EVERY election year, most Filipinos take a breather from the ho-hum of everyday living and take stock of the bigger picture, the nation’s present status and its future. Issues like what to eat today, where to go and what to wear are temporarily shelved, as citizens digest more important matters such as democracy, the right to vote, human rights and the economy.
It has been like that since free suffrage was restored in 1986, and successive administrations were put in office by the public, through the constitutional process of elections, and sometimes through the anti-charter oxymoronic “people power” in EDSA.
In the elections where Joseph Estrada, Benigno Aquino III and Rodrigo Duterte won, their victories were attributed to the electorate’s disappointment in, or hatred of, their predecessors’ administrations, because of pervasive graft and corruption, culture of impunity and oligarchic cronyism, and other shenanigans.
‘Filipinos are now getting seriously involved in the choice of the leaders that they pick — seriously enough to give their time and effort, pay for their own food, transport and campaign materials, all in the spirit of volunteerism.’
The elections this year also show to some extent the populace’s discontent and condemnation of the continuing system of corruption, with a difference. Filipinos are now getting seriously involved in the choice of the leaders that they pick — seriously enough to give their time and effort, pay for their own food, transport and campaign materials, all in the spirit of volunteerism. They are involved because they want real, honest-to-goodness change for the better.
When the Supreme Court temporarily stopped the implementation of Commission on Election’s Oplan Baklas, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal noted that the high court’s TRO is “a great development and victory for the candidates who do not have enough funds to sustain a nationwide campaign and rely only on help and support of volunteers.”
He further opined that “in this election 2022 where, for the first time, people from all walks of life are the ones spending for their candidates, the SC TRO will certainly give poor candidates a strong fighting chance to level the playing field in the political arena since it is now the private citizens who would do their own share in ensuring that we elect only honest and competent leaders with the utmost integrity.”
We just hope that by June this year, when our new leaders shall have been elected and a peaceful transition of power is effected, the citizens’ sense of involvement in good governance is still strong.
