it won’t matter much.   Each is one and the same.  Similar.

As my good friend, the Los Angeles-based Leonie Galvez so succinctly puts it:  “The difference is the same.”

The President’s dig came with a bang—very positively, that is—if only because it sort of gave hope to the people’s aspiration for a dream to come true.

A wish for a tomorrow that assures job security to a majority of our people—if not everybody.

A hope for a steady supply of food for the family even to those living in the most far-flung areas of the country.

A dream for peace and harmony in a crime-free community that extends to a nationwide extermination of drug cartels and other forms of heinous crimes.

Indeed, it’s not bad to wish/hope/dream as such beat serves as an engine to get us going even amid despair and paranoia.

Nothing beats any idea that seeks to improve humankind’s well-being.

It should be immediately supported and given concrete action for a speedy delivery of results.

If there’s one thing about any attempt to uplift the people’s station in life, it is that willingness to do it with—as the Good Book says—all your heart, mind, spirit and strength.

That way, you’ll never go astray in your resolve to do good to your brethren.

I remember one time asking a friend of mine about why he wanted to run for mayor.

He said he wanted to serve his town mates.  Do good to his town.

“Easier said than done,” I told him.

He asked for advice.

“When you win, you must do your job with one more ingredient: passion,” I told him.

He heeded my advice during the maximum tenure of nine years that he became mayor of his town.

He is gone now, up There smiling, but not after transforming his town from Class C to Class A to the endless delight of his constituents.

Now if I may be allowed to digress a bit in my humble bid to give more flesh to BBM’s exhortation of “pangarap,” would it not be more forceful if he had said: “Ang pangarap ninyo ay gagawin ko.”?

“Your wish, I will accomplish.”

“Your hope, I will bring fruition.”

“Your dream, I will fulfil.”

If it would be all “pangarap,” then it would be just that: “pangarap.”

If the people and BBM would just “pangarap” together, where would that lead them to?

Nowhere land, dream land, and nothing land.

The people have the right to “pangarap,” but it is the President’s sworn duty to make that “pangarap” happen.

It is not late for BBM to make amends.

He has tomorrow’s State of the Nation Address (Sona, July 25) to do it.

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