On Choosing a President

It is not wise to have so many candidates. Two or three would do. Having many presidential candidates is very divisive. The position of president should be contested only by the best and the most qualified candidates. Is there any place for 'filtering" in our politics here? Presidential candidates should be quizzed and pressed for practical and realistic platforms. They should not be spared from a track record scrutiny or from a morality check up.

As part of the electorate, I believe we need to be re-educated. We need to know and understand our political history. We need teachers and educators, resources and technology that can take us back to our political past and see where we went wrong. And from there we can make strong and informed decisions.

Now that we have elected a new president, we must give him the chance to prove himself with our support. Only time can tell if the nation made the right choice or a huge mistake.

MANO-MANO

We are not ready for automated polls. The machines, which serve as vote counters, have recently proved to be unreliable during random testings. The call for the return to manual count may be a backward step but many now see this as imperative. The "mano-mano" method in vote-counting is tedious, taxing and time-consuming. But this procedure is at least comforting for it is familiar to us.

I personally prefer the familiar to the alien, especially if the new thing is prone to error. But we have not yet tried the machine. Let us give it a chance. But if the worst does happen on election day, the manual count should come to the rescue. The future of the Philippines should not be at the mercy of failing machines. Never will democracy be subordinate to technology.

Original Quotes 1

The quotes below were extracted from my Facebook Wall.

"People power is a spontaneous combustion. It is not a deliberate contact of fire with flammable object. People power is not making 'da-ob'." (May 4, 2010)

"Power is not for the unprepared. Power is prepared for the prepared." (May 4, 2010)

"My advance salute goes to those who would lose in the elections and would still enthusiastically return to the people to serve them even without the seat." (May 4, 2010)

"Those who are most ready to accept defeat in the elections would be the least frustrated." (May 4, 2010)

"Any mistake or obvious blemish in the ballot can turn our vote into mere 'nothing'... Thus, what is expected of the electorate is 'perfection' or anything close to it." (May 4, 2010)

"We are not ready at this time for automated polls. And there is no turning back.... We are getting closer to the precipice. It's either we fly or plunge." (May 4, 2010)

"The failure of elections is the failure of the collective morality of the people." (May 4, 2010)

"The son is not the mother..... The son is not the father. The son is only but himself."(May 4, 2010)

"Candidates who sing and dance and try hard to entertain can succeed in making me smile or feel amused.... but hanggang diyan lang. Utak pa rin ang gagamitin." (May 4, 2010)

CHEATING

Many people think that there will be a failure of elections on May 10, 2010. This is such a dark forecast. This may just be true. The failure of elections is but the result of the general failure of this country’s morality. Our present day morality hardly reflects the righteousness of God. Moral corruption, oftentimes imputed on politicians, is actually an across-the-board moral infection. Most of us are guilty.

Cheating happens inside the home. It happens outside the home. There is cheating in the classroom, in the workplace, in the offices, in the government and in the church. And cheating in the elections is nothing new at all. Such crookedness does not exalt our nation. If massive cheating does take place next week, we would never know who truly won. The nation gets cheated…again. The cheaters themselves also get cheated. “Weather weather lang ‘yan…. Kawawa ang Pilipinas.”

TOO MANY POSTERS

Campaign posters are everywhere! I see them on walls, posts, tree trunks and flat vertical surfaces. Campaigns go for the overkill. Image overkill! And the repetitive images and faces and names are way too much. To be ubiquitous is deemed an effective campaign strategy. But dozens of the same person's face plastered on just one big wall is just too assaulting and even desperate.

Would I forget a candidate if I see only about five of his smiling face on every wall in the city? Is power of recall truly insured when the same politician's face is multiplied innumerably in every legal campaign space available? I don't think so. Personally, I don't need to see the same politician's face a hundred or even a thousand times so that I can surely remember him/her. Remembering the candidates is actually different from voting for the candidates.

Political campaigns here in our country is dirty figuratively and literally. After the elections all campaign posters turn into litter.

Just way too much garbage! Yuck!

Dirty, dirty campaign!

The present political campaign has turned terribly vicious. And the viciousness is disgustingly apparent in the actuations of candidates and their supporters. Casting stones and finger-pointing reveal how desperate people have become just to win the elections. The campaign has turned into a shameless display of power-lust.

Issues and platforms have virtually become non-exixtent. What's making headlines is the passionate exchange between the accusers and the accused, the chargers and the charged. And most of them have unclean hands.

If candidates and their supporters prefer dirty tactics to humane approaches, they're actually planting bad seeds. If they win, those seeds will eventually turn into bad fruits. If we start dirty we always end up dirty still. And the nation suffers in the filth.

If I Were a Political Candidate

If I were a candidate who would run for a position in government, I would also wisely consider the possibility of my defeat. Success is not predictably assured to those with money, image, clout and even experience. The present mental health of our nation is not at all excellent. Government seats may have random occupants after a not so trusted electoral process.

If I would lose in the elections, I would continue to serve the people. Not getting the seat I most wanted to have should not deter me from being a public servant. Defeated politicians have no real excuse to turn their back on society if they sincerely had no selfish interests in running for office. In their own unique capacities they can still serve the poor, the disenfranchised and the less fortunate among us.

Losing the election is not a reason to end one's altruism.

I Cannot Hate Marcos and His Family.

I was only a grade schooler in the '70s when Ferdinand Marcos was still the country's president. His political sway was much felt by my parents from the 60s to the 80s. But I did not know about it nor feel it then. It was only when I was in UP High School that I knew something about the "dictator" and what they called was his "tyrrany".

Ferdinand Marcos to me is history. Not having experienced or even suffered from his "dictatorship" as a child is enough reason for me to be incapable of truly hating him. If I cannot hate him, I cannot hate his living wife and their children. Their "corruptions" and "evils" were and are still beyond me. Undoubtedly they are told about in many books.

I am not a hypocrite to raise a fist and say down with the Marcoses. I have not lived to greatly suffer from the Marcos despotism. In fact I like Imee and Bongbong. Though children of a "dictator", they cannot be automatically regarded as "undesirable fruits". I cannot hate the Marcoses. I can only hate the present "evildoers".

The Unqualified Candidate

The fears of an unqualified candidate are many. He fears he would be eventually proved unqualified when he is already in office. He fears his incompetence would lead to his downfall. He fears his corrupt motives will be exposed. He fears what people say of his past, his skeletons in the closet. He fears his personal demons will un-seat him.

I am for early exposure of the true person running for a government seat. When something is exposed, there should be reliable and concrete evidence. If a charge verges on the malicious and scandalous, I will not totally dismiss it. It may just be true.

I still think that there are unqualified candidates out there who have no fears at all. They know that they can get away with many things. They believe they will be elected. And they do get elected. The politics of politics makes our politics here dirty and rotten. The Philippines continues to suffer and crawl.

Running for Office (Original Poem)

They are running for office.
Their mouths are dripping
with promises,
rhetoric and honey.

We are applauding.
They are moving us
with their moving tongues
and moving hands
in conventions
and rallies.

They are running for office.
Their lips are moving.
And we are listening.
We are cheering,
clapping and voting.

Then they are in office.
We keep waiting
for the fulfillment.

Then we sing the same sad songs
while we are crawling.

CORRUPT POLITICS

Corrupt politicians make politics corrupt. Now, if I were asked to try politics, I would right away say No! As a born-again Christian, I must seek first the approval of God and not that of men. A born-again Christian will never be popular and will never succeed in politics in a nation like the Philippines in these current corrupt times. This nation is suffering from a spiritual gangrene which only God can heal. No man and no well-meaning politician can heal this land.

So I would just leave politics to those who can afford to lie, to conceal, to deceive, to flatter, to hoard or even to steal. Others may claim that they are not into dirty politics. Well, I congratulate them. But unfortunately, they are a minority. And speaking of corruption, the Church is not spared from the contagion. And here lies the challenge for all truly God-fearing and God-honoring Christians-- the preaching of the Gospel of Christ and walking the talk.

MUD

In political campaigns issues are never primary. Issues are raised. Then they eventually get blurred and unfortunately sink in the political mud. Ask supporters of their political candidate’s vision and platform and you hardly get substantial answers. (I admit. I too am guilty of this.) Ask them about the mud slung here and there. There will be quick responses. Political campaigns here in our country start off with grand slogans and intentions to serve people. Then the inevitable posturing and mud-slinging happen. And this is entertaining for many. Filipinos love to be entertained first. To be informed well is not first and foremost. Besides, people love posters. They remember the poster boy. But they forget the true issues because issues are often forgettable. Mud is memorable. Mud is part of the politics of politics.

QUITTER

If I were a politician running for office and I would find myself consistently lagging far behind surveys and polls, I would back out. Yes, this would make me a quitter. But this quitter is a wise quitter. It takes wisdom to discern the futility of running a race that is somehow not worth running...yet. It also takes humility to concede and bow out. This does not make me a defeatist at all. Pride and hunger for power usually push politicians to waste money on campaigns that are bound to fail. They are free to run though. But their foolhardiness would do the nation as a whole no good.

POLITICS

They are running for president because they say they want to serve the country. God knows the real reason why they are running. Candidates speak of noble things like change, justice and peace. But God sees and knows their hearts. Politics nowadays is seldom about serving. It is self-serving in the guise of public service. Godly politics is an oxymoron. God is never given the political throne in this world.