Take US, Philippine polls together

It does not usually happen that both the Philippine and American presidential elections are held on the same year. This is because America elects a president every four years while the Philippines does only every six years. This means that both countries can have simultaneous presidential elections only once every 12 years. The next time both the US and the Philippines will be electing presidents on the same year will be in 2028.

Perhaps at no time in its contemporary history is it more propitious for the Philippines to hold simultaneous presidential elections with the United States than this year. So much about both countries are bound together and it is extremely important that the leaders the two countries will be electing this year are able to see eye to eye and respect each other.

The Philippines faces very challenging times ahead. Looming crises await the next Philippine leader like they never did before. At no other time than now have the problems facing the country extended beyond its domestic borders. The Philippines face very real global concerns in the South China Sea, where conflicting claims with China and other countries make the area the world's next powder keg, as well as growing Islamic terrorism and creeping global warming and climate change.

These are not the usual domestic problems of poverty, crime, corruption, health, etc. that are the usual stuff of which Philippine presidencies are tested. The looming crises enumerated above are destined to involve the Philippine presidency in ways that no Philippine president before may have ever imagined or anticipated. And because the Philippines is so closely associated with the United States, these are issues that are destined to occupy the time of the next US president as well.

And that is why it is propitious for the presidential elections of both countries to happen on the same year this year because, more so for the Philippines than it may be for the United States, Filipinos will be afforded the very real opportunity to choose a leader that can measure up to the global crises he or she is likely to face, in conjunction with whoever the Americans might elect as their next leader.

For example, let us assume that Donald Trump gets elected as the next US president and he does some of the things he has promised to do, like getting tough on China - how will the next Philippine president deal with the consequences of such action. Any getting tough on China will not be limited to trade, which is actually what Trump has promised. It is likely to spill over to more tricky political situations.

As everyone knows, political situations can swiftly escalate to military situations, about which the next Philippine president will have to deal with, being in the exact neighborhood of such situations. In other words, before choosing the next Philippine leader, it might be wise and prudent for Filipinos to also pay attention to who might be the next American president.

In the event, for example, that it is Hillary Clinton who wins the White House and she does not depart from the laid back policies of Barack Obama that allowed Russia to take Crimea from Ukraine and strike in Syria in defense of Assad, or watch helplessly at North Korean and Iranian missile provocations, or right in our neck of the woods at China's territorial aggressions -- how will the next Philippine president deal with such situations.

The Islamic separatist movement in Mindanao can easily serve as the backdoor through which Islamic terrorism can establish a toehold in the country's soft underbelly. With the US very much involved in international terrorism, to what extent might the next Philippine leader work with and cooperate with the next American leader, and in what manner and form will such an association be?

Clearly Filipinos need to elect a leader who is strong and decisive, one who is able to hit the ground running and not struggle and grope trying to learn the ropes. The problems facing the next Philippine president on the global front leave neither time nor room for apprenticeship. Whoever that leader might be should have a fairly good idea what to do this early.

For the first time in Philippine electoral history, the Philippines needs its next president to be able to handle not just domestic problems but global ones. At every opportunity in the few remaining weeks of the campaign, the Filipino people need to test the capabilities of the candidates along global lines. While domestic issues must never be ignored, it is an expanded and globally-encompassing horizon that Filipinos need to see in whoever they may choose to lead them as president.

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