Why I Blog

By Apolinario Villalobos

Many people who have been reading my blogs are wondering why I am doing it…worse, some even presume that I am being paid for such emotionally tedious undertaking. Plainly and simply, I tell them that it is my advocacy. I hate to use such word, but I might cause them to raise their eyebrows if I tell them, it is my hobby. I am serious in what I am doing and it is not just for fun. I am not being paid but some viewers of my blogs send help for the subject personalities whom I write about, and which are handled with much care. For this endeavor, I am taking so much risk as my security is also at stake in view of my blogs on corruption.

I always ask myself that if I will not share with others what I perceive and experience “along the way”, who will do it? If I have to be brutally frank, I dare say that many people are numb, naïve, blind, deaf, etc. to what are happening around us. One viewer even had the temerity to send me the message, “you think you are a great writer, huh!”. He is not an fb friend and most hurting is that he is also a Filipino. I just presumed that he is a friend of a politician whom I have been jabbing with my posts, which being “public” are open to all internet browsers. As an information, I have four other blog sites aside from facebook. My first facebook page has even been hacked many months back so I can no longer open it, forcing me to create another one with my photo on it. Unfortunately, many friends still use the hacked fb despite the notices that I have posted.

I identify with people whom I blog as I had my own struggles to be able to finish my studies, having been orphaned at a young age. Growing up, I observed the corrupt practices in the government which have been deeply impressed in my mind. I observed so much arrogance of some supposedly “shepherds” of the various churches. Having gone around the country, I saw poverty in its various levels and perceived its ugly faces drawn on my impoverished countrymen. I would like to let the world know about the benevolence of unsung heroes in our midst. Also, let others know, Filipinos and foreigners that the country is a cluster of islands worth discovering for their unique and varying splendor. I would also like to serve as other people’s conscience and mirror. Most of all God gifted me with the ability to write and I know that He did not give it to me to be kept selfishly, but with a purpose. Those are the reasons why I blog.

What give me the drive to go on are the inspiration and encouragement from those who are kind enough to appreciate what I am doing aside from enhancing what I share with their comments and rectifications on what they think should be improved. I am also encouraged to go on if what I share could successfully elicit relevant comments, especially, about blogged people whose characters are worthy of emulation, not just appreciation.  I believe that I am just doing my share of what should be done as intended by God. I am not a doctor, nor a professor, nor a pastor, nor a cook, nor a policeman, nor a businessman, etc….but I have a purpose, too, in this world and that is….as a simple writer.

I always imagine that the world is like a jigsaw puzzle composed of parts with various shapes that snugly fit together. While others could be triangle, circle, square…I could be a rectangle….that is I, as a blogger, and with my own shape, I am trying my best to neatly fit into this world. By the way, I need prayers, too, to keep me keep me and my advocacy alive, at least even for just a little longer.