Diary of a Whiny Kid: Brave the orthodox

Four years ago sometime in October, I remember myself queuing at mid-noon in our city hall while ranting to my then bestfriend, Ralph over the cellphone about my missing requirements to be able to register. Good thing the guy has this messianic syndrome, that he ended up volunteering to grab my documents at home and to bring them over.

Politics for me is total crap, that was the particular time in my life when I only cared about getting good grades, having shopping money every fifteenth of the month and my dwindling number of friends. Politics is the last thing that I'd devote time to.

Call me stereotyping, but aside from having politicians whose sole purpose of running for a position is to amass millions or billions as a long term goal. I have long resolved to the fact that the Philippines with the kind of politicians that the Filipinos entrench, our country has been under the control of a ticking bomb -- a destruction waiting to happen or a cancer cell waiting for a carcinogenic element to engage the cancer to spread and little by little, or at worst suddenly kill its host.

That registration is not something I willingly thought of, but rather its something that our Political Science professor in college Sir Tayao compelled us to do. Register or get an unacceptable 75 as your grade. The options are pretty much limited, either the good or the evil. Of course, the good prevailed.

At that time, apathetic and irresponsible as it may sound I originally have no plans of becoming a registered voter. But now that I understood how crucial voting is in changing our country, I fairly grasp why the notable women in the history fought for their right to suffrage.

Not to sound nostalgic but we women owe our rights to them. And to sort of give back for their effort, the best thing we could do is to cast our vote to someone worthy, someone we believe in, someone who has the capacity, knowledge and the outline to shape and lead our country to become progressive.

Months ago, like most yuppies, I reached the phase when I'm so undecided who to root for, and worst I'm having second thoughts if I should even vote at all. All the cliches and false promises we've heard time and time and again sounds less and less sincere. With the election almost closing in, surveys left and right are presenting volatile results. I can only say that the running candidates are showing election jitters.

And to combat it most of them resolved to jump on the dark side. The past week's been crazy as hell. Black propaganda is the most innovative form of PR. Mudslinging here and there. Fabricated accusations have made it to the headlines. Desperation reeked everywhere.

One person defied the traditional politics. No negative campaigning, no reaction to his critics, silently making his efforts to reach out to more voters. That's Gilbert Teodoro.

Come Monday we'd be giving our verdict on who among the 8 vying candidates will hold the highest position in the country. With several months alloted for the campaign period, EVERY candidate pledged to end poverty and corruption -- everyone but Gibo. No other presidentiable has been as grounded to reality as he was. He accepted the fact that if elected he can't end poverty overnight. And that the Philippines won't be on top of the other Asian countries in the span of his six-year leadership. But he anchors his faith that with his leadership, he could pave the way for a better Philippines.

Brave the orthodox, seek for a change. Sulong G1BO :)