perfectmangoes

I didn’t vote last May 14. I refused to register although I am already of legal age. After my parents voted that morning, they kept telling me that I should have registered and voted. If not to exercise my right to vote, to have at least participated in this significant national event. But I stood my ground. I told them it was my choice and that I have my reasons. Yes, there were moments of guilt whenever I heard of young people fighting passionately to uphold their right to take part in the national elections. The Philippines is, after all, a democracy. But is our country really as democratic as we think it is? Is it really a nation whose people have louder voices than those who hold office? 
 

When I was young I would watch noontime shows which have pageants for little children. Little girls in frilly dresses accompanied by their brothers or cousins who, after having said the standard enthusiastic self-introduction would immediately recite an unforgettable quote from a famous person. If not the one about being worse than a stinky fish if you don’t love your own language, their quote of choice would be the ever famous “Ayon kay Rizal, ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan!”. This is probably one of the most famous Jose Rizal lines known by Filipino children and adults alike. But is there actually any truth to that? Since Rizal’s time, our country needed hope. Hope which, according to Rizal himself could be seen in the Filipino youth. Generations have passed and our country has stayed the way it is. Our country has regained its freedom from our Spanish and American colonizers, established its own national  government and elected officials again and again who supposedly have the passion to serve its people. I’m pretty sure that all these officials have heard these famous words uttered by our national hero – and maybe, as I’d like to think, when they were still young, they possessed this passion to serve – thus they decided to run for office. To use their knowledge and leadership abilities to be the hope that this country needed (and still needs) for so long. What went wrong? Was it the money? The power? The fame? That greed which pushes them to win by dishonesty, to add a vote here and there, to have trucks carrying pre-made election returns containing tallies in their favor, to allegedly have teachers fill up ballots at gunpoint prior to the election day itself?
 

I did not vote just because of the cheating (which is bound to happen in Philippine elections). The campaign period was another event which helped me reach that decision not to take part in this year’s midterm elections. I actually find the campaign period amusing. Instead of being a venue to discuss one’s platform and stands against various issues, it becomes a contest of who can hire the best celebrity endorsers, have the strongest connections, the catchiest taglines, the most colorful posters and the jingles which you have as your “last song syndrome”. My friends and I would humorously argue on who has the best campaign, imitating their TV and radio commercials and laughing our heads off at some of the cheesiest and “pilit” lines of them all. But then what? What do they really stand for? Between choosing a candidate whom you can “plant” in the Senate and one who threatens you (with nothing) when you’re bad, whose name do you choose to write on that ballot?
 

During the campaign period I would watch news shows which have candidates as their guests. Present would be a panel of critics who would question them about their respective platforms and in turn the candidates would give clarity to their proposed agendas once elected into office. On one particular episode, the critics asked one of the candidates to explain his primary advocacy which was housing. The panelist asked him very technical questions regarding interest rates, how his advocacy would react to the changes in the economy and so on. It was a pretty long question which required a very detailed and educated answer, and maybe this was the reason why that particular candidate just said, “Well actually my main advocacy is not really housing. It’s education.” He then went on to explain something about public schools and the poor and unfortunate children who don’t have access to schools. By that time I really didn’t want to listen to anymore. What’s the use?
 

The Administration and the Opposition. The two sides of the Philippine government which don’t really stand for any ideology unlike America’s Republicans and Democrats. From my point of view, these sides are merely a declaration of a candidate’s loyalty to whoever holds that top spot in Malacanang. But as ambiguous as it may seem, what’s worse is that the line which separates these two factions gets hazier come election time. Candidates switching sides, being criticized for doing so, saying sorry for what they’ve done, and asking the people to put all this in the past, to look forward and be united to have a better country.  Is it really that simple? Do we just forget and leave it at that? Isn’t a leader supposed to be firm and decisive? To lead by example, to stand his ground and have conviction in upholding and living out his principles. How can we trust a candidate who crosses boundaries as if he were playing a game of patintero? 
 

I will not badmouth all politicians. I look up to those who take advantage of their position. Not by abusing their power in ways which benefit themselves, but by using their position as an avenue by which they can serve the people they are supposed to serve. They are given budgets which they allocate to the building of roads, to improving healthcare, to give jobs to the poor – not deposit them in their personal bank accounts just to make up for all the money they spent hiring that famous celebrity to deliver their one-sentence taglines. I salute those officials who personally refuse to run for higher office because they know that they are able serve the people more in the position they currently hold. It’s not about them. It’s about the lives of people that they could directly affect which counts.
 

Some of you might take me as a hypocrite for having said all these things considering that I didn’t even vote. In some ways, maybe I am and I won’t deny that. I don’t even know if I have the right to write this article at all. However, as Jose Rizal and countless of dressed-up little girls in white gloves and laced socks once said, “Ang kabataan and pag-asa ng bayan.” By using my voice now, I will be able to reach out not only to the public but more importantly, to the candidates and to both local and national officials who currently hold office. Please use your positions wisely. Take advantage of your ability to touch millions of lives, not just your own. This opportunity is not given to everyone. Please give the youth a reason to believe in you and to believe that there is still hope for this country. That the elections could still be clean, that there are indeed principled leaders who are able to selflessly and passionately serve, and that maybe, it’s not too late for Philippine politics to change.