For wisdom and power belong to Him.
And it is He who changes the times and epochs;
He removes kings and establishes kings;
He gives wisdom to wise men,
And knowledge to men of understanding.
It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things.
He knows what is in the darkness.”
(Daniel 2:20-22)
I hope and pray that our readers will be challenged, strengthened and do the right thing particularly in every election for the sake of God, our nation and our families.
According to reliable information, “for the CBCP (Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines), democracy is God’s will.” And in a democratic country, we the people, are God’s instruments to express His will. Hence, the saying, “The voice of the people is the voice of God”. The evil of vote buying and selling is that it distorts the real will of our people, thus distorting God’s will, during elections.
Massive vote buying and selling in the Philippine every election particularly at the local-level has become the rule of the political game courtesy of corrupt candidates and corrupted voters. Thus, beware of this political evil that will distort the real desire of the people for clean and honest elections, and usher in unscrupulous political leaders with selfish interests. If these syndicated political leaders succeed in their ways, dark days are assured in our nation. Buying and selling of votes are great hindrances in reforming our electoral system.
These will breed and perpetuate corruption and poverty in our midst.
Based on the teachings of the CBCP,” election is one of the most important elements of democracy”. Hence, CBCP encourages Filipinos to honestly and wisely cast their votes during elections. In the collective mind of the CBCP, we, as a people, are “in a quest for mature and just nationhood”. Therefore, we, Filipino voters, for the good of our people and communities must be honest, mature and have justice in our mind when we cast our votes to fight political evils in our society.
Here are the exact words of the CBCP on the issue: “All of us who are of the required age will come forward to perform our very serious civic and moral duty to vote into office the people who will really lead us in our continuing quest for mature and just nationhood”.
Clearly, the CBCP is trying its best to educate our electorate not to become victims of “politics of payoffs, patronage, and personalities”. It had issued several Pastoral Letters to guide our people and fight electoral malpractices during elections. Filipino voters please take serious note of this for the sake of our beloved people and country. The evil of vote buying and selling cannot be over emphasized.
In some places in our country, per CBCP, many of the voters “have lost sight of the relevance of their vote to their life and future, and sell it for financial gain. Many have become indifferent to corruption or themselves want to have a piece of the action. Thus, undeserving men or women are voted into office. Moral principles in the practice of politics in our land are set aside. Political malpractices are the biggest bane in our life as a nation and the most pernicious obstacles to our achieving of full human development.”
Filipino voters prove in the forthcoming election that you are NOT FOR SALE! No doubt, God wants us to know the right thing to do on election day. Do not distort God’s will: The good voters of this nation should not allow evil to win in this coming election and other elections to come. They surely want clean, honest and orderly elections in the country and are prepared to sacrifice for this laudable cause.
NO TO SINFUL VOTE BUYING AND SELLING! YES TO CLEAN AND HONEST ELECTIONS IN 2022 AND OTHER ELECTION TO COME!
May God guide and bless our people and nation. There are limits to our knowledge on the significance of various events in the country most especially in a pandemic and rapid technological advancements. Hence, it is incredibly hard to predict what lies in the coming days and more so in the future. However, if we carefully observe some trends over a period of time, we might be able to understand and intelligently predict to a certain extent what will probably come and its potential consequences.
It is in this perspective that the Servants of the Nation who are members of the Davao-based “Kilos Pederal sa Pagbabago” (KPP) Movement had refocused its advocacy from Systems/Structural Reform to People Reform. Their new enlightenment of “to effectively reform our nation is to first reform our people’s mindsets and behavior”. This simply means People’s Renewal before Nation’s Renewal.
KPP likewise realized that “collective action” is needed to ensure the success of a People Reform Program. For this reason, leaders of our various institutions must harness the Filipino “bayanihan” spirit and collaboratively participate in launching nationwide a “People Reform Program” for the common good. Together, in solidarity, we move forward to be led by our new President in 2022.
Authentic renewal of our people is badly needed in the promotion of clean, honest and orderly elections in our country.
