Unheralded candidates

The holiday season is officially over. Everyone is packing up their trees and decorations and doing their best to get back into the daily swing of every day life. Now that 2019 has officially begun, it’s time we all start to look ahead and really focus on the upcoming mid-term elections. After all, I’m sure that as we began creating our resolutions we all hoped and prayed that things would improve in our country – well we have a say in whether or not that happens and it comes down to who we vote into office this May.

There are many government positions up for grabs in the upcoming elections and we all know what that means – would-be politicians fighting tooth and nail to get (or retain) their power. It’s sad sometimes when you think about it because government jobs in the Philippines have come to symbolize wealth and power instead of what they really should represent – a way to help the people. If it was just a matter of serving our countrymen I highly doubt that people would go to the extent of killing their opponents just to get a position. Which makes you question why they want to be in the government in the first place. Unfortunately I think we all know the answer to that. As the saying goes – absolute power corrupts absolutely.

So now, once again, it is important that we all do our due diligence and focus on candidates that are going to be good for the country and for the people. We need to stop going by name recall only and start by looking into a candidates plans, platforms, and promises. But even more than that I urge you to look past the shiny campaign promises and look into their track records. Most candidates – the majority actually – have all held government positions before. Many of the leading ones are simply trying to hold on to their current positions. So look at what they have actually accomplished while in office – bills they have authored, changes they have helped make. This is really the only way to tell if someone is doing their job and if they will continue to make things better for the Philippines.

After all, most of the information is readily available online these days anyway. You don’t need to look far to see what a candidate has done. A simple Google search already yields way more information than we have had in the past and could be instrumental when deciding whom to vote for in the election ahead.

Currently, all of the names that are in the winner’s circle in the recently concluded SWS survey are “names we know.” These are candidates who are currently in power or who hope to return to power. Some of them are indeed exceptional public servants but at the same time we have to ask ourselves an important question – how will things ever truly change in the Philippines if we always go down the very same path? We elect the same – or same type – of leaders and hope that somehow miraculously things will be different? Isn’t the very definition of madness doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?

Which isn’t to say we shouldn’t vote for the politicians we truly feel are worthy – whether or not they are a political mainstay or a familiar name. I guess in the end what really matters is not to be swayed by the smoke and mirrors and do your part in understanding what each candidate is prepared to bring to the table. I know that in the next few months I am going to be looking at each potential candidate and their track records carefully as I craft my personal list for the voting polls. I can only hope that everyone else does the same.

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While we decide who our next leaders will be it can sometimes be physically draining thinking about all that needs to change and improve in the country. We are starving for real change but can get quickly bogged down by all the negative stores in the news and on social media and many times that makes us want to hunker down and just shut the world out. But that shouldn’t be the case. You don’t have to be a politician to make positive changes in the country after all. We can all do it in your own personal ways.

I just read the really inspiring story of Filipino Harvard Law graduate that is doing his part to help Filipinos by providing legal aid for the poor. Lawyer Juan Fidel Nograles, who graduated from Harvard in 2016, said he has found his true calling helping the poor in his home province of Rizal. Rather than opting for a glistening law career in a towering building in the city, Nograles prefers to spend his time with the poor in San Mateo and Rodriguez helping them with their legal problems.

After he became the assistant provincial administrator for Rizal, he saw firsthand the plight of poor Filipinos and this inspired him to do what he could to help. He now spends his time offering free legal assistance to the poor, many of whom are unaware of the legal processes to resolve problems such as domestic violence and land grabbing from family disputes.

It is stories like this one that remind me that there is still so much good in the Philippines. If we all did our small part to help those around us, imagine what a huge impact we could make? This could lead to the real lasting change in the country that we all so desperately want.