Campaign trail high

Egay Uy

THE local campaign period has begun, and my Facebook account keeps on popping “memories” of the campaign trail that I posted in 2013.  I refrained from “sharing” those memories so they are not shown on my current FB wall.

Those memories however surely bring back the experience I went through as a fledgling candidate for a seat in the city council – the experience of having to wake up at four or five o’clock in the morning to prepare for the hand-shaking sorties, and coming home the night [or morning before] from rallies.

It was an experience that was similar to none other.  By having to campaign for votes in the first district, I was able to reach remotest areas in the city and for the first time was able to reach the farthest barangays that used to linger only in my imagination.

Now, it will be the chance of the first-time candidates to shake hands with residents around the city’s dump site, to hold rallies under the trees at night, to “outsmart others” in order to get the most attention from prospective voters.  The list goes on.

People usually associate running for public office with buying votes. When I ran in 2013, I could face anybody in saying that not a single vote for me then was bought. Of course, most of those who voted for Rep. Klarex Uy may have voted for me, too, because we campaigned in the first district under his tutelage.

While physically campaigning for votes then, I could not help but also observe how exhausting it must have been for the then governor Oscar Moreno and his then vice mayoral candidate Ed Cabanlas [now candidate for congressman of the second district] to shuttle from one district to the other in order to shake the hands of prospective voters and to speak before crowds in rallies in the evening.

In these elections, the re-electionists and those who ran in previous elections but were unfortunate will again experience the high in the campaign trail.  And the neophytes will awe at the experience they will be going through.

Never mind the exhaustion.  People who are cut for public service will surely enjoy going through the cycle in the hope of making true their dream of serving the people.

As Mayor Moreno has said, “Time will come when people will no longer remember us. But what is important is, during our time, we have done our best, and the best still is being pushed not only by our children, but future generations to come.”