Hardly Any Takers

Participated in a sparsely-attended debate today. All 3 of us from Kapatiran together with 2 candidates from the opposition joined. The rest did not bother as these are precisely the events that can quickly expose weaknesses in a well-funded candidate’s carefully crafted image. Too bad for the first time voters assembled in the auditorium. They had expected a substantial exchange of ideas and opinions regarding important issues between parties with different philosophies but since we had the place largely to ourselves it actually worked well for the three of us because we were given the opportunity to talk about our various positions with little time pressure.

People, largely have not heard about us. Reality is you need to spend millions on tv, radio and print ads for your message to be made known to the millions of voters out there. This would not be a problem in the US but here in our country, where 40% live on less than a dollar a day, this kind of spending would be immoral. And traditional politicians justify this behavior by claiming that for them to serve as leaders, they need to get elected first. Where these funds originate is plain knowledge to everyone. A giant web of contributor-investors with their own agendas keep the ball rolling. No wonder why we haven’t had considerable change translate into progress all these years.

Quite a few members of the audience asked me about my plans after the elections. I assured them all that I was planning to remain politically active. I also told them I represented the beginning of a wave of Filipinos forced to flee abroad who had had enough. We are going to take our country back.