TO THOSE who sold their votes for P20, P50, P100, P500, P1, 000, P2, 000 — let this article be a reminder that this will be the last amount of money that you will see from your chosen candidate until the next election. Let this article be a reminder to you that for that amount of money, your chosen candidate will be taking 10 times as much money from you.
To the vote selling public, you are what is wrong with the Philippines; because of your weakness of conviction, you have let another election pass you by.
When I hear Filipino citizens criticize candidates because of the lack of money they gave, I wonder just how much they understand or comprehend what they are saying. Do they not know that the money that is being given to them for their vote is probably coming from the Filipino public as well?
When I hear Filipino citizens judge a candidate by how much money they gave, it is yet another slap in the face for those Filipinos who consider their vote a prized possession.
So, to the vote selling public, you are as guilty as those officers and candidates who buy your vote. You are participating in the economics of cheating, the economics of bribery, and the economic of fools. Thus, do not complain if the candidate you voted for, the same candidate who bought your vote, who bought your integrity, is the same candidate who does not make good on his promise of making your life better. Are you telling me that you trust a candidate to do all that he promised, when he doesn’t even have the integrity to run a campaign that is clean and honest?
To the vote selling public, enjoy your misery!
To those who voted and did not sell their votes, I applaud your integrity, and let your integrity and love of your country be the start of a brighter Philippines. Do not be dismayed by reports of those who sold their soul, because in the end, you are what makes the Philippines a great nation. You are the true Filipino.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:48 am
TO KABAYAN
First, our people need to be freed from the slavery of poverty, hence the 1st world status, so that all forms of destabilization will not shake our economy, just like in the US. Singapore is the most progressive Asian country and hence, the least corrupt.
June 10th, 2007 at 8:26 am
First world status is not required to attain democracy. The very essence of democracy is the freedom of different sectors and members of society to interact with each other based on the principles of democracy such as freedom of speech, right to public assembly, freedom of the press etc.
The way Gloria and his cohorts wants it is to have a dictatorship to supposedly attain first world status. This is not only a lame way to do it but it was tried before and failed miserably. It is a reasoning that eventually leads to greed, corruption and abuse of power.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
June 7th, 2007 at 10:54 am
There can never be a true democracy in our country until we achieve first-world status where our economy is not easily rocked by forms of stabilization. In other words, our democracy in itself is a myth.
June 6th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Democracy is alive in the country because of the people who resist those who wish to impose authoritarian rule.
If it were not for those brave men and women who resisted the attempts of Gloria administration to remove democracy, we will be under a dictatorship right now.
However, these abusive and corrupt people in government will still attempt to gain total power through whatever means so it is up for the decent Filipino people to be vigilant.
Let us remember that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Kaya mabuhay sa taumbayan na sumalungat at patuloy na sumasalungat sa mga taong gustung gawin uling isang diktatura ang pamahalaang Pilipinas!
May 30th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
How awful would be a Filipino, with the only right (right for suffrage) on his hand being sold for a price! And how hypocrite some people are, after crying for honesty and truth in the cheating of 2004 elections, would now be proud to admit that they would accept money from politicians in exchange for his right. Anyone can sense that even at the grassroots, corruption proliferates. And these people would rally in the streets demanding for what? Change? Reformation starts from the hearts and minds, individual. Not government. Poor individuals….