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Ben Contreras

AS we move nearer to Election Day, the campaign fever has gone as hot as the weather. The attempts to destroy one another has gone out of proportions as it gets too personal that we seem to have forgotten the bigger picture and see what’s best for our country and our people.

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Perhaps, this is Philippine politics, ugly as ever, compounded by technology that can make lies truth, black white and deception reality, vice versa.

Yes, I am agonizing how we have become. We choose mudslinging instead of hard issues. There are, of course, many reasons for being so. Our own biases and political preferences sometimes make us what we really aren’t. Thus, we run the risk of hurting our friends’ feeling just to get the satisfaction of hitting and destroying the candidates we don’t like. Passion can drive people to see the mote but the bigger picture.

How many friendships and families have been tarnished by political differences? Some prefer to keep their silence to save friendship or a relation. Some just can’t help but react. Thus, a schism has been created.

I am inspired to write this because of that post showing Duterte on top of a seemingly a corpse of a woman. This is utterly malicious. Had I stoop to his level, I could have drawn a reaction like a fistfight or a gun duel from him.

No, I don’t need to defend Duterte anymore. Millions will and one like me won’t matter anymore. But if Duterte’s gutter language turns you off, then don’t vote for him. His defeat is not my loss but the nation’s and the victory of the status quo which we never cease to rant about and condemn and failed to do anything. And when the time comes to choose a new leader, we are more inclined to vote for those who can give more and serve our personal interest than that of our country.

One bad and tasteless joke and you gang up on him, demanding apology, whatever. I didn’t like it either. His detractors call him, “Walang hiya.” Well, Binay has been accused of robbing Makati by billions. Are we saying Binay has now “hiya”? Mar was incompent in his different government positions and he also yelled “p@#$^& ina!” And Mar has “hiya”? Where is the Yolanda money donated by rich people and nations? When money can’t be accounted for, when rice are left to rot and relief goods deteriorate in warehouses, do we call it “may hiya”?

Political confrontations in social media have become ugly. I have no control of those who wish to destroy the candidates of my choice. But I call, as I have called in the past on my side of the political fence not to resort to black propaganda beyond decency. But I have no control over them, especially trolls and those using pseudonyms. They are the most vicious and free from any moral obligation.

We may differ in opinion but no matter how wide is the difference, for as long as you don’t hide under fictitious names, I salute you.

I have my share of criticisms, too. It amused me however that they hide under trolls and fictitious names. And when they find nothing to criticize about, they criticize my spelling.

Three weeks from now would be judgment day. I and my family will vote for our candidate. Let me borrow this from somebody. “I would rather have a bad mouth than a bad government.”

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