I have been exposed to political issues even before I learned the multiplication table. I have experienced those brownouts during Cory's time, how the fluctuating price of "galunggong" (a local mackerel) had been an economic indicator (not the price of petrol), when Meralco electric bills went up because of the increase in the number of Independent Power Providers (IPPs) in the country to help solve our power outage problems. Growing up I enjoyed watching Erap's impeachment trial religiously, like it's a telenova that's just hard to miss. I got fired up by EDSA II and loathed EDSA III (???). I also joined high school and college debates on political issues concerning the youth not just for the extra grades but also for the beauty of defending your stand on these matters.
Despite all that, I chose not to vote.
Not because getting yourself registered is one hell of a task but practically because growing up I learned that elections only have you choose for the lesser evil when in an ideal society, my vote should go for the one who is not evil. I am not saying our society should first be ideal before they could get me to vote and I am not also proud to not practice my social rights to suffrage (I remember chatting with an old friend and we both reminisced and agreed that the last time we ever voted was for our high school student council election). Not voting now is something I am not proud of but it's a choice I made so I wouldn't have eventual disappointments years after. We have had 14 Presidents all in all, and I don't know of any one who have been voted and left the presidency without people who protested against him/her and pleaded for his/her resignation in more than one occasion. Not entirely because the head of state had really been at fault but whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not, we Filipinos, even as we claim to be very independent and socially well-rounded, are very much afraid of change/s and not very trusting of our fellowmen.
There were the issues of VFA, Magna Carta, Charter Change and even this automated election we would be using on Monday and always, once announced/leaked, you would have people (same faces) marching off the streets with iconic images of whoever the president is and would ask for his/her resignation. I get that it's just a natural reaction to change. Because change is something that is unknown. And something that is unknown causes panic. I also get why we are not so trusting of our fellowmen. When you're in the Philippines, try sitting next to a snatcher inside a jeepney or ride a cab if you're going someplace you don't know and do that the next time and you would notice the big difference in the meter reading. But there is still the big room to question ourselves, if we don't trust our fellowmen, how can they or us (reversing the context towards ourselves) become trustworthy? That not all shabby men we sit next to inside a public vehicle or not all cab drivers have wrong, malicious and bad intentions.
Bottomline here is, we judge too early.
We judge now that this person would be a good enough head of state and later disappoint ourselves because he is gesturing changes in the ways we live. We keep asking for change to happen, for something to stop, but whenever somebody raises a finger to act on that plea, we end up judging the person again too early as someone who wants to disrupt the status quo. I'm telling you, if this election happened the same week when former President Cory died, I am 100% sure that Noynoy would have won the elections even before he has decided to run.
But looking at the roster of candidates we have now, I can only sigh in disappointment for not registering to vote this year. Disappointed that I judged them all too early. Because there was this one man who, all throughout the campaign period, has been a true gentleman.
To hell with credentials (even when I know he has one at par compared to the others) and with the issues he is being abashed with (even when I know that the issues they have of him is not his in the first place - was it his fault that he is a Cojuanco and that he served in the Dept. of Defense under GMA?). I have read his platform of governance and they were impressive for a candidate. I have seen the debates and he was the only one you wouldn't be ashamed of to put beside Obama or beside other heads of states because you know he would have a fruitful conversation with them. But there is one ultimate reason why I would want him to win.
If only I could vote I am voting for him simply because of all the presidential candidates we have, he is the only one who doesn't point his fingers even when sometimes there's a need to. He doesn't have a negative campaign. And that tells us what kind of a person, of a man, he is. That when put into a position of authority, I would like to judge him this soon as someone who wouldn't point his fingers in times of change, in times of conflict. That he will take responsibility for a decision made. Because that's the type of leader we need nowadays. Someone we cannot trust, perhaps - atleast not at this point, but atleast someone who would take credit for his actions and does what he says he will do.
This coming Monday I cannot vote. I will not vote. That is why Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro almost had my vote.
