With the lifting of the public emergency brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, “revenge travel” has become a vogue among tourists who wanted to get back the lost feeling of adventure due to the lockdowns and restrictions.
Political experts, however, are watching a different kind of revenge to unfold this October: “revenge politics.” Memes, in particular, have abounded in social media about the possibility of “gantihan” among voters.
Old grievances of barangay officials failing to do their duties at the height of the pandemic are sure to be dragged to the surface again as the election season gets underway.
Mudslinging is expected to run fever pitch as the public will be sure to remember the performance (or the lack of) of barangay officials during the Covid-19 emergency.
Who was the one who spent his time on the beach while his barangay posted the highest number of Covid-19 cases in his city? Who was the one who was allegedly “picky” on distributing the financial assistance given by the national and local governments to isolated residents? Who was the one who allowed people to break health protocols or whose barangay tanods have become overzealous in implementing restrictions?
As this newsmagazine has pointed out countless times before, the barangay elections are a mirror of the heated political scene the Philippines experiences in choosing their next leaders.
And if the 2022 national and local elections are an indicative sign, this year’s barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections will see a resurgence of the “revenge politics” that have marred our political scene.
But here’s something our voters should consider: are we voting for our officials simply to take revenge on our incumbent officials, or will our votes represent a need for genuine change that we have desired to see in our barangays?
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