In search of the perfect candidate
It’s barely a week before the start of filing the Certificates of Candidacy (COC) for all elective positions for the May 2022 National and Local Elections. Some presidential aspirants like Senators Panfilo Lacson and Manny Pacquiao and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno have openly declared their intention to run for President. Still, everything seems volatile as the other probable contenders have not yet announced their plans and filed their COCs. The fluidity of the situation will settle only when the period of substitution ends on November 15, 2021.
If the trend continues until the election day, the voters will have to choose from several candidates representing a fractured administration party and a fragmented opposition. This scenario clearly shows how weak our political parties are.
It is expected that the strong contenders will be known only after the period of substitution since we are seeing a similar political drama in 2016 unfolding today. Probable administration candidate and survey frontrunner Mayor Sara Duterte may eventually join the presidential race after scripted and unscripted pleas for her to run become increasingly loud.
Exciting as it may seem, Philippine elections time and again show several weaknesses in the electoral process as part of our democracy. Elections here are like beauty pageants where the candidates are judged mostly by how their handlers package them to suit the electorates’ undiscriminating taste. PR handlers openly admit that a candidate is winnablenot because of competence and integrity to lead the country but because of popularity.
Ironically, the search for the perfect candidate for the CEO position in a private company is more rigorous than electing the President of the Republic of the Philippines, who commands the armed forces and the large corps of public servants to serve the Filipino people. But Rousseau believes that “the general will is always right and tends to the public advantage.” Gerald Pomper asserts that elections would improve the workings of politics, even if they would not ensure the quality of the resulting product. Elections give legitimacy to an elective government and provide the basis of the implied consent of the electorates to be governed by the elected leaders.
As the stream cannot rise above its source, our elected leaders are the vivid reflections of the people who placed them in power. During elections, Filipinos have a chance to steer the nation to become a better race. Indeed, we are headed in that direction, but the journey is quite bumpy, dizzying, and confusing since a few of those at the helm of government divert the trajectory to favor personal gain.