Philippine Politics &Ndash; Den of Decepticons

Until now the imprint of the first fully automated election in the Philippine history still haunts my soul.

Eager to become part of the solution of our country’s political reform, I decided to offer myself freely for public scrutiny while soliciting the people’s vote. It is a complete surrender to the dogma that the voice of the people is the voice of God, even if entails supreme patience and adjustment towards the gateway of DECEPTICONS (Deceptive Political Icons).

During our campaign, I witnessed the struggle of every candidate for the sole purpose of winning. In fact, while the churches were united in praying for a peaceful election, the politicians on the other side, were very busy buying guns for their thugs and sourcing out money to buy votes.

There was a vivid moment when our group and two other political parties were called for the signing of Peace Covenant headed by our Parish Priest and other concerned organizations. For me as neophyte of political rivalry, I considered it as best leverage towards peaceful 2010 election and as baseline for genuine political reform.

However, 12 hours after the signing of the said agreement, the contrary happened. A certain person was rushed to the hospital after having been battered seriously during a riot of two opposing groups of supporters. Instead of alleviating the tension, the DECEPTICONS encouraged their supporters to tighten up their guards and design strategies to get even. Thus, Goons were immediately unleashed and the gentlemen’s agreement were put to garbage.

Every night we were escorted by armed guards ready to butcher any person who will come across our path. Spikes were everywhere, crime rate was at its peak and police officers were so annoyed and became almost helpless because they were clearly outnumbered.

The night before the election, I never thought that offering my service to the people will become almost literally an offering of my own life after we were showered by bullets from our beloved rivals.

At the break of dawn my comrades told me that our Mayor in our ticket was already “sold” and was convinced by the Mayoralty bet of our closest rival to abandon our supporters in exchange of huge amount of money. To add insult to injury, I realized that the same group of people was the one responsible of shooting us freely.

Never in my wildest dream, that the leader whom I trusted the most was also a hidden DECEPTICON.
There were times when I asked myself how awful this adored country of ours if the leaders that we are going to vote are the same people who are obnoxious to law and order.

Yet, I am still optimistic that we are going to experience the change that we wanted to have…Sulong Pinoy!