Most politicians are liars: True or false?

Here come the liars again. Politics in the Philippines and even in many other countries, is the art of telling lies and being elected because of them. And the voters never seem to learn. Over and over again the people are taken in for a ride. This is a country of so many brilliant people who keep on electing jokers in both Houses of Congress.

It is the season of blatant and shameless politics. And these are the worst of times, and with apologies to Charles Dickens, these can also become the best of times. The campaign period is upon us and the Philippines is going to be poisoned with lies, lies and unadulterated lies to manipulate the minds of the voters and confuse the people. 

Lie number one: Here is a young female candidate for senator whose mom cannot run for reelection due to term limits, and whose brother is the most silent among the members of the Senate, who is trying to mislead us that she is the voice of change, the voice of innovation, something fresh.

My God, she is the most telling evidence of the status quo. She can never represent change. Her family business empire has been, for the longest time, transforming tenant's farms into housing projects, thereby exacerbating our food crisis and unrelenting rice importation. And her mom is the sitting chair of the committee of agriculture. Talk of conflict of interest, is she going to change that?

Lie number two: another female senatorial candidate is misleading us again with her "Make it Better" slogan, alluding to doing better than her sister who cannot run for senator again for being term limited. Better than what? Reminds us of another half brothers from a nearby city one of whom called himself, The Good One. These families are lording over metro cities as anointed barons and baronesses of wealthy political dynasties.

Why are the Filipino voters being made to umpire this petty sibling rivalry? This candidate for senator is the mayor of a business city and her own outgoing senator/sister is running for her post as mayor against her own husband. Changing chairs and perpetuating their control of the city where his dad, her mom and her brother used to be mayors too. My God, why are Filipino voters being made to arbitrate over their family feuds or perpetuate their dynasty?

Lie number three; " "Kakampi ng Mga Inaapi." Three brothers bearing the same family names, whose sister was a former cabinet member, are going to be sitting in the same Philippine Senate. They are noted for their radio and TV programs where public officials and career bureaucrats are scolded, humiliated and bullied even before they could open their mouths.

These brothers are destroying the credibility of duly established institutions by castigating agencies based on the one-sided complaints from people who do not have the fairness to tell the other side of the truth. And now, they want to fight corruption after their own sister reportedly entered into a contract with a TV network that employed her own brother who allegedly benefitted from such a contract.

Lie number four:" Ang Bisyo ay Serbisyo." My God, you guys are being paid, given millions of budget from the poor peoples' taxes, provided with staff, and if you do your job, you claim it as extraordinary. That is a lie. You are trying to portray yourself as above the ordinary trapo. You are closely aligned with someone being seriously suspected of so many heinous crimes by the ICC.

Lie number five: I am running because the drug problem is up again and I want to protect the Filipino families. My God, this guy should be ashamed of himself. The truth is being unearthed. He just won because his boss was then very popular and anyone he endorsed was pushed to victory.  Now the people are all in deep regret.

It is a crazy time again in the Philippines. There are a thousand and one lies up in the air, up in the giant tarpaulins, in radio and TV clips. If you are not careful, you can be manipulated. The power in your hand is that you have the gift of discernment, the gift of wisdom and the gift of choice. You can transform the worst of times into the best of times.

You can choose to be bullied, fooled, hoodwinked or manipulated. Or, as Maria Ressa did, you can stand up to a dictator. You can stand up to a shameless liar.  Do not be manipulated by any liar and by any politician. Tell him or her: Shame on you.