The Philippine Election 2010

The Irony of The Right of Suffrage

Me: Honey, I have voted!
Wife: who?
Me: With this guy who I thought would change…
Wife: … Slapppped!

Gone is the day when exercising your right to vote is your own affair in which as if the future of the country is in your hand. Gone is the pride that makes us feel we have voted for the right man and whatever happens, we stand behind him with dignity and pride. Gone is the day when going to the voting station was a holiday for family, friends and foe alike to look forward to, then talk or argue about the experience for weeks and weeks to come. Today, in my country (The Philippines), Gone is the true democratic spirit of the Right of Suffrage.

I remember a long time ago on election day, my Father - dressing up on his white and loose Long Sleeve Shirt (Truvinice), black heavily starched pants and his black and white ‘Ang Tibay’ leather shoes which he only wear on special occasions such as weddings, funerals and election days- tells me on his most sober tone (he rarely was sober), ‘son today is a very special day because today is the day I will decide who is going to be the next president of our country’, as if he represents the whole nation and the future of the country was on his very hands. While my Mother looks at him with obvious contradiction as she likewise, was preparing herself to go to the voting station.

Today, millions of Filipinos and that includes me, are uncertain and praying that we are siding with the right Party and Candidates and that their choice would assert the vital change this country badly needs. This election has became not only the most expensive election in the history of the country but the most dangerous in terms of stability and progress as well, given the fact that the eight-headed monster called Corruption has already swallowed each and every private and public institutions in which the present government has collaborated with by painting allegations of sham, scam and power-hungry image in the international community that stabbed every Filipinos right into their heart. The poor gets poorer - http://globalnation.inquirer.net/viewpoints/viewpoints/view/20090825-221948/Why-is-the-Philippines-still-poor and the war and heinous crimes in the South are still unsolved.

The presence of new technology (Automated Election) did not and will not, at least in this election, offer much help in changing the low, detrimental ethics of the old ‘Trapos’ kind of politicking in this country. What concerns us most is the fear from the looming issue of ‘failure of election’ of which the Comelect’s conceited system and its highly expensive Picos Machines has propagated. Unless proven reliable and impenetrable to fault and fraud, this technology will only make the situation worse and will cause for more political woes than solving them despite strong justifications from Comelect, these machines failed to give assurances of clean and honest 2010 election.

However on the positive note, I believe that 2010 voters are resilient and had wise-up to the calling for reforms in Philippine politics, which is the ‘mother of all evil’. Most as I assumed, will be voting not because of promised personal gains but by sense and sensibilities thru this acquired empowerment with which every Filipinos now possess.
With two weeks away from the scheduled 2010 election and whoever win this hotly contested government seats, I only hope to see the light at the end of the dark tunnel, to start anew, to work hand and hand because regardless who wins, it is not only up to the winning President or his team to lift us out of economic misery and global-image downfall, it is also up to each and every Filipino, wherever he/she may be, to work harder with intelligence, discipline and pride – to be called a Filipino.