As the election dust now settles slowly, a lot could already be said as hindsight. Since there are too many to mention indeed, this space will just be a sort of “for dummies” or an “idiot’s guide” to a complex (and complicated) phenomenon of electing leaders, the Filipino way.
INTENSITY– If there is one word that could well describe the recent election it could no other be than intense. Everybody has become an instant political analyst and social activist. But of course, matapang lang naman kapag sa social media. Or, have they become practically “duwag” since they could not be brave enough to give out real names. Some did turn ferocious so as to unfriend their friends on Facebook due to differences in political color. What is more, “bobo” simply flew into the arena as the red-hot word describing somebody on the other side of the great political divide.
THE PALAWAN BRAND – In no time, our province has embraced wider coverage of the spotlight. One, a toss coin was held to determine the new mayor in the municipality of Araceli. Cheers to the newly-elected, errr, newly-tossed, town executive. Two, Narra stole a spotlight too by electing as their mayor a “no party-newbie-nobody” goat farmer to topple decades of dominance of a husband-wife rule. And three,… Mayor Otol Odi of Rizal! This tribal leader defeated a candidate who has strong political backing. For the new mayors of Narra and Rizal, they kinda started on the same footing- “Kung walang lalaban, ako.” Both rose up to challenge and to change the system. So be it.
THE KIND OF PEOPLE – We cannot help but think and talk about how we actually fared in this election as a collective people of Palawan since we have been actually saying “We Are Whom We Vote”. Ponder this then. We made Lito Lapid our top choice in the senatorial list. Bong Revilla is struggling as a tailender in the national tally, but we put him here in our place as among the Top 3. Budots pa more or Pinuno forever? Lest we forget, in the 2014 presidential election, we also served our votes in a silver platter to the original Probinsyano – FPJ over GMA, with the latter becoming the eventual winner. Who really are we with that? Artistahin. (Hello and Congrats to Matt Mendoza, our topnotcher city councilman.)
NEVER PERFECT– Perfection seems out in our election vocabulary. It is rather in a flawed system that corrupt people do thrive. We do not correct it. We perpetuate it instead and exploit it. Nobody cared about proper places for posters. Vote-buying was in broad daylight (read: garapalan). With all their assurances and all, voila… technology failed for seven long hours. When it did recover, the election appeared to be over already. Conspicuously, we missed the time when the top honchos of the Comelec were very visible and calling the shots – Davide, Pardo, Abalos, Brillantes, Bautista, among others. The absence spoke volumes.
Last, but certainly not the least, I am confessing here that I voted for an education sector in the party list. I am fully justified choosing it since everybody has at once accused anybody as “bobotante”. Indeed, only an intelligent vote could really spell a difference in our decision-making as a country. On second thought, it is much tolerable to have a “bobo” around. But we should definitely cry foul when people are already brazenly doing “panggagago”. When we do nothing to “panggagago”, we will undeniably remain together as dummies and idiots… forever.
NB: Actually, “The Complete Idiot’s Guides″ and the “… For Dummies″ are popular book series. They offer topics at a quick glance. They answer the questions people are reluctant to ask.
