Barring any sudden unforeseen circumstances, and despite some troubling but belated developments, the scheduled general elections in May 2010 should proceed as planned, and this country of ours should have a new president and a fresh start at hope.
And it will be a bruising battle just to exercise what should have been the epitome of all democratic principles — the freedom to exercise our free will in choosing a leader. But as always, that is the Philippine way, doing the easy things the difficult way.
Right now, there is a battle of surveys going on. But I do not have much faith in such exercises. A previous column of mine precisely said why I don’t. I prefer to trust my own ear to the ground, and so should everyone else.
Always preferring to use my own words, I am not one predisposed to litter my writings with the thoughts of others. But I do have a very favorite quote that I have used as often as I can in my articles — “You do not need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
I use that quote often not to spice my writings or solicit outside support for my own positions but merely because I truly believe in its message, that in determining certain things it is best to rely on your own resources.
And so I would urge all Filipinos with a desire to participate in the coming elections to check out the candidates yourself and trust your own instincts in determining your practical choices. You will be amazed that, left to your own wits, the choices are indeed very clear.
Bear in mind, though, that our country does not possess or occupy an ideal position in its politics. This is the result of so many self-inflicted infirmities for which we continue to contend and be hobbled with even until now.
The Philippines is a land of so many great men who, disappointed by the untenable political landscape that allows little room to preserve honor and dignity, prefer to remain in the sidelines, staying with the private sector where nation-building is less injurious.
There are, however, a few brave and worthy men who choose to shed the relative safety and comfort of privacy to vie and become public servants. It is just unfortunate that for every one of them, there must be five others who try and jostle them out of place.
Right now there are a good number of presidential aspirants but if one is not easily swayed by campaign strategies and uses his own God-given means to determine right or wrong, it should not be very hard to pare down the choices to a few.
It is actually not hard to narrow down the choices because some of the contenders have unwittingly chosen to do the task of eliminating their own selves. And that is why that leaves Filipinos some room for hope and optimism that things will still turn out right this time.
Depending on how the final chips will fall, Filipinos who do not wish to be carried away by theatrics and other campaign strategies but choose to proceed intelligently and decently should find it easy to narrow their choices to maybe two or three.
My bold prediction is that, if Filipinos choose intelligently and decently, they will narrow their choices to these three — Manny Villar, Richard Gordon, Bayani Fernando. I will not qualify lest I be accused of campaigning. But stripped of everything, this is what I see.
Of course some of the others are just as capable, but they have either filled their campaigns with so much negativism or shifted positions too many times keeping their company is just too uncomfortable. The rest are of course a big no-no.