Left on our own, we should be progressive in the future. With all our resources, and with our ability as individuals we should be able to go somewhere—to a lot better place
But, alas, there are strong enemies out there, blocking our progress, even to just reach the first step on our climb to get to our goal. The first step is for us to be autonomous, free from the shackles of the rest of the country whose leaders only got us left behind. And that was after taking our valuable natural resources, from the valuable metals underneath our mountains to the expensive timber that covered them. Now our future lies in uncertainty, but with the proper system, where we could take care of our own, the future should look brighter. That system is called an autonomous Cordillera.
Yet, the strong enemies are out there to stop us on our tracks. And our enemies are ourselves. Due to our lack of brains we have elected local leaders who are only interested in their vested interest, who don’t care about collective welfare. They were for autonomy as long as their powerful positions in such a setup are secured. So they went against every move in the past towards that end when they saw that their assumption to leadership spots was not assured. Sacrificing one’s petty self-interest for the region’s future was beyond them.
And so splintered we were that we went nowhere.
The need of the hour is a leader with sufficient charisma who would say, this is the time for me to stand up, to take my people with me towards a good Cordilleran future. And the people would stand up and go with him. Don’t we have a leader of such a stature who could get us up and march with him?
Or are we just too stupid to understand that we have to bite the bullet if we want change? Sure, there will be birth pains, our situation might get a lot worse before it gets better. Or shall we just wait for a better future to fall down from heaven?
Or are we swallowing more than what we can chew? Should we not just achieve autonomy first and from there the leader fit for us might emerge? One is sure though, if we don’t move from here, we are going nowhere, while the rest of the world will pass us by at high speed.**