Pilipinas Debates 2022 of Nine Presidential Candidates. This includes (from left) Ernesto Abella, Leody de Guzman, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, Norberto Gonzales, Senator Panfilo Lacson, Faisal Mangondato, Dr. Jose Montemayor Jr., Senator Manny Pacquiao, and Vice President Leni Robredo | Photo by Avito Dalan/PNA via Wikimedia Commons
Can we simplify the future of Philippine elections into ‘Ten Commandments’?
Register. By registering, you can at least verify your voting records. Ensure no one has voted on your behalf, even if you did not vote in recent elections. This step will expose voter list tampering.
Vote. This step will get your vote counted. This also ensures that no one else has voted in your place. This is also an opportunity to get your fair share of vote buying. If enough voters sell their votes but do not vote for those who purchased them, precinct ‘enforcers’ will have difficulty causing you harm as they would have to threaten bodily harm to so many voters. This will send a message to vote buyers to stop this practice.
Learn the campaign platforms. Educate yourself to the extent that political parties or coalitions develop campaign platforms. Attempt to differentiate them and be discerning. Try to understand their legislative agenda.
Accept a bribe, but vote your conscience, preferably without the bribe. Vote buying is a pernicious problem that perpetuates corruption. Resist the temptation to succumb to accepting the status quo.
Do not vote because you want to win a bet that you can predict election results. This is a common practice. Rather than voting for deserving candidates who present the most compelling reforms for a better future for the country, enough Filipinos would rather win a bet in cash, favors, or a dinner with drinks.
Do not vote for a familiar name. If you must vote for a familiar name, be sure that your life has improved over the decades that this name has been a politician. Since 1946, after the Philippines gained independence, the political leadership of our country has been in the hands of family dynasties or unholy political alliances entirely dictated by political expediency rather than any actual act of patriotism. And if Filipinos can be honest with themselves, at least this election cycle, what meaningful change, positive change, have elections since independence produced? It’s been said that repeating the same steps cannot possibly lead to a different outcome.
Attend as many election rallies as possible to get all the handouts you can, but vote your conscience. Resist celebrating the same old tired promises of more public schools, health centers, daycare centers, etc. There must be a recognition that these services serve only an ever-growing Filipino poor. To celebrate these promises is tantamount to celebrating more poverty. Demand that some modicum of prosperity become the beacon goal of every politician, just this once, that may, with any luck, end up closing public schools and other public services because the poor have been replaced by a prosperous people – now truly emancipated. Is it entirely possible that poverty in the Philippines is intentional and is meant to perpetuate control?
If you are overseas and have retained citizenship, register, vote, and influence your family and friends in the homeland to vote their conscience. Overseas Filipinos, both migrant and contract, must exploit their political influence.
Volunteer with election monitors to help ensure peaceful, orderly, clean, and fair elections. Take a photo of your ballot. This will at least deter those who would manipulate your vote.
Pray that the Philippines finally elects a new generation of genuinely patriotic leaders. Sadly, each election has been futile, judging by the progress or lack thereof in Philippine development. Any progress made has been mainly despite the government, not because of it. Elected leaders refuse to enact fundamental change, such as an unambiguous ban on elective office for those found guilty of plunder and their ineligibility for executive pardon. The latest legislative inquiries into Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) have shown legal gaps that were exploited by foreign actors, rampant corruption, influence peddling, otherwise referred to as ‘consulting,’ porous borders that are so commonly used but are still referred to as ‘backdoors,’ and blatant legal nefarious practices that go to the level of notarial services, among other things.
Each election offers hope. If only we Filipinos could learn from our forebears and their lessons on patriotism. Beyond these aspirations, pragmatism and logic must prevail and make common sense more common. Trade tomorrow and next week for generational prosperity. We learn from our mistakes, which we, as a people, seem to have a penchant for repeating. Read our history, real history.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Crispin Fernandez advocates for overseas Filipinos, public health, transformative political change, and patriotic economics. He is also a community organizer, leader, and freelance writer.