Election 2007

Together with my brother and my mom I went to the polling precint to cast my vote. Our names were registered at precint number 376A. I never missed an election ever since I became eligible and a registered voter. It's the least that I can do for this country. I love the Philippines.... this is my one and only country. Sure, there are a lot of things that makes me want to pull my hair or bang my head on the wall out of frustration with this country. But here is where I was born and raised, brown is the color of my skin, I am most fluent in my native tongue, and my sensibilities is very Filipino.

On my previous electoral participation I always have a list of candidates that I will vote for finalized or completed days or even weeks before the election day. But today, I am already at the polling booth yet I am still struggling on which senatorial candidates to include in my ballot. I ended up choosing..... for lack of better words the "lesser evil". We all know that our politicians (and I will never call them public servants.....the nerves of these people) do not have any clear ideology, advocacy, or principle that they stand for. Political parties are as good as the last election. Our basis of whom to vote for is the perceived "moral integrity" of the candidate. Yet even under this basis alone I can't choose from the field of 37 official senatorial candidates.

Most of the candidates are there because their showbiz careers are already on the decline or they would like to replace the vacated position of their kin. Some even have the audacity to run even if their sibling, parents or relatives are already seated in the senate and hoarding pork barrel money..... they obviously would like to double the hoard. That is why I would never ever vote for anybody no matter how well their spin doctors have painted their image if they already have a kin in the senate. Dude there are 88.7 million Filipinos and there are only 24 seats in the senate, it is ridiculous to have 2 or 3 seats to be taken by only one family. That is too much!

Anyways after almost 15 minutes of languishing whom to vote I was able to complete my ballot and cast my vote. The almost 100 meter sweltering trek from the precint to the car was almost unbearable because of the intense summer heat. But then again it is the least that I can do, I made myself counted and I did my part.