PH Vote 2016

“Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle mérite.” - Joseph-Marie de Maistre

Halalan 2016 (Election 2016)

In about 4 month, a nation of 102 million Filipinos will elect its new set of leaders both in national and in local elections.

Lots of Filipinos have lost hope that the country will ever reach a develop country status. Many have change citizenship either because of lack of hope for its motherland or for pragmatic reasons or both.

Lots of us continue to have hope and keep on seeing the glass as half-full rather half-empty. Thousands of natural-born Filipinos have re-acquired their Filipino citizenship since Republic Act. No. 9225 or the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003 have taken effect.

There are about 54 million who are registered voters in the Philippines and another 1.5 million overseas voters (out of about 10 million expatriates or Overseas Filipinos) who will be voting through our embassies and consulates around the world.

The thing is… if we keep on allowing other people who are easily swayed to cast their votes in favor of underserving candidates because they have been promise few hundred pesos in exchange for their votes,  them we let dirty money decide the outcome of our election. We then perpetuate the wrong kind of patronage politics. I can't help it but think that the future of our nation is truly in doom.

Comelec is task to prepare, to organise and to run the election.

I call upon the elite, who are the least vulnerable regardless of the result of election to think of the common good, either to exercise their influence to elect the right leaders for the country, leaders not just for them, not just to protect their personal and business interests but leaders who will attend to the needs of the most vulnerable people and deprived sectors of our society.

I call upon the middle class and educated, to participate even though they have lost all their hopes, and use their knowledge to elect the capable leaders that can uplift the whole nation.

For everyone who plans to exercise their right to vote in 2016, think and demand for better leaders. For some who have more urgent needs, like food for the day, maybe its easier for them to give away their votes to someone who have provided their basic needs in the past few weeks or days before the Election day. It's hard to directly blame and pinpoint who is at fault here. Sometimes, I feel there is a conspiracy by people who are already in elected positions to keep people poor, uneducated, devoid of opinion and helpless so its easier to put a price on their votes and prolong their hold to power. 

The truth is some politicians and would be politicians have been manipulating our minds to get our votes. Those who plan to sell their votes to the highest bidder, unfortunately they don’t see the bigger picture and if they do, they prefer to get their basic needs satisfied and give away their voting rights to some candidates who knowingly only offer them false hopes of professional leadership.

List of Presidents of the Republic of the Philippines

Having said all these, we might think that because some of us live in gated communities (giving us a false sense of the entire country's development and peace and order situation),  living with some privilege and a moderate economic growth rate that these are already enough for the country to survive and to prosper. We deserve better service and world-class leaders who will lessen the huge gap of the ultra rich and the poorest of the poor. Every Filipino deserves to have a fighting chance for a brighter future. The thing is, lots of us, myself included, have become callous to the sight of poverty in the county and have tolerated mediocre and corrupt politicians. Lots of us have adopted an attitude of "as long as it’s not my family" at the bottom of the food chain, that we are okay with that reality. A really sad reality but if we want real change and improve the lives of all the Filipinos, we need to sacrifice and do our share of nation building, and it begins with helping in choosing the best leaders we deserve.

I encourage everyone who registered especially those who will vote base on their understanding of overall political situation, to not lose this sacred chance to vote. For those who forget to register and those who have completely lost hope, I would still encourage you to register for 2019 suffrage and the succeeding elections.

Our problems cannot be righted by this election alone, rather by series of electing the right leaders consecutively and consistently.

So, who is eligible to vote?

1. Filipino citizen.

2. At least 18 years old on or before the time of Election Day.

3. A resident of the Philippines for at least 1 year.

4. A resident of the place where you intend to vote for at least 6 months preceding Election Day.

Seal of the President of the Philippines

Lastly, allow me to use a quote from a recent movie I watched, Heneral Luna, and reflect on it. If you allow yourself or your fellow Filipino to waste your votes on candidates that doesn't deserve to be managers of our rich natural and human resources, let this Tagalog quote reverberates as a background noise to remind us of our civic and patriotic duties to our homeland.

“Para Kayong mga birheng naniniwala sa pag-ibig ng isang puta” (Heneral Luna)

Whatever is the result of this upcoming election let us be reminded of what Joseph de Maistre uttered hundreds years ago, that "every nation gets the government it deserves."

Register and Vote!!!

 Go out and vote on Election Day!

http://www.philembassy.org.au/dual-citizenship/19-requirements9

http://www.philippine-embassy.org.sg/overseas-voting-registration-2/

http://www.comelec.gov.ph/?r=AboutCOMELEC/OverseasAbsenteeVoting/NROAV

http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/117993-comelec-registered-voters-2016

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_de_Maistre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heneral_Luna