It's election day by the time this paper comes out.
May 12, 2025 is a very significant day for all Filipinos who value the importance of their right to suffrage for the betterment of our society and our lives as political human beings.
It's midterm polls among local communities.
But national and regional political exercises are also imperative among democracy loving Filipinos.
Coming to election precincts as early as seven in the morning to seven in the evening is the timeframe given by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to regular voters to cast their ballots.
Although, for Senior Citizens (SCs), Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and Pregnant Women, the voting time especially allotted to them is as early as five at the crack of dawn to seven in the morning.
Of course, they are also allowed to cast their votes anytime of the day.
Counting and canvassing of the ballots and results of the elections might come as early as dinner time and many precincts must have finished summarizing the atmosphere of the polls.
Here in Laguna, many are asking what fate awaits several aspirants in the local posts in the provincewide, congressional districts and the city or municipal public service race.
There are a number of showbiz personalities running in various positions in the region.
Action star Dan Fernandez aspires for Laguna gubernatorial post as well as television broadcaster Sol Aragones (we dare not qualify them as former media workers because they themselves haven't let go of their media savvy stunts).
Actress and once-upon-a-time teenybopper of the youth-oriented TV show "That's Entertainment" mainstay Gem Castillo guns for the vice-governorship of the province.
Meanwhile, Miss Flawless Angelica Jones runs anew as a board member of the Third District of the province.
Action star and on-and-off screen antagonist ER Ejercito wants to reclaim his mayoral power in Pagsanjan town.
Others may not be showbiz people but they, too, are denizens of the republic of entertainment simply because they love to entertain—accommodate social problems of monetary deprivation as burial for the dead, sponsorship in baptismal, confirmation or wedding, opening of business offices, among other menial concerns—their constituents from all walks of life.
Karen Agapay or Ruth Hernandez (both wrestling the Laguna governorship) might not be movie, television and theater stars but they, too, share the same emotions of joy and happiness, despair and disappointment, victory and failure etc. of actors and actresses off-cam.
What we can ask from these people (including other candidates, celebs or not) is their ability to alter the oppressive or tyrannical system of governance—clothed in a liberal form of feudal leadership—in the local level that brings in too much poverty, indifference, unfair or unjust practices in all aspects of life in the community, e.g. employer-employee relationship?
Or can they totally eliminate graft and corruption in the city, municipal or provincial multi-level echelon?
Or can they genuinely teach or enlighten the electorate through seminars, dialogues, symposia etc. and mobilize them gradually and freely, help them identify their roles as participants and agents of change about their emancipation from the chains of oppression, one of them, the dynastic rule or exploitation of commercialism and consumerism that make them poorer and sycophants?
If they are only good at making their constituents remain lapdogs and idiots, they better reimagine themselves as new leaders or else they just disappear from the face of the earth..
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonNews #Imagery