ILANG tulog na lang, Election Day na.
How important is it to vote wisely? Here’s one reason: the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that 18.9 million senior-high-school graduates from 2019 to 2024 are functionally illiterate, meaning, they can read, write, and compute but don’t understand what they’re reading, writing, and computing.
A political candidate who wins in the elections can always hire lawyers and the most intelligent people to be part of his team. Even if he’s clueless about his job description, at least he has a team that knows what they’re doing. These people will be the ones working on policies that he will then present in sessions, wherever that may be — the City Council, the House of Representatives, the Senate. Much like what a ghostwriter does.
The politician will then look like he’s brilliant as he reads from his script. I don’t know if that makes him functionally illiterate, too.
The Senate alone already has such politicians, and I don’t even have to mention their names here. Feel free to check out the names that have filled up the august halls where elected officials converge, and there you’ll see politicians who rely on their teams. But don’t underestimate the politicians’ power that can reduce those teams to quivering slaves, with the latter becoming beholden to the powers that be.
Even political candidates have quivering slaves who are already beholden to them while the campaign season is still ongoing. No assurance of victory yet, but the utang-na-loob factor has started brewing for the candidate who buys people’s loyalty.
Once the candidate loses, let’s see who will remain by his side. Politicians who have been there, done that are much aware of how people can easily forget them once they’re no longer in power. From entourage galore to no entourage. So, enjoy the perks while still occupying political thrones.
Veteran politicians who are running this year have Gen Z staff to help them with TikTok and social media. Because who has the time to keep up with the latest trends? It’s amusing to watch them. The veteran with the Gen Z staff who could be his grandchild already. And that’s also true for the younger candidate but with the generation gap reduced to parent-child years.
This is the year when the candidate will learn which is more effective: tarpaulins, billboards, handshaking, campaign rallies, debates, candidates’ fora, social media, bribes. Or combine all of these for a sure-na victory. Or is the highest bribe enough to buy a vote.
Vote-buying and vote-selling may look like the chicken-and-egg story: which came first? But vote-buying definitely comes first. If the candidate doesn’t offer a bribe in exchange for a vote, there’s no temptation for the voter to sell his vote. The voter will then be forced to discern who among the candidates is most qualified to level up to an elected position.
Vote-buying has been Pinas’s traditional political campaign strategy since forever, with the amount increasing each election year. If the population of the functionally illiterate will increase, the more the clueless Pinoy will rely on bribes each election year.
