Now that next elections are fast approaching it is high time that we encourage our people, especially the Masa, to look for or ask the prospective candidates of their platform of government or in simple terms what do they intend to do once elected into office.
Let us not be hoodwinked anymore. Congressmen are telling us that they can’t do nothing because the Constitution is their handicap. This is plain hogwash.
They shift our attention to the inane debates on the best mode of changing the basic law: con-con or con-ass. Con-ass stands for constituent assembly and not on some ass..le conmen. What’s the big fuss about the mode of changing the fundamental law? If con-con is expensive why not thru a people’s initiative?
They want the debate to rage on until election time so that we are preoccupied with the merits/demerits of the manner of amending the charter and let them go on the merriment of juggling the god-given country side development funds. Comes election time, they point their dirty collective fingers on the alleged defects of the Constitution as the culprit of their stupidity. Again they perorate on the political stage, lambasting the political upstarts who dared challenged them in the hustings. Or they simply dance, sing, act before the hungry crowd of barangay officials, tanods, health workers. They are like Dr. Pavlov dangling the proverbial crumbs of their cdf, while the lowly barangay crowd lapped up the cheap entertainment dished out by the solon-celebrity who just descended in their midst. May iaabot na naman ika si tenpercentathieve. Just like what Imelda said, “if you’re a public official, you must act like a star or some god worthy of veneration by the marginalized electorate. They expect you to be that way otherwise, if your just one of them why bother to show up in your gathering?”
Enough of those. Let’s get down to work. It is the duty of the press to educate our people.
Let us mandate these would-be candidates to lay down their cards before the people. The latter need be given hope, opportunity, food on the table, roof over their heads, skill, and simply a better life.
Election time is weeding out time. Time to re-examine. Auditing time. Rejuvenation of hope.
There are many Saddam Husseins in our countryside.
It is time, as the Eccleciastes tells us, to topple what was once mighty and proud.