THE SEASON OF ELECTIONS

May 14, 2007, the date all those political candidates aspire to dominate. A significant date for those who are hungry for power, yes, the date of the elections.

Once again, we hear those ads in televisions and radios and see posters sticked on any surface visible to any passer by, such sore eyes. My eyes hurt and pain seeing those posters of smiling political candidates labelled by their names with a famous line that they bring up to be remembered by our brains. I think several surveys have been conducted to know the leading candidates for senatoriables or congressmen. It is not that I do not care for the coming elections in our country, it is just that I am not in favour of the most people who candidate for seats in the government. In our country, politicians rule, now where is that line that says “The power of the government emanates from the people”? Have they forgotten that? Politicians get elected to serve the people not for them to be served. It is true that people elect them to have someone to govern over them but others are so into their power that they abuse it.

Have our government taken into account the problem of graft and corruption? Have they undertaken the necessary steps to stop this? They say they have, but do we feel it? Yes we feel it…we feel a stronger corruption case in the country. Just to remind you, the Philippines is the country who topped the survey as the no. 1 most corrupt in the whole of Asia. It is not something we should be celebrating about but rather something we should be hiding our faces for, in shame. Now, when our president heard of this, she did not feel any shame, instead she said that the survey conducted was a fraud and that it was based on records of long ago. Sigh. I remember a line said by my father, he said that those ordinary Filipinos bring honor to the Philippines while the Filipino politicians bring shame.

I say, most of the politicians are so good at lying, it becomes their life. This time of elections, 8- point Agenda and platforms for the fixing of roads, renovation of school buildings, structuring of bridges and all the promises those candidates could think of are so out of tune. They promise and after being elected as officials, it feels like they catch an unusual case of amnesia that they readily forget all the promises they have made in front of the public. A line from an advertisement of a senatorial candidate says “Pangarap kong tuparin ang pangarap mo.(I dream to fulfil your dream)”, now, it sounds kind of funny because it tells us the fact that they promise to dream the fulfilment of the dream of their countrymen but have no intention of fulfilling it.

This coming elections, the Filipino people should choose and vote wisely and at the same time guard for the threat of cheating.##