Reflections for peace and security

The Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country, and Easter Sunday represents a season of hope and reflection for many Filipinos, especially with the May 12 elections just three weeks away.

Emails coming from many of our readers share their concerns about the “political noise” and the intensity of political feuds, especially in the provinces where clans, siblings or even parent and child, run against each other for the same local position. As one email sender put it, “political rivalries have reached another level with all the things that are happening all over.”

Last February, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines already issued a pastoral letter signed by Caloocan Bishop and president of the Bishops’ Conference, Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David, calling for a “revolution of hope” and urging the faithful to struggle against the idea of hopelessness and instead, strive to find hope in the midst of adversities.

Lamenting against “politics as usual,” the CBCP letter nevertheless offers an optimistic outlook, sharing sparks and glimpses of hope seen from “principle-driven leaders who champion good governance,” the “idealism of young people and responsible citizens who do not sell their idealism and patriotism,” the collaboration between various cause-oriented groups as well as civic, religious and non-government organizations, from ordinary people committed to “sincere service even without recognition or reward” and from those who “stake their reputation, even lives, to fight corruption and pursue justice.”

The Catholic Church and civic groups issued a call for candidates to reflect during the Holy Week to “uphold the integrity of the electoral process” and “reflect sincerely on the good they can do for the country and to recommit themselves to selfless service for the Filipino people – especially the poor, the marginalized and the voiceless.”

Caritas, which serves as the social arm of the Catholic Church, also urged the voters to “elect public servants who will tackle urgent economic, social, ecological and other crises confronting our country today.”

At stake during the midterm elections are 12 seats in the Senate and 317 seats in the House of Representatives, along with local positions from governor to vice governor, mayor, vice mayor as well as provincial board members and councilors in 82 provinces in the country.

Early January, the Comelec identified 403 places as “areas of concern,” with heightened monitoring also being conducted due to the escalating tensions from rival political parties and the presence of private armed groups that could disrupt the smooth conduct of voting at the polls.

In Central Luzon, 14 areas were classified as hotspots, while in Eastern Visayas, there are some 27 towns that are being watched, with a number of them classified under the “red” category because of intense political divisions. In the updated list released by the Comelec towards the latter part of March, most of the areas under the “red” category list were mostly in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), with Lanao del Sur accounting for 20 of those in the list. There was, however, a slight increase in the number of areas classified as relatively peaceful.

While the midterm elections in the Philippines is scheduled on May 12, the 30-day voting period for overseas Filipinos started on April 13. Registered voters who were able to pre-enroll will be casting their ballots online to vote for their choice of senators and party-list representatives via the internet with the use of their smartphones, laptops, computers, tablets and other smart gadgets. Unfortunately, only 48,000 out of an estimated 1.2 million Filipino voters based abroad have been able to sign up for the pre-voting enrollment system, according to the Comelec.

The use of digital online voting is something we have been advocating for since I came to Washington, DC after seeing the cumbersome process of overseas voting. In fact, I came across an online voting platform from an American company based out of Massachusetts who presented their system to me. I am so pleased to see that finally, many overseas Filipinos will be able to easily participate in what many of us consider as the most sacred of our duties as citizens of our country.

There will be challenges as well as controversies that go with something novel like online voting, but Comelec has given assurances that the system is secure and reliable. Overseas Filipinos appreciate the groundbreaking technology that makes the voting process easier.

Hopefully, the heated, divisive and acrimonious political rhetoric will start toning down after May 12 and allow the government to start doing its job. We are facing so many problems in our country, foremost of which is the current situation worldwide that could impact peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region.

The escalating tariff war between the world’s economic giants and the new tariffs that could possibly come our way will have an effect on our economy – something that our politicians should focus on because our future as a nation is at stake. As I have pointed out on several occasions, we need to make sure that our economy continues to be resilient in order to overcome the uncertainties that the tariff wars could bring about. At the end of the day, economic security is paramount because it would impact our national security agenda.

Regardless of the outcome of the midterm elections, everyone should be ready to unite and move forward as a nation. Whatever our faith is, we all pray to the same God. It is our faith that gives us the reason and the strength to face up to our country’s challenges – and rise once again just as Jesus Christ rose on Easter Sunday.

*      *      *

Email: [email protected]