Exercising your right to vote

October 29 - Another milestone for Philippine Politics. According to the papers, the just concluded Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections were largely peaceful. Well, a school just went up in flames and a number of people killed in so-called “isolated outbursts of violence” throughout the country… Hmmm… peaceful, don’t you think?

It makes me stop and think what “largely peaceful” means… With the recent violence caused by the over zealous candidates and their cohorts coupled with say a bottle or two of beer… If this is what “largely peaceful means”, it makes me cringe to know what “somewhat peaceful” may mean.

Anyway, according to news reports, over 60% Filipinos exercised their rights to vote. Not bad… What happened to the other say 35-40%? Sad to say but I am a part of the minority, I was not able to vote because of very valid reasons. I know I should vote, if only to exercise my rights. But…

Voting is very important especially in a country such as ours. With all those maleducated* public officials, we simply need to use our votes to vote them out of position. I know there is no such word as maleducated, but I simply couldn’t think of one single word that perfectly defines public officials who are very educated but lacks the ability to use that education into something good for the country, they use it for their own good only.

*FYI: For those who may not know it the prefix mal- indicates wrongness, badness or illness.

You may have your own reasons for not voting as I do, but to those people who did not vote because they simply do not care… Shame on you! Everything bad that is happening in our country right now should be blamed on you. “Not caring” is like cancer spreading throughout the Philippine Archipelago, I wonder how much time it will take before it engulfs everything in its path…

To everyone, start to care, let your votes count to make our future count. I may be too late for the barangay election but not too late for the next election. Its never too late to start caring.