With just two days left for the filing of certificates of candidacy, the races for the 2025 midterm elections are shaping up. People have expressed dismay over several of those aspiring for key positions in government, who have acquired notoriety for corruption and disappointing qualifications for public office. If they were required to take the civil service examinations for lower positions in government, they would surely flunk.
Such is the weakness of the electoral process in this country, which is aggravated by an electorate whose choices when voting are driven by the immediate, basic needs of poverty. The substandard quality of public education also prevents millions from making informed choices during elections.
Undereducation makes people vulnerable to disinformation and campaign promises that are never meant to be fulfilled. They pick candidates based mostly on name recall and the perceived capability to provide ayuda, entertainment or swift response to their problems. They do not understand the deleterious impact of political dynasties on governance. Dynasty-building has reached shameless proportions for the 2025 elections. And the party-list system, originally meant for marginalized representation, has become a disastrous farce.
Notoriety can even be parlayed into a successful career or comeback in politics. Alice Guo is the current poster girl for the rot in Philippine elections. If there is such passionate reaction to her reported plan to seek reelection as mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, it is driven by fear that she might win. If this happens, her camp will tout it – not without basis – as her ultimate vindication. And her camp will argue that it should wipe out the offenses imputed on her. If heaven is on her side, Guo might one day make it to the Senate, which is turning into a chamber of horrors for governance.
Civic groups are moving promote informed choices among the masses, but they face an uphill battle. Excising the rot in Philippine elections will require significant improvements in the quality of education and the alleviation of poverty. Elections should not serve as an affirmation of the rotten status quo. They should serve as democratic paths toward change for the better. At this point, unfortunately, this is the ideal rather than reality.