Understanding the Elections – Part 2:
This is a very difficult piece for me to write. Perhaps it’s the reason why I’ve been putting off writing it for so long.
Disclosing my personal choices of candidates for political office goes against my professional upbringing as a journalist.
I won’t give a specific list of choices, except in the case of one candidate and I’ll explain why.
What I’ll do instead is share with you guys the considerations I take into account when choosing from this particular set of Senate candidates. I’ll tell you what – to me – their positive and negative aspects are — particularly those within fighting distance to land in the Magic 12. I’ll leave you to make your own choices.
I used to consider intelligence as THE main qualification for national office.
But in recent years I’ve asked myself – why is it that our country has remained poor and decaying despite having so many top government officials graduate from Wharton or London School of Economics, or Harvard or Yale or Oxford University?
Why has all this brain power not translated to a better quality of life for most Filipinos?
It was then I realized, after covering Philippine politics for over three decades – including a stint at the Senate – that there is something horribly missing in most of our politicians who seek and win political office. They place the welfare of their families and relatives first.
Although they may say while campaigning that their heart bleeds for the poor, their interests are not really with the poor.
But as I wrote earlier, it is not only my personal choices that matter in these elections. I also have to consider which political alliance will end up controlling the Senate and who will end up being president in 2016. See my earlier story – The THREE most important questions to ask yourself in voting for senators
In the previous article, I posed three questions:
QUESTION ONE: Who do I want to be President of the Philippines in 2016?
QUESTION TWO: Which political bloc do I want to have control of the Senate, the Commission on Appointments, the Presidential Electoral Tribunal and the Senate Electoral Tribunal: The bloc of President Benigno Aquino (PNoy) or the bloc of Vice-President Jejomar Binay?
QUESTION THREE: Who are my personal choices for senator?
In Part 1, I answered QUESTIONS ONE and TWO.
This Part 2 is an attempt to help you answer QUESTION THREE. But as I said, the answers to QUESTION THREE will be affected by your answers to QUESTIONS ONE and TWO.
Just a clarification: You can of course vote for less than 12. But by not voting for 12 names, you allow other senators whom you do not at all like to possibly go up in ranking and make it into the Magic 12.
Disclaimer: The views in this blog are those of the blogger and do not necessarily reflect the views of ABS-CBN Corp.