According to the ever reliable Wikipidia, a placemat is a "covering and/or pad designating an individual place setting."  So, how does this lead to my point. It doesn't unfortunately, but everything began last night during dinner as I stare blankly at our green placemats. Placemats are common things that you can find in any home that you enter into. It is somehow treated as an essential and a need for most. We indulge into buying placemats that perfectly matches our mantelpiece and ensuring that it is suitable for the size and shape of the table itself. It may sound absurd for others but yes, we think about placemats but, do we think about those that do not have any placemats? No, let me rephrase my question. Do we even think of those that cannot afford a placemat?

These are the persons that literally work for a living. They bend their backs to have enough money to buy food and water. These are persons working day and night to ensure that their children can still go to school. These are the persons that live to live. They are the marginalized. They are the community that are so thirsty for change. 

Can we blame them?

I found a striking quote from a book by David Arnold entitled Mosquitoland. The saying goes "When it's slow, it's called growth; when it's fast, it's change." The marginalized wanted change however, the so-called elitist wanted growth. The marginalized want to have change in a blink of an eye as they have been suffering for as long as they can remember. On the other hand, the elitist want to have growth. They want their businesses to grow and prosper. They do not want to spiral downward. Interestingly enough, for the first time in a long time, the marginalized were heard. 

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is now a shoe-in as the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines with over 15M votes in favor of him. He is the man that faced the Liberalist with witty one-liners and surprising curses during interviews and debates. However, I do not believe that this is how Duterte won the hearts of the Filipinos. How so? It was actually simple. Duterte won because he mirrors the marginalized. 

Duterte personifies the simplicity and boisterousness of a common Filipino. He does not come in with a huge posse or big beefy bodyguards. Don't get me wrong, though. I was not a huge fan of Duterte to begin with. He was a walking grenade that can go off with curses and cold-hearted jokes. I was taken aback when he made a joke about women and rape and I was definitely not impressed when he mentioned about severing ties with the U.S. and Australia if he won as president. He was endangering the Philippines that we know. 

Yes, maybe that's the reason why a lot of people, including me, was scared of Duterte. He embodies the promise of change. He is the guy who came telling everyone that crimes will diminish three to six months from the time he was seated as the president of the country. He is the guy who may impose curfews to everyone. He may even ban liquor. Simply stated, Duterte may truly shatter the Philippines that we now and got used to. 

All I am hoping now is that such change that Duterte comes with will be for the betterment of the country. He has a strong personality and I hope and pray that his strength will be used for goodness. Maybe I was wrong for judging him. We were all wrong, but who can blame us for being scared of change? Prove us wrong Duterte. Prove the marginalized that they were definitely heard. Prove the world that you can change the 7,107 islands of the Philippines. 

God save the Philippines. 

Godspeed to you Du30.