Disappointed

While I still can, allow me to share my grief over the recent national election in the Philippines. With the dictator's son in the lead, and with my presidential candidate pleading her supporters to settle down, I am utterly disappointed. I grieve for the country, for its citizens even if I feel betrayed by a number of its citizens.

I honestly have no idea where we'll end up when they release the official election results, nor when they finally appointment BBM the position. All I know is that I'm anxious. The whole country is anxious about what will happen. I know that it should be fair to give the man a fighting chance but with his track records, it just seems impossible.

On May 9, 2022, the national election was held. Form there, my disappointment started when the ballot counting machines broke down. It was fortunate that some of the machines started working again after 30 mins - 1 hour but some of those machines didn't work until the voting time was almost over (the one in my cluster got fixed at 6PM). Some of the machines also didn't work until the following day because I saw news that some people from other regions waited up until the early morning just to feed the machine their ballots. I still think that it was due to the machine hacking incident months prior to the election and I don't think they did any additional checks on it to ensure that it will work properly on said date. All I know is that the country was not prepared for the number of voters that finally practiced their right of suffrage, nor were we prepared for the outcome of this election.

The partial count started coming out at around 9 PM of May 9 and I just thought while checking the results "is this real? Did people really not want change?" Is a transparent and thoughtfully planned out government system too hard to wish for? Can't we have someone who actually puts actions in their words?

The dictator's son was in the lead, and so was the current president's daughter. I was livid and I even told my friends that I won't be surprised if their children ran for the presidential position in the next year since their other family members already won positions in this election period. I guess the country just really doesn't know how to move on from political dynasties 🤦 next thing you know, only certain families will be allowed to run for position until the country turns into a monarchy. Back then, the joke was funny but now... Just the thought of it disgusts me.

What I do feel bad for was when my friends' families who are heavy Marcos supporters started humiliating and calling out my friends who voted against their choices. These were a few that I saw on my wall when I checked on Tuesday and Wednesday

So what the post says: "my blood is boiling! Is it that hard to accept? YOU LOST TO A THIEF,. ANON GRADUATE, AND SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T PAY TAXES!!! WHAT ELSE ARE YOU GONNA SAY ABOUT HIM, WHY CAN'T YOU JUST SUPPORT" or something along the lines. I mean, calling them out would have been fine if their relatives said "just watch and see him return the country to its golden age" but no, they basically acknowledged and mentioned all the things their candidate was and idk if they lack brain cells or what with this. Your just basically shaming your relatives for going with someone with a better reputation?

Then there was also this: "from the start, the campaign was already negative so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the results would also be negative

Everyone in politics has and will always have dirt on them so don't say that she's clean. CORRUPTION OR NOT, NOBODY IS CLEAN, WE ALL HAVE SIN"

I mean, I get that we all have sins but that doesn't mean you should drag an entire country with you in sin. And if you look at the other candidate's track records, she has no negative records. There isn't much you can put on her either that will drag down her credibility to lead a country and save it from financial crisis.

I know I'm being biased with this rant but if you're gonna lead a country, the best thing you can honestly do is to not put it in much deeper debt and shit than it already has. And speaking of financial crisis:

The current administration isn't even over yet but how did we get more debt from the world Bank??? The current world Bank debt should be at around 12 trillion and with the country's current population of around 112 million people

Each person will have to contribute that much just to help clear up the debt, but that's if clearing the debt would ever be a priority. But it's not, and we still need to maintain our country infrastructure, medicine, defense, education, and offices so that would also eat up on the tax they're collecting from us. I wouldn't even be surprised if that dept exceeded the trillions with the dictator's son in the high chair. With how he responded in interviews, I don't even think he values the people's hard earned money enough.

Oh, and there's also the fact that his administration hasn't even started yet but foreign investors are already pulling out of their deals on this country.

Like, stocks are dropping left and right and I know corrections can happen but when companies start actually sending letters, announcements and memos to the public about their withdrawal from the local market, you know that it's gonna hit the country hard. It's already affecting the PHP-USD conversion because that's already one way to check how your country's economy is doing. So from a fluctuating PHP 50-51, the current exchange rate of 1usd is already at PHP 52 and it slowly keeps increasing by cents. I honestly don't know how the country will pull through with this one, I really don't.

Then there's people saying "why not go abroad? If you don't want to stay here then leave" and I'm just thinking "look, you should know that one of the reasons the country never hits rock bottom is because of the amount of OFWs we have. Do you have any idea how much they contribute to the country's gross domestic index?" It would be fine to go abroad and to forget about the country but the fact that you send money to the country means you still contribute to its economy and if I'm being honest, I do not want to contribute to an administration who has no idea how to handle finances.

Oh and the cherry on top of this all. The assumed vice president will be in charge of the department of education and she plans on enforcing military training because "not all jobs require diplomas and degrees" and I would have agreed if this country followed western standards but no. We are Asians and if she actually tried to look for work without her father's connections, she should know how impossible it is in this country to find a job without a diploma and without a professional license. Even cashiers and store clerks require a diploma here or at least some form of certificate. So how will military training help with anything aside from war and making people into obedient dogs?

Anyways, this is the last count update for the candidates. Tomorrow they'll be making official announcements and Tomorrow, I'm getting shitface wasted after work because I need it. Sorry for the really long rant but I really don't want this country to fall deeper into ruins. The country itself is rich, it's beautiful but the people and its rulers make it so hard to want to stay here. I've already started fixing my passport and I'm looking for an agency that can help me rush my work visa for Spain. My friends told me to do it before the next president takes his spot because getting out of the country might get harder in the upcoming years.