EDITORIAL - The choice is ours

Today millions of Filipinos take to the voting precincts to cast their vote.

It’s time to see if the strategy of changing teams late into the game, using sexist jokes as campaign material, using PWDs to throw shade at enemies, buying votes, and other dirty tricks will work.

Go out and vote. Those who don’t vote have no right to complain about the political situation in our country.

But don’t let your vote go to waste either. At the risk of us sounding idealistic versus being realistic, it has to be said that only those who deserve to be in public office should get our vote.

It has been said before and we need to say it again: just because they have the same family name as yours doesn’t mean you should vote for them. Just because they are popular doesn’t mean they are politically competent. Just because they come from the same place you do doesn’t mean they can hack public office. If they didn’t do well in a previous public office then they don’t deserve your vote.

Anyone who has a vested interest other than public service doesn’t deserve your vote either.

Yes, this would seem very idealistic, indeed. But let’s not forget what is really at stake here, and we don’t just mean the next presidential elections; this goes way beyond that.

Our country is in the situation it’s in now because many voters aren’t exactly the discerning type. To be blunt about it many of those who are supposed to make or carry out the laws that help our nation, province, city, or town aren’t doing that.

Instead they are turning themselves into almsgivers and cash cows. And while they do help the neediest of us in one way or another, that isn’t supposed to be their role. Of course it gets worse, many of them now see public office as some kind of private or party property that can never be shared outside the family or the political party.

Every election is a chance to break the cycle of corruption, poor governance, and dependency on ayuda. Either that or entrench it even more --with the chance of perpetuating it forever.

The choice is ours. It has always been ours.