I VOTED for GO (Genuine Opposition) candidates not because of Erap. I think GO candidates are brilliant people and have their own minds. If anything (and this may sound brutal) they might just be riding on Erap’s popularity among the masses. That’s how things are in politics.

Let’s not box Erap with all these corrupt and negative things. Let the one without sin, cast the first stone, as the Bible says. Erap has long vacated the president’s post but graft and corruption still runs rampant in the government. The Cebu lamp posts, the Garci tape, the Macapagal highway… I mean everyone is at it. I believe at some level we all are corrupt. And it goes the same with lies.

Lies are lies regardless of color.

CHECK out Philippine Daily Inquirer editor John Nery’s latest post in Current, the joint blog he maintains with Inquirer columnist Manuel Quezon III.

Here’s an excerpt:

Sometimes we can read too much into the “meaning” of a particular vote.

I found Raul Pangalangan’s last column, on the meaning of the Honasan-Trillanes vote, a provocative read. I especially thought this particular passage was right on the money.

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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?

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“IT’S probably the first time in his life that Pacquiao has lost this publicly,” said a friend of mine.

“Don’t tell me you’re feeling sorry for him,” said someone else.

“I am. Pacquiao’s always been the hero, the winner, the idolized. Losing to a girl whom almost no one out of Gen San knew, until she became the person running against him, must hurt,” said my friend.

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STATED in the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, Article VI, Section 3: No person shall be a Senator unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines and, on the day of the election, is at least thirty-five years of age, able to read and write, a registered voter, and a resident of the Philippines for not less than two years immediately preceding the day of the election.

Wanted by the masang Pilipino is someone who could raise their status quo, maybe someone who could flood their drained bank accounts. Required by the entrepreneurs who subsist in the fluctuating world of stocks and business is a big name that could grant incentives and hoist their eminence in the market. In the sagacity of idealism, others may seek articulation to be the voice and image of what was once a reverie. In the world of ignorance, others may yearn for the face — the one whose posters they once thought were endorsements of a new beauty clinic.

How many times have the Filipinos been fooled? They were but images that portray good actors or actresses — so good that they made us believe that their role is their real personality. Just like how Eula Valdez and Jean Garcia played their role as Amor Powers and Claudia Buenavista that struck the country.

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