These unwholesome practices more than explain the kind of politics and the quality of candidates we have. Our people have accepted the petty, unimportant and artificial matters even when it comes to the choice of their leaders. They are willing to entrust their future to persons who have somehow acquired tremendous popularity through media exposure. They cannot distinguish anymore between the reel and the real; between form and substance; between a real hero and a mere celebrity. There is a tendency to overlook such faults as infidelity and illegitimacy in exercising their right to vote. One Senator even brazenly posed that now infamous question of "what’s wrong with having an illegitimate child" after arrogantly admitting he sired one (or some?) out of wedlock.
As the campaign enters its second week, it is getting clearer that the choice of our public officials will be reduced to an emotional popularity contest rather than a serious and rational exercise to determine who are most capable in the intricate and complex art of governance. Candidates are fielded by the major political parties not because they have the best qualifications but because they have name recall. Most of the aspirants to public office use all sorts of medium of communications to project their names with photos of handsome and pleasant faces rather than their impressive credentials and practical, specific platforms of government for the general welfare of the people. Our politics has degenerated into an excessive indulgence in petty and trivial matters that are of little worth and importance to our country and people. Candidates who can sing and dance are more likely to win more votes because they are more appealing to the peoples’ senses rather than to their intellectual and more sublime faculties. Campaigns are now conducted with too much gimmickry and with much less sincerity like that "lovapalooza" gimmick last Valentine’s day.
Thus the appeal initiated by Ms. Amy Bonotan and Lalaine Arreja and many other ladies from a woman’s center in 173 M. Paterno Street, San Juan Metro Manila, to boycott the products of the Company who sponsored that "lovapalooza" extravaganza is timely and deserves support. Let us heed their plea "to put all our act together to build a wholesome atmosphere of modesty, decency, sense of propriety, reverence for clean and chaste relationship avoiding public display of affection", and listen to their apt reminder of "our common social responsibility to promote the common good and foster good values". This is one small step but it should carried out to arrest our inexorable slide to that quagmire of licentiousness.