Tomorrow will be the last day of filing the certificate of candidacy for individuals planning on running for office in the coming May 2010 elections. And as such, things are shaking up especially for politicians looking to forge alliances to strengthen their positions come election time.
And you might be surprised at what our local politicos have to offer. That’s unless you are really in tune with what’s happening at the local level.
Come 2010, you will see the same old familiar faces vying for new positions. Politicos who have backstabbed each other in the past will become allies. And we, the people who believed in whatever was fed to us, will feel betrayed.
But then again, politics is a game of betrayal. When speaking of politics, I am speaking of the same old political bullshit that politicos have been playing in Eastern Samar and the rest of the country for years. Try as we might, money is still the name of the game. He who can bankroll the election, his candidacy, and the bribing of the thousands of voters, more often than not wins.
Voters are not stupid of course. Surely, there are still people who votes can be bought. But I still believe that the majority of us are still for having a clean and honest elections. Sad to say, it takes more than wishful thinking to change things in our local political setting. It takes vigilance and action.
Why?
Because when politicos see numbers not going in their favor, they can always bribe others to change it for them. There are actual politicos brave enough to brazenly do everything to turn the numbers into their favor. Blatant cheating. Ask your local teacher on their experience how ballots have been manipulated in the past elections, and some of them will confirm it for you, in hushed tones, naturally.
Ask how dead voters were suddenly able to rise from their graves and vote. It’s either the candidate’s so popular that even the dead would rise to vote, or somebody’s bullshitting us. Ask how a barangay of 100 suddenly have 200 voters. Again, the candidate’s probably so popular, the animals and insects have insisted making their voice, bark, or meows count.
If you’re disillusioned, I say go ahead and vote. That way, you’ll have every reason to be angry when these politicos cheat. You can be rightfully angry when the same bastards who lied to us for the longest time will be coming back to power, pissing on our faces, and laughing behind our backs.
However, if you still believe that these bastards deserve to return to power, you are entitled to your own opinion. But let me also say that there are such things as wrong opinions.
Ced Solidon is the blog's founder. He currently works as a freelance writer. Aside from that, he also maintains a writing blog, Write Like a Rock Star! He loves to read books and play music.
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Failing your community is the greatest failure of all — Homer
There is nothing new in what you have written. everybody is aware of that, save for those whose eyes are closed and ears are shut. If a change must be done, then promote the change you want and do something about it. Sometimes when we call people names, it doesn’t really do any good. Nobody can piss on your wall or spit on your floor unless you give them permission to do it. I say, we take the time to get to know the candidates (again and again), and see what changed. Or maybe scrutinize well the intentions of the “newer” candidates, maybe we can learn something there that we can use come election day. Money is always an issue, you can’t run in an election without it, that is reality. But, we cannot judge our candidates based only on who they allied with – because they need the fuel to run their motors. Instead, take it as the best oppurtunity to know whose got character and integrity and who are willing to throw them away when it gets tight. Usually you’ll detect that from small talks, casual banters with people or even with jokes. Politics is trial and error. The best thing is for the voters to be encouraged to vote, to go out there and see what is going on and not just rely on some messenger(s) to tell them who to vote for. It would be wrong to say that voting is an act of disillusionment — it is our voice, let it not be called otherwise. Media is a powerful tool, let us use it to educate rather than to discourage, to empower people rather than to silence them, to strengthen rather than to let them wither. Let us use it wisely.
Yes, i think some of the candidates deserve their second chance, and it is just my opinion. I could be wrong, but then again, I could be right
You have a nice website here, and i might keep on coming back — not to break anybody’s balls though but just to keep me posted. Thank you for the oppurtunity to exercise my right to say something
Good luck.
Point taken. And well said.
I have said nothing new as nothing has changed. Although I have to clarify that I wasn’t rallying anyone to be disillusioned with what’s happening. Instead, I was trying to rally even the disillusioned to get up their asses and do something about what’s happening around them rather than complain.
If politics were a game of trial and error, then I guess we’ve already made tons of errors over the years, with little sign of improvement. A term would be a good measure of how far we’ve come from point a to b. Although the reality is that we’ve put people into power for far much longer than that, if it’s indeed for the sake of trial and error. How many times have we complained about corrupt politicos, yet waited for them to finish all 3 terms?
I understand the pragmatic purpose of creating alliances especially in politics. But if you’re going to sleep with the enemy, sleep with the same person you cursed in the past, then that’s something I cannot stomach. Especially if we’re talking about alliances that will turn into backstabbing come election time.
Indeed we need to move. And this is my contribution, my writing, as well as whatever good I have to show of our province through pictures. If what I write pushes people to disagree with me, fine. It’s always great to know what’s on the other side. And I’m always ready to admit if I’m wrong. But if it pushes other people to think, to form an opinion, the better.
You’re always welcome to visit our site. Salamat.
Thank you Ced.
Sometimes there is only one line that matters – the bottome line… which in this case is educating voters
Errors are made when nobody learns from the past. I believe this is what’s happening over there. I am still amazed (and sarcastically, entertained as well) with what is going on in Eastern Samar and I am sure I do not have to write it in detail. You will never get rid of political marriages and divorces no matter how you cannot take it, it will be there every election. Just like any other marriages, if it doesn’t work, you leave, you come back, you divorce, you marry another and it goes on and on
Presenting a problem is as important as presenting a resolution. It doesn’t have to be a guaranteed one, but just a possible one. I think you are going the right route waking up people and when their eyes are wide open then maybe the learning will begin.
It is a pleasure reading your articles and your posts. I admire what you are doing. Keep it up!
I’m pretty sure we haven’t learned enough. But what happened during the last elections was a glimmer of hope that we can really do something about the politics there if we really tried. Admittedly, though, we’ve got a long way to go.
As for the next step after the problem has been raised, people back in the province are already doing their best to come up with solutions and remain vigilant. I’ve covered this in some of my older posts, I think.
Thanks again for dropping by. Agsuba la.
Good day!
Your discussion on electoral process in our place is very informative. I would like to add about vote buying which is rampant in our place during election time. This vote buying is not also new and it is actually becoming worse. It\’s becoming bigger in amount. I heard a lady while I was riding in a van bragging about how big was the HUKIP they received last election. Actually she was even convincing us to live in their barangay because of big bucks grabbed from candidates during election time.
Vote buying as we all know is one of the violations of the important rules and regulations of COMELEC. If this rule/regulation is violated then the electoral process is half-baked which in turn we hired undeserving officials in view of following the long time tested, studied rules and regulations of COMELEC. If we hired undeserving officials we could not then expect the best and the cleanest performance from them. If the elected officials got their position in dirty process it is likely that they will do some dirty procedures in their jobs.
I will agree that we need to educate our voters especially in the rural areas. To let them know that their One thousand pesos received as HUKIP will probably let them enjoy for three days or less. But then those who buy them and got elected will enjoy for three years. In business perspective if this is how they see it, I think the voters are losers. Pretty much losers.
Somebody will say that we can get the money and vote for our choice. Ok fine. There is no problem with casting votes of our choice, however I believe receiving money from candidates is. Why? Because you give the them your permission to have dirty tricks on sacred electoral process. If this will happen of course as I mentioned earlier one of the rules and regulations of election will be violated.
As a result, undeserving bad elected officials will emerge.
I do not intend to offend the candidates or voters with these opinion I presented. I just hope that these ideas will shed light that vote buying is not productive. Forgive me but I have to label vote buying as a cancer of the electoral process that destroy the welfare of Eartern Samarinos and the Filipinos as a whole.
Believed it or not, for the last three elections my family rejected HUKIP. Internally when I cast vote I feel Power and Freedom on my right to exercise suffrage. These are I believe one of the most precious commodities we can avail in our democratic society.
Thank you for this opportunity to share. God bless!
Jomer,
Glad to know you did something to show you’re against vote buying. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here as well.
P1000+ kickback per P10 given to voters.
maybe they’ll also say, “why should i build decent roads for you? i gave each of you P100 to vote for me! it’s payback time!” or “i’ll get rich! you’ll be hungry! irony?”
people who sold their votes have no right to complain about how bad their lives are! they have no right to look forward to a better life! they should apologize to their children because the younger generation will have no decent legacy to inherit!
if only we’ll all have the guts to look ahead and visualize what we, as a people, will look like 10, 20 years from now, perhaps we’ll all be scared and begin to be pro-active as one!