LUTONG Macau allegedly spiced up the elections of, uh, some political organizations for the young ones. Starting ‘em young. Yay. Para sa bayan?
Or para sa kaban? Kaban ni… Oops! Bawal ang judgmental.
Yes, it’s only 2023, so, why is the Pinoy politician already busy planning for 2025 and 2028? Because it takes at least ten years for a local politician to prepare for a seat in the Senate. For a familiar Pinoy actor or media personality, though, it takes much less—one year of notoriety will do.
We’re talking about the Senate, to provide a basis of comparison between the national and local levels.
The local level is easier to reach, though. A consistent social-media presence here, constant vlogging there, and making pa-cute everywhere so the Cagayanon will continue to remember the name.
The name that will most probably make a comeback as a candidate for mayor, vice mayor, or congressman in Cagayan de Oro in 2025, depending on which way the wind blows by then.
Will the Cagayanon welcome him back? Oh, did he leave in 2022? Only his Comelec registration transferred to some other place. But he has remained visible in CDO.
The Pinoy voter has learned to accept that an honest politician is an oxymoron and is as rare as high-carb food in a low-carb diet.
He has realized that looking for the best political candidate is like looking for a needle in a haystack. So, he votes for the lesser evil. Someone who can at least leave a solid legacy of school buildings and bridges that can survive earthquakes and aftershocks, and not those with expiration dates after three or six years, coterminous with the term of the elected official who built them.
And then there’s the candidate who lost in his bid for re-election and may now feel he has the right to remove all the fixtures and furniture from his office if his personal funds were used in purchasing them. This kind of thinking may also happen to his publicly funded projects which the next elected official may choose to stop, as the latter has his own set of goals.
An electoral defeat can be painful to the political candidate who spent millions or even billions of pesos for his campaign and the ulan-ulan. If he borrowed that money or it was given to him by “investors” who are expecting returns on their investment, and with no way now for him to repay in cash or in kind, that defeat definitely deserves a huge ouch.
He can always tell his “investors” and creditors to wait for 2025. But then, he will need another round of fundraising for that. Whew.
By the way, the pain may stay until sour grapes becomes the losing candidate’s middle name.
If you have sour-graping tendencies, better stay away from politics. Because in politics, everything is trabaho lang, walang personalan.
And then, there’s the candidate who quits immediately after his first try especially if the political party’s winning lead star has not even cared to appoint him to a lucrative position in the new administration.
