MANILA, Philippines?For a woman who represents a dream bigger than his own, Ralph Reuben Morales is postponing marriage and giving up a well-paying job.

He believes he is responding to a bigger calling in offering himself to the movement that aims to install Isabela Governor Grace Padaca as the next President.

Morales, 25, is an officer of the Ayala Foundation. He and Anne Camacho, his girlfriend of two years, had made plans to marry next year.

But he said: ?I think this is the time for me to set aside my personal targets. This is already bigger than me.?

Morales and other volunteers have set up the Kaya Mo (You Can Do It) Movement to launch Padaca?s presidential candidacy even if the governor has yet to announce her moves.

Touched by the support she has been getting, Padaca said: ?I don?t have the heart to tell them to stop.?

Some 20 other young professionals and fresh graduates are directly involved in Kaya Mo, which is backed by other private organizations and a number of businessmen, Morales said.

He said he was drawing strength from the knowledge that he was not alone.

Some 20 farmers in Bicol allotted part of the earnings from their harvests of rice, corn, banana, papaya and coconut to Padaca?s campaign.

Other farmers sold the goats and native chickens they were raising and so far have generated some P16,000.

?Our people are craving better leadership,? Morales said. ?We want to show our people that the coming presidential election is not a time to extort money, but a time to give.?

Padaca said she was moved to tears when she learned about what Morales and her other supporters were willing to sacrifice. ?I appreciate everything they are doing and I respect them a lot,? she said.

Yet, she said, she was still waiting to see whether Filipinos were ready for an alternative candidate like herself.

Morales first saw Padaca in person when she spoke at the 2009 Ayala Young Leaders? Congress (AYLC) in February.

He was among the organizers, having been hired by the Ayala Foundation months after his participation in the 2005 AYLC when he was still studying political science at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

?The first time I heard her speak, I told myself she should run for president. I hoped she would not deny us her capabilities,? Morales said.

In her speech, Padaca talked about the need to sacrifice and the need for people yearning for change ?to leave the sidelines to voice out what they feel.?

The youngest in a brood of 11 children, Morales knew what sacrifice meant. He worked in a fast-food chain to put himself through school.

He was an active student leader in college and was elected president of the student council. After graduation, he turned his back on lucrative offers and chose to work with the Ayala Foundation because it gave him the chance to help mold more young leaders.

Days after listening to Padaca?s speech, Morales found himself conferring with other young leaders who were pushing the governor to seek the most powerful position in the country.

It was time to leave the sidelines, Morales told himself.

Hard-hitting

Padaca, who suffered polio when she was a child, was a hard-hitting radio broadcaster in her native Isabela. She shot to national prominence in 2004 when she defeated Gov. Faustino Dy Jr., a scion of a well-entrenched political clan, despite a lack of money and machinery.

She sought a seat in the House of Representatives three years earlier, taking out a bank loan to finance her campaign, but lost to Faustino Dy III.

According to Morales, Padaca is still paying off that loan.

The governor won a fresh term in 2007 and was awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service in 2008.

?She represents the kind of leaders our country needs,? Morales said.

Heart-breaking

Per Morales? account, he and his girlfriend both wept when he told her that they would probably have to postpone their wedding because he would be working full-time to campaign for Padaca.

She understood why he had to do it, but his decision still broke her heart, he said.

His parents asked him, ?Are you sure about this?? But they did not stop him.

Morales is also giving up a good, stable salary for his advocacy that carries no monetary benefit.

?[It is] my tiny contribution to the needs of society,? he said, adding:

?If I become successful [in my job] but the society we have remains the same, then what will be the point of being successful??