This week, on March 28, the official campaign season for local positions in the upcoming May 12 midterm elections will start.
Campaign season in the Philippines, particularly Laguna province, has been marked by color, fiesta, celebration and even tension.
But even as supporters and candidates can sometimes find themselves in noisy confrontation, the good thing is that in past elections, campaign season has been generally peaceful. Let us pray it stays that way until May 12.
Even so, with the fiesta-like atmosphere that has marked our political campaigns, we should not lose focus on the two main factors we voters should all consider in choosing our leaders: qualifications and platforms.
As this newsmagazine has pointed out in the past, our voters should expect a lot from the four candidates currently running for governor. All four of them have had experience in lawmaking – three congresspeople and a presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
But it is the platform of progams, projects and advocacies that we should give equal weight to. Let us look beyond the banal, almost cliché, pledges of genuine change and scrutinize their priorities and programs and see which will be the most beneficial for their soon-to-be constituents.
Of course, we might be sounding like a broken record here, due to the average Filipino voter’s notoriety for bandwagon politics, personality politics, even “benggansa” politics that had, some critics charged, led us to become poor choosers of our next leaders.
But as long as we have hope that there will still be Filipinos who can “vote wisely,” this newsmagazine will continue reminding the average voter to look beyond the appearances of politics and carefully gauge our candidates, for the good of our nation and our children’s future.
Having said that, good luck to all candidates!
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