The race is on!

Many have filed their candidacy for various national and local positions. Until November 15, however, only the candidates themselves can confirm if they will proceed with their candidacy, withdraw, or give way to other candidates.

Sadly, even the filing of candidacy has been politicized, even bastardized. This was not the case in the days of honorable and sincere candidates.

At present, there are those who can just mindlessly agree, voluntarily or through some other arrangements, to be temporary candidates and give way, without qualm or guilt, to another.

Oh, that our people can see through the insincerity and gimmickry of these undeserving candidates.

With the filing of candidacy, in one sense, it can be said that the race for 2022 elections is on. However, since it is not yet clear who the final candidates are, the Filipinos are left with no choice but to wait till next November 15 or perhaps, even as late as May next year.

For now, these observations.

There is no party yet with a complete slate of candidates, from president down to senators. The alliances, coalitions are still in progress, definitely.

The political parties are diverse --not just the previous Liberal vs. Nacionalistas, Duterte’s party vs. others, for example.

Like before, flitting from one party to another does not seem to bother many candidates or supporters. Political butterflies and balimbings have been mainstays of Philippine politics.

Pink and green have also been added to the political spectrum aside from the previous red, blue, and yellow. The rainbow campaign is definitely on. Time will tell who among the candidates will remain in what party, with what color, and come out winners.

What is obvious now is that the battle among real and paid supporters is definitely on! Using various platforms and various strategies, the heated campaign has started!

A number of sponsored, paid, and expensive endorsements of certain candidates have been aired. The frequency and length of political ads on TV, radio, and printed media can serve as good indicators for funding for candidates.

These multi-media political ads help candidates reach out to voters and have been proven to be effective. But these political ads, alone, do not guarantee the winners.

Surveys have also been commissioned by various parties and candidates, with trends possibly but not always conclusively determining the real winners. Surveys may also fetch a handsome sum from candidates and parties so again, like mainstream media political ads may favor those with more funds.

Social media is now a very active political arena! Not all candidates and parties, however, have supporters who use FB, Messenger, Twitter, and other apps.

It may depend on the network of friends and public allowed within one’s FB but so far, it seems that the most engaged for now are supporters of Leni and Marcos. There seems to be very few posts about the other national candidates.

The posts are very vocal about their support for either Leni or Marcos.

Accusations are exchanged, the level of exchange maybe respectful, polite, or otherwise depending on who is posting.

Definitely, trolls have their own level of vulgarity. Perhaps, to attract more responses and therefore earn more, trolls have to resort to irresponsible, gutter-level words/curses. Never mind if their arguments are useless, irrelevant, stupid, or rude. As long as they are able to rouse readers to respond to them, then they are paid more.

Non-trolls have learned to starve the trolls by ignoring and not at all responding. However, to the trolls’ delight, the temptation is strong to retaliate or defend truth/decency, one’s candidate, and moral values.

Throughout the following days, expect more color, more drama, more active, heated electoral arguments, and posts in FB and other platforms!