.:2010 Is Closer Than You Think:.
Ms. Jannette Toral tagged numerous bloggers to address the issues of the upcoming 2010 Philippine Presidential Elections, and I think now is a good time as any to bring up the issues coming into play.
You see, the Philippine political scene has always been a personality-based rather than an issue-based kind of showdown. Whereas people care what Barack Obama's stand on abortion or immigration is in contrast to John McCaine's views on homosexual marriage, or what Hillary Clinton would have to say about taxation as opposed to Mike Huckabee's plans for health care. U.S. politics may not be perfect, but people's votes are affected by what their candidate's stands on key issues happen to be.
Here in the Philippines, we don't see that. What we see is a clash of personalities, all promising generally the exact same things, with no clear platforms or ideas, either because they have none, or are afraid to seem like they're talking down the masses, whose votes they are obviously pandering to, given the jingles and campaign sorties they employ during election time.
Let's tackle some of the issues that I think would be very important for the 2010 elections...
.:Education:.
Since the drastic tuition increase of U.P., education has taken a significant hit in this country. While the military budget seems to increase every single year, the education budget continues to shrink and shrink. U.P. is no longer a quality school for those who can't afford one.
Whoever wants to take the presidency must address this issue. Education is important to the development of the country, and leaving this in the dust will only present more problems for the country over the long term.
.:Censorship:.
After the whole hoopla of the MTRCB giving an "X" rating to several political films, I think it's high time we looked at what purpose the MTRCB is really serving. To give political films an "X" rating just because it doesn't paint a flattering picture of the president is a sick joke. Movies are in no way supposed to be journalistic pieces, and the double standard is very obvious when a documentary like "Imelda" gets through, but "A Day In The Life Of Gloria" and "Mendiola" don't.
The Philippines(I hope.) is sick and tired of adventuring and relying on mass action to get things done. If the last Senate elections were any indication, the average Filipino is wising up, seeing how many celebrities didn't get into the Senate by sheer dint of star power. Letting more political material into television, radio, and film, can only be a good thing for the country.
.:Slim Pickings?:.
Whether it be a No-El resulting in more Gloria, or an attempt by Joseph Estrada to run again for president (Despite promising never to seek public office again!), or FVR doing more of the same, or even Bayani Fernando deludedly telling himself people will love to have him as president, we do not have a promising field of presidentiables.
I fully stand by the notion of having only two candidates during an election. It costs much less money because unlike the U.S. elections, we won't have those messy primaries, so the political parties can settle the differences on their own. The biggest issue I have with the presidentiables is they really do not have a definite stand on an issue, and will bend their opinion depending on what public opinion tells them.
This is the issue for the presidential elections, in my opinion. It's just really sticky, to say the least.
2010 is really unpromising right now. We're going to more likely than not find ourselves treated to the same old crap from the same old traditional politicians... gah.
3 comments:
The 2007 elections gave me hope that the voters are choosing their leaders based on issues and track record, and not just because of popularity.
More details about this new phenomenon in this article by the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform: http://www.iper.org.ph/mon-theyvoteactors.html
I hope that in the 2010 elections, we will see something similar to the 2007 elections. As you said, the basis should be issues and not popularity.
No one can blame you for not being too optimistic about the 2010 elections. But I think that's one of the reasons why we're blogging about it now. We're doing this so that we can raise our expectations and demand that our presidential candidates step up. Let's focus on the issues so that we can inform ourselves and our countrymen on the things that should matter in the coming elections.
And as you said, if the 2010 elections will be like the elections last year, then maybe there's a good chance that voters will look at the candidates' track records and not just rely on popularity.
Well, it still depends on *who* we're looking at for our presidentiable lineup.
A lineup of De Castro, Estrada, Lacson, and FVR is not very promising, truth be told.
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