Come May, we will go to our respective precincts to vote for the next people who will lead us.
We have been doing this except for some who could care less if election is here or not. They do not vote anyway, and the do not have plans of voting. Afterwards, they always consider the election as a useless political exercise.
Elections have come and gone and nothing has changed really. Some politicos have enriched themselves in power. Some have made government service as a security for themselves.
But the poor remain poor. Our country is plunged in debt and remains a third world country. And you have these politicos promising good governance, good life and prosperity for our country. Prosperity my foot!
So the poor remain poor. So what is their response? Vote-buying is the name of the game. The hell they care. If a politico goes to them with the money, they will vote for him or her no matter how corrupt the politico is. After all, their life has not changed for the better. They still love in the squatter colonies in the creek and on the side of a hilly land like mushrooms clinging with their makeshift houses.
Do they hope for this politico and that politico? No, they don’t. Their lives have not changed. They are still very poor eating “galunggong” for years as this fish has slowly turned expensive. The tinapa, which used to be affordable at P5, is now P20.
So people seem to have lost interest in politics except for those employed by politicians. If ever they show interest they will ask only for what is in it for them at the moment.
But many are still interested in finding the right leader though.
Because whether we like it or not, elections will be with us. We embrace this republican government so we need elections and free speech.
We study and dissect these people running for public positions and we choose. Come election day, we register our choices. We vote wisely. That may be a cliché, but that it is.
