Not just a vote, but a moral responsibility

As voters troop to the polling centers this Monday, it remains difficult to convince many not to accept money from politicians in exchange for their votes. This practice has become embedded in the country’s political culture, especially in the countryside, where voters routinely expect money from purok leaders or political lieutenants.

I knew that vote-buying and exorbitant spending during elections has become the norm in Philippine politics. But the rude awakening came shortly after the 2022 elections when, a few weeks later, I traveled to Mindanao and met a friend who had just won as a councilor in a fifth-class municipality. He told me he had spent at least ?3 million on his campaign.

Even so, I still urge voters, come Monday, to vote with their conscience. Voting is a sacred duty of citizens. And when I say “sacred”, I mean exactly that. I do not say it to embellish or exaggerate. I say it because choosing our leaders is an act that carries moral weight. Through the ballot, we decide not only our own future, but also that of our children and our country.

We may feel disillusioned. But even if others treat elections like a transaction, can we not, at least for one moment, rise above it? Can we vote for the candidate who best represents our values, hopes, and aspirations?

Democracy has a moral dimension. It is not merely a system of holding regular elections. Democracy rests on shared values; it is grounded on a collective sense of right and wrong, of justice and fairness. It cannot be left entirely to the whims or impulses of the people.

Vote-buying may be difficult to prove; campaign overspending, easy to conceal behind layers of discreet expenses. But the strength of our democracy rests not only on laws and procedures --so easily circumvented-- but on the moral character of the people who live under it.

In their article “The Political Morality of Voting in Direct Democracy”, published in the Minnesota Law Review in 2012, Michael Serota and Ethan J. Leib argue that voters in direct democracy wield legislative power and are therefore bound by the ethics of political representation --they must vote not for private gain, but in the public interest.

While their argument is directed at voters directly deciding laws or policies, the ethical principle they identify should as well apply to voters in representative elections. For even in electing our representatives or leaders, our vote should be seen as a civic act that shapes the public good. Each voter stands in a moral relationship with the community, bearing a responsibility to choose leaders guided by conscience, not by transaction.

No matter how frequent our elections, if the people themselves no longer act with integrity, compassion, or responsibility, then democracy begins to erode from within. It will hollow out into a mere ritual; a form without substance, a process without principle.

Serota and Leib warn: when voters treat voting as a private act rather than a public moral responsibility, democracy itself is endangered, especially when it leaves room for prejudice, self-interest, or ignorance to dictate coercive policies. Let me venture to add that it opens the door to authoritarian or even military intervention.

When people become too disempowered or too cynical to reject patronage, cash handouts, or promises of instant but fleeting relief, it paves the way for something far more dangerous. Democracy loses its moral dimension. And that arouses a messianic complex in despots and opens the door for the military (God forbid) to claim legitimacy in intervening under the pretext of restoring moral order. That, I believe, would be a far worse outcome, not only because it strips away freedom, but because it marks the failure of a civilian government to govern with reason, conscience, and care.

So on Monday, I urge not only the voters but also the politicians taking part in our electoral exercise: do not mock the democratic process with your cynicism, your deceit, or your unbridled pursuit of power. For our democracy, no matter how resilient it may seem, cannot withstand relentless abuse.

Keep pushing its limits. Keep reducing it to a farce. And one day, what remains will be a dystopia of your own making --a society stripped of trust, ruled by fear, where even you are no longer safe.