Last two minutes

Ruffy Magbanua

LIKE basketball, the country’s  national and local elections has  two minutes remaining before judgment day.

To the throng of candidates vying for various positions–from president down to the last town councilor–the last two minutes would be  the most crucial, heart-stopping and exhilarating moments in their quest to land for   public office.

As expected, the  campaign  would never have that thrill and  excitement  without lies and deception from all political camps, big or small, moneyed,  funded  or otherwise;  or just plain stupid, do-gooder political party.

In fact, the likes of Trillanes, et al had turned the campaign into an instant national gag complete  with titillating tales of deceit and fakery — done in the last two minutes of the campaign.

The Trillanes “bank deposit expose” practically hoodwinked both the mainstream and social media into believing his findings on Duterte’s millions were authentic worth its salt.

It was a misfire that turned back on Trillanes  and the rest of the storytellers who were caught with their pants completely  down.

The former mutineer-turned-instant politician is now tagged as the country’s No. 1 certified  newsmonger.

And for all the hoopla this electoral exercise had created,  the emergence of social media e.g. Facebook, Twitter, blogs  and texts make this electoral exercise all the more  exciting and well, palatable to the last bite!

And behind those short and long stories on FBs–depending on which camp they belong–are the netizens who had their heydays  doing  postings, likes, comments and shares with total gusto!

Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Apple’s Steve Jobs for bringing  social media where it is now, a very powerful 21st Century communication tool–at the beck and call of everyone.

With Digong Duterte’s formidable win, the country is facing a drastic, painful change his nemesis would probably consider massive exodus down memory lane.

And this structural change, feared by many, may come in the dead of the night as the soaring Eagle of Davao known far and wide as the  drug and crime buster,  will  walk his talk pretty soon sans fraud in the counting of ballots.

The revered Lee Kuan Yew, father of modern Singapore left these strongly worded words fit to ponder before we go to the polls on Monday: “The Philippines doesn’t need democracy (the Filipinos have plenty of it), the country needs  national discipline more than anything else.”

Let’s fasten our seat belts, change is definitely coming.

E-mail: ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com