This week, Filipinos will once again converge at polling stations to choose their leaders for the next three years.
Thus begins a new episode on the ongoing process of democracy and progress, where, to paraphrase William Shakespeare, all of us are the main characters.
And as the main characters in this ongoing process, the responsibility falls on us voters to ensure that the leaders that we choose – and the leaders who will be given the mandate – will stay true to their sworn oath to serve the Filipino people.
Our responsibility as voters and as citizens doesn’t start (and end) with shading the ovals next to the leaders we want.
After all, as had been said countless times that it has become a cliché, these leaders are our “public servants” whom we pay through taxes and other contributions to the state.
Need we remind voters of what one President, now long gone, once said in his inauguration speech, “Kayo ang Boss ko”?
Nowadays, the reverse seems to be the trend: voters being so lost in idolatry, tribalism and personal biases that they now tend to put a blind eye on the faults of our public officials.
What’s worse is that some of us have formed an “unshakeable” trust, belief, even worship, of our leaders that when they blatantly commit wrongdoing, not only do their supporters ignore it but fall for the same old excuses of “political persecution,” “demolition jobs,” “he’s still a good man, despite what he did,” and all the rest.
As the “bosses” of our “public leaders,” it is not only the right and privilege but also the duty of every citizen to call out their leaders for their wrongdoing. Enough of idol worship, enough of blind fanaticism that has prevented us from moving forward as a nation.
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