Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

Is summer over? So soon?

It has been raining in the afternoons since Monday, making the evenings much cooler. Yesterday and the other day has been quite glum, thus my rather moody fatigued disposition. Today is the summer’s first thunderstorms. Maybe Election Day will be sunnier. Perhaps I will go out and vote in the morning.

BBC’s Krasi rang about the elections few days ago, and I had some thoughts about it. I’ve voted in all local and national elections since the Aquino government (except the referendum on the 1987 Constitution because I was not yet 18 then ) - but this time, probably not. (See my replies to the BBC questions below, and the BBC feature here where a colleague in advocacy Dom Cimafranca from Dumaguete and now Davao also shares his views).

My comment on the elections, sent to BBC’s Have Your Say:

Elections here are often celebrated as both “fiesta” (a grand feast as political candidates splurge millions on campaigns and various new forms of vote buying) and “balagtasan” (debate, whether substantial or hollow rhetorical exercises). There are also new mobilisation efforts to protect the vote by looking more closely into the electoral process and the (psychology of) election polls. So while people debate, celebrate and mobilize for political maturity, the global epidemic of lack of any intelligent choice for the electorate in the political arena unfortunately remains.

As far as mainstream politicians are concerned, all they’ve managed to do is demoralize the military, transgress the legal and judicial systems, and they are now mobilizing religious (Christian) organizations particularly in Mindanao to seal their power with faith. Yet all these are not going to be enough to send me packing overseas for “greener pastures” (where things could in fact be even worse! See Voting in the US)

Even if I believe that politicians today are no longer intellectually or morally fit for leadership, I still think about politics and other such things. Somehow, somewhere in my mind I still believe that the core Philippine problem of leadership and justice can be solved.

To vote or not to vote? Can the elections give hope to finding a solution to the Philippine problem of leadership and justice?

Who knows, maybe it will be a sunny day on Monday.

Some useful information/links:

Halalang Marangal (HALAL) - http://halal.interdoc.org/halal/
Halalang Marangal is a non-profit, non-partisan consortium of groups and individuals who want to conduct a citizens’ audit of Philippine election tallies so that we may determine the true results of elections.

Commission on Elections (COMELEC) - http://www.comelec.gov.ph/

My answers to emailed questions by the BBC:

BBC> Are you going to vote in the elections?

Probably not. I’ve voted in all local and national elections since the Aquino government - but this time, probably not. But who knows, maybe I’ll wake up in the morning of May 14 and decide to go out and vote. I would like to see two people make it to the Senate, though…

> What, in your opinion, are the main problems that need to be addressed in the Philippines?

Leadership and justice.

> What needs to be done for the problems to be fixed?

Mandate and law. The question of the legitimacy of the current president must be settled (a question which goes back to the 2004 presidential elections). Numerous political questions need to be answered too (from the Visiting Forces Agreement to the Fertilizer Fund Scam). If we can implement the law and secure a leadership with mandate, all within the bounds of the present Constitution, then the country can move on.

> Do you have faith in politicians? Who has the answers?

No, politicians today are no longer intellectually or morally fit for leadership. They have demoralized the Philippine Armed Forces, transgressed the legal and judicial systems, and are mobilizing religious (Christian) organizations particularly in Mindanao to seal their power with faith. I’m afraid the political opposition are not really any different.

Perhaps some of the independent candidates in this coming election has the answers, especially since they are proposing the articulation of alternative systems of governing (particularly Sen. Francis Pangilinan). Rep. Alan Cayetano from the Genuine Opposition thinks outside the box in terms of economic organization when he described a system that regarded the economic models of towns and villages as being both different and valid.

In the current age of violence and lawlessness as the norm, those who can think and imagine outside the mainstream may have the answers.

> Will these elections change anything?

I am still hopeful, you know, which is why I am still here in the Philippines.

Politicians are worthless.

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