a vote for Paulo & Romy is a vote for yourself kabayan

“Kung hindi tayo kikilos? Kung di tayo kikibo, sino ang kikibo? Kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa?” (“If we do not act, who will act? If we do not care, who will care? If not now, when?”)  -Abraham “Ditto” Sarmiento Jr, UP Philippine Collegian editor-in-chief, 1950-1977

  I’ll keep this short guys, I know we all have busy schedules. For many of us in New Zealand, after getting married and having kids, migrating to a new land is the single most important thing we’ve done in our lives. Especially so, when the land we’ve migrated to has given us a better quality of lives for ourselves, our partners and our children. After we’ve improved ourselves and our futures, the next step is to give back, assimilate, and use what we think has worked in our homeland and apply it to our circumstances around us in our adopted land. It’s common sense diba? In a sense we bring the land of our childhood and youth and bring it to our present, and try to have the best of both worlds, not just for ourselves, but for our countrymen, both in our generation and the next. That’s what two of our kabayan have done. In their own special ways, Romy Udanga and Paulo Garcia have experienced the highs and lows of living in the Philippines and New Zealand.  They have built and sustained a comfortable life for themselves and their families, thanks to the welcoming and migrant-friendly culture of New Zealand, Now, they want to give back. Confidently but not boastfully, they think and know that the Filipino way of life has much to contribute to a better way of doing things in New Zealand. They know that this is their unique way of interacting with Kiwis and other migrants at a very high level, and at the same time lending their leadership talents to their kabayan compatriots, at the same very high level. That they do all the above under the guidance of different NZ political parties should not detract us from giving them our unqualified support. Both the incumbent National and Labour parties have their way of doing things but the objective is the same: a better life for all New Zealanders. We could do worse than having one of our very own in New Zealand Parliament. We might even have both. Sitting on the fence is not an option this elections, not when we have a chance to help chart our destiny as Pinoy migrants in New Zealand. Vote National, vote Labour, it doesn’t matter. But vote Paulo and Romy. Vote for your own. Mabuhay kayong dalawa kabayan, mabuhay tayong lahat! Thanks for reading!