Presidential Campaign Update part 2: the Family Background of your Future President

If you do believe that your children and their children's children deserve to live in a peaceful, prosperous, and free society, then here is the family background of your president in 2028.

My loving mother eating lunch with me in the Country Club
Wow, Alabang Country Club, seems very "bourgeoisie", right? Well this is what I was saying in a previous post on how we should be able to distinguish between justly acquired profit or property as compared to those who use corruption or fraud.
Really, we are not rich, but my mother is a hardworking innovative entrepreneur. Always, she reminds me of how she would walk miles just to get to public school and eventually for her accounting degree from FEU she would skip eating lunch, walk through floods, sold ice candy, and many other things just to be able to sustain her schooling tuition and save a bit more for her family and siblings.

So for those socialists who would say that her full HD 42 inch flat screen TV or that her house that's too big for only a few people to live in is selfish and greedy and should instead be used to pay taxes and provide free services to people then you are lucky Google AdSense restricts me from cursing at you. She deserves every bit of profit and property she has. Blood, sweat, and tears was her capital.

The many values I have learned from my mom is beyond words. I am undeserving of the material things and lavish lifestyle she provides for me. I feel like a burden, always.

Last week, she collapsed right in front of me and I didn't know what to do. Her blood sugar and pressure were through the roof. We were in the second floor of our house and I couldn't carry her. I had to drag her and force her to wake up. I was calling out to her as loud as I could. Eventually, she regained consciousness and I rushed her immediately to the hospital. I am so affected from that experience.

This is why, if elected, it will be part of my platform that we are able to take care of our parents and seniors. This is something that I will be very passionate about and will consider a priority. (my advisors and I are still currently working on my libertarian platform and it will surely be posted here as soon as it is completed).

Me and my father sitting on a couch
My father was barangay captain of Sucat (a small town in the city of Muntinlupa), at age 23 (exactly my age now and so I feel so useless compared to him). That is one of the youngest in the history of the Philippines most especially in his time. I mean, how do you convince people, especially the older voters, that you will be able to lead?
And no, my father had the same story as my mother. He was not rich at all nor did he have the "political machinery" needed to market himself. At age 14 he was already selling peanuts in a public market. He had the same struggle of going through public schooling and struggling for tuition for his engineering degree from UST.

He eventually quit the public sector as he could not swallow the corruption and coercion at that time (I don't think it would be wise to mention names so let's leave it at that). He started his own business, again an innovative entrepreneur. His company was tasked to build the big advertising billboards and signs of companies. He started out small until eventually he was doing billboards nationwide and even had an office in Singapore.

Eventually, he became President of Alabang Country Club (the place where I was eating with my mother above) in 1996, if I remember correctly. His rich and powerful opponent criticized him, saying that he was unfit for the job, that he wasn't even a resident of Ayala Alabang, but his humility, charisma, and ability to lead persevered and he won. I remember this story that he would tell me always that he gets a call from Ramos (president of the Philippines at that time) and would call him on the phone and say "Mr. President, let's play golf". The president of the Philippines called him Mr. President. Imagine, he used to sell peanuts.

Once again, the values and wisdom I gain from my father is always priceless and the same with my mother as I have mentioned. Being that I'm part of a pretty complex family setting, there were many times that my dad wasn't there for me but then, hey, he gave me my lovely Macbook Pro and that makes up for all of it (hahahahaha you know how much I love my baby).

Anyway, the PR department of my campaign team advised me to have a more family-oriented image thus this blog post. It's all about marketing, really. Barrack Obama, for instance, hired advertising agency BBDO for his campaign. It was probably just some random copywriter in their company who thought of the "Yes We Can" selling point or tagline.

And what more here in the Philippines, as I always mention, where the qualifications are either be a child of a previous politician, be rich and powerful, be an actor/actress, or be really good in boxing and you can already be a politician. What I can say is that I have none of those but what I will have is a political platform that roots on economic freedom, individual liberty, and a free society. That's not a selling point made up by some copywriter. Those are my advocacies. I want peace and prosperity for my fellow Filipinos.
A good friend of mine Nonoy Oplas, has this joke that I'm not actually eligible to be president of the Philippines because one of the requirements in the constitution specifically says that the person must be a natural-born Filipino citizen. That's a problem because I wasn't natural born—I'm caesarean-born. haha. Other than that, I'll be 40 by 2028, I can read and write, and am planning to be a resident of this country 10 years prior to the 2028 election.
Bottom line is, I guess, I am not "trapo" (a colloquial term here in the Philippines for "traditional politician" meaning corrupt but has the political machinery and "dynasty" to win).
So if you believe in me and in my advocacies, vote Harry Santos on 2028.
I am Harry Santos and I approve of this message.

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Related posts:
1. Presidential Campaign Update part 1
2. My Presidential Run Announcement
3. How I Became a Libertarian