It will be a challenge for the leaders of 2022 to rebuild the nation from whatever is left of the life and the resources we have after this pandemic. But in true Filipino ingenuity, we have always had leaders who worked around the scraps of an outgoing administration.

In the coming year, I want to see a kind of grounded leadership that would not just aim to change things but inspire transformation, one that would not just give commands but communicate with compassion, and one that would not just act but exude the capacity to look and see beyond what this nation is and what it can become after living through a pandemic.

It is quite tempting to come up with many colorful words and conventional definitions to describe what our next leaders should look like; however, I am more inclined to challenge notions by also looking at leadership from within each individual Filipino that makes up this country. Indeed, it will truly take more than a few elected leaders to steer this country towards a new horizon.

From my lens as a young physician, this pandemic may have challenged the very science that has sustained us in protecting the quality of human life for so long; to look at it in a different light, this ordeal has fostered our growth in many aspects that we did not even know existed in the beginning.

Our learned capacity to move forward despite grave setbacks in forms of failures, uncertainties, deaths, is a leadership trait in itself, and we physicians are just like every other person plodding through all of this for the first time in our lives.

'I am seeking a leader who will capacitate the healthcare system and empower Filipino healthcare workers in moving towards providing healthcare that is preventive and progressive.'

It took a pandemic for the nation to realize that we have been lagging behind in addressing the health of the Filipino people. COVID-19 disease is not the only healthcare problem we are facing as we are looking at years' worth of neglected chronic diseases in all age groups, aggravated by the implementation of blanket policies that proved to be a barrier to healthcare access, compounded by fear of contracting the virus.

More and more Filipinos are dying helplessly from preventable diseases and while we cannot help but rely on our leaders to act on this, we must never think that we are limited by their unilateral decisions. As a young physician, I am seeking a leader who will capacitate the healthcare system and empower Filipino healthcare workers in moving towards a direction of providing healthcare that is preventive and progressive.

It is not true that our actions and our paradigms as professionals and citizens of this country can only be as good as their leaders. The Filipino people are living proof that we have it in us to become more of who and what we think we are.

In the coming elections, we bank on the premise that we are electing a savior whom we expect to single-handedly turn this country into one of our idols, but what are the odds that millions of voting Filipinos would even come close to what each and every one of us envision them to be?

To challenge our thinking, is it enough to once again point a finger towards a single direction, and place the burden of this country on a few whom we think possess the qualities that make a leader great? Perhaps it is time that we change this perspective and instead ask if we ourselves can ever be the leader that we seek in others.

We are a country of about 111 million Filipinos today who can potentially aid the growth of this country by leading and letting others lead. We are, after all, a democratic country and the sovereignty of this state resides in all of us.

In the coming elections, we bank on the premise that we are electing a savior whom we expect to single-handedly turn this country into one of our idols, but what are the odds that millions of voting Filipinos would even come close to what each and every one of us envision them to be?

The leadership I wish to also see in the coming year is from each individual Filipino—that they realize and strengthen their identity as a nation and at the same time respect individuality, to not be a source of divisiveness and instead share the same vision and purpose that our government seeks, and to live for our children and grandchildren, that they may have more qualified leaders to choose from when their turn comes to elect their leaders.

Would it not bring us true Filipino pride to have a stake in all the good that can come about if only we all worked together by leading and letting others lead us towards a direction that will truly matter for this country and not just for what will benefit a few?

Make your voice heard. Register now! Go to irehistro.comelec.gov.ph.