Modern Elections

Traditional law as it is, a democratic government chooses its governing body among qualified candidates through a fair election. So we, the Filipinos, being in a democratic nation, abide by this law.

But never has been in our country ever experienced a clean election. For in every generation, one or the other does an act of violation of the laws of the election. It pains to admit this because we are Filipinos and so are they.

Each candidate, he be running for senator or as a municipal councilor, has his own exaggerated and law-violating gimmicks to persuade people. The most common are the posters bearing their names and faces. Wherever you look, there’s a face of a certain candidate smiling as if he’s sure to win. Posters as big as walls, which supposedly have 4 ft. by 4 ft. in maximum, cover each street corner. Poster-stapling on trees is supposed to against electoral guidelines. And even posting on public vehicles is practiced even though it’s prohibited. These unbelievable people have no shame.

And if rich enough, usually running for senators can afford this, a candidate can pay for an advertisement for his name, though with limited time which most exceed, aired in many networks. It’s very inducing because people mostly watch TV, and these ads are beautifully made. For better impact to the adoring public, they even use actors, actresses, and icons in showbiz to endorse them. I can conclude that these candidates need the voice of an icon to coax the public, instead of speaking for themselves. I think they believe they can look better in this way, which in truth makes them look weak. And because this turned out to be very effective other actors and actresses run for a government position, endorsing their names.

And the biggest dismay is the one we call “funding,” which translates to vote-buying. We are aware that this had been happening in the past years. In the years that passed, people were seen going to an abandoned building to receive envelopes containing money. The very mention of it was taboo back in the day. But now, everybody talks about it, and compares each candidate’s price in the open, excited for it, and makes a list of things they intend to buy. Each party list gives an ID to voters to keep track of its sure votes. We are incredibly awed by this. Imagine that, Official Identification Card for vote-buying, wow! It sounds so legal. The only amusing things I find in these days’ campaigning strategies are the hilarious jingles of candidates derived from various famous songs.

But to sum them up, these candidates are such hypocrites. They always talk about peace and economic uplifting, but they run their campaign with obvious violations and dirty hands. Our country’s not far from total bankruptcy, if we may say so. Will this ever end? Are we going to sit idly while our nation’s immersed in complete corruption? When will we stand for what’s right, and protect this country from threats, foreign and domestic?

Lead image from Google.

Thank you, everyone 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇