Thoughts of a first-time voter

MANILA, Philippines - I am only twenty years old and GMA is the only president I have clear memories of. I can’t remember the Philippines under the Erap administration anymore – I was just 11 when he was ousted by People Power 2.

I remember my dad and grandma leaving the house one day to join a protest rally in EDSA, which turned out to be EDSA Dos. And I vaguely remember GMA’s first speech as president shortly after Erap was ousted. People seemed optimistic then that any change in administration was healthy, and hopeful that the conditions in the country would improve. Some time after that, I went to high school in Philippine Science High School Diliman, where I spent the next four years practically politically blind, being focused on academic rigors and challenges. Then I went to UP Diliman, where activism was part of everyday life and both faculty and fellow students conspired to make me take note of politics in the country.

The media services brought me my daily dose of bad news: graft, corruption, and a worsening economy. I vaguely remember the “Hello, Garci” scandal when GMA admitted she did something wrong and delivered her now infamous “I’m sorry” apology to the nation. She’s definitely resilient: her very public mea culpa, the widespread accusations of corruption and extrajudicial killings against her administration all did nothing to oust her from her position which she has occupied for almost a decade. Interestingly, I have never met a single UP person who supports GMA. Not one. If Philippine politics depended on a UP vote, GMA would have been long gone from power.

This is the first election that I could participate in as a voter since I turned 18 in 2007. With my dad, I registered to vote for the first time sometime before Christmas 2009. That act of registration empowered me and made me feel important, as if my vote really matters. It dawned on me that I have a say in who will be our future president and that I would have to choose my candidate well. I’ve gotten tired of hearing all the negative political news for the last ten years of my life, and so vowed to vote for a good, upright leader who could actually help our country. For the first time in my life, I actually started to pay some attention to the posters, jingles, and websites of the presidential candidates. Since all this was happening during my last and extremely hectic semester of college in a difficult science course, I wasn’t able to give politics my full attention. However, I became aware of several things that candidates do during their campaigns:

1. No matter how serious the platform of the candidate, the jingles and gimmicks can be unbelievably silly.

2. Despite their promises to protect the environment and respect our natural resources, these candidates have been littering our country with plastic tarpaulins and hard-to-remove posters of their faces.

3. Some of them have been spending too much money to campaign (one of them in particular spending billions of pesos that I think could have been put to better use helping people right away by improving schools, donating to hospitals, and other such useful endeavors).

All those ads, posters, and tarpaulins didn’t really give me a concrete idea of what they wanted to do with the country, so I decided to visit the websites of the three top contenders – Noynoy, Villar, and Gibo.

A lot of my UP friends are supporters of Gibo so I decided to visit his website first. I was amused by the Facebook fans listed on the front page, where I was surprised to see thumbnail pictures of my friends Anjo and Jade! I spent a couple more amused seconds refreshing the page to see if anyone else I knew popped up. After I got bored doing that, I read Gibo’s core values and vision. These were well-written in the first person, but I think he could have summed them up with bullet points to make them easier to digest.

Some of his goals that appealed to me are the following: (1) to improve businesses in the country by changing bureaucracy, (2) to put an end to the militants and terrorists in the country, and (3) to improve the quality of education in the country.

I then proceeded to read his biodata and was wowed by his credentials. Among the candidates, he seems to be the best educated, being the bar topnotcher in his time!

Since I am personally torn between voting for Gibo or voting for Noynoy, I visited Noynoy’s website next to learn more about him. His website is well-designed, giving surfers easy access to his vision, plans for the country, and biodata. His goals that appeal to me are: (1) to fight corruption, which I think he might just do well due to the pressure of living up to the standards of his heroic parents, and (2) to focus on improving education. I believe that these are keys to improving our country. Another helpful link in Noynoy’s website was one that linked to a page called “The Truth About Noynoy,” where issues raised by his critics were clearly answered.

Finally, I visited Villar’s website. Frankly, I found it as disappointing and as empty as his jingles. It was easy enough to find his biodata, which was impressive and showed his rise from rags to riches. However, I tried and tried but could not find his mission/vision or platforms page. Instead, the most prominent links were one that directed users to fill a form with name/email/landline/address details to apply for help with housing, and another link that redirected users to a “BDABoss” business help page that required people to register to become members. There were also multiple links to various news articles and news clips.

The most informative content in his website, other than his biodata, was a page with his legislative record, which seemed to be hastily constructed since the last few laws on the page were truncated. It would have helped if each law had a description to go with it to help readers understand what exactly it was for.

It must be obvious from my article that I’ve narrowed down my choices to either Noynoy or Gibo. I’m still weighing the pros and cons of each candidate but know that I will have to decide and make up my mind soon, even by toss coin. For now, I’m keeping an open mind and will continue to read up on the candidates and do my best to pick who to me is the most morally upright, trustworthy, and capable leader.

Editor’s note: Every Sunday until the Sunday before election day, we will run articles on the different aspects of the May 10 polls, including the automated election system itself and the machine, how to vote, what to do and what not to do, the citizen’s role, and others. This series is an initiative of STARweek in cooperation with non-partisan groups, and does not involve any politician or political party. Readers may send in questions and comments by email to [email protected].