Tomorrow, Filipinos will go back to the polls to elect the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials who will serve in these levels for the next three years. From most indications, it won't be any different than the ones preceding it. The people's political maturity continues to be suspect given the overpowering influence of traditional politics on the entire electoral process. Hopes that this one will be a free, fair, honest and orderly election have little basis. And yet, Filipinos might be getting more flak than they deserve. With the exception of mature democracies, we are lumped right there where we belong. For while we continue to raise our expectations high (which we ought to do), we are definitely not a mature democracy as most of us imagine ourselves to be. If democracy is a system that allows people to routinely disregard laws and violate accepted norms of conduct, then we are a democracy. If democracy is about allowing people to sell their votes, in violation of the law, then we are a democracy.

Unfortunately for us, democracy demands that people vote out of their own free will. There is no free will when people vote for a fee, the accepted norm in any Philippine election. Most idealists put the blame on politicians for perpetuating such a culture to achieve their selfish ends. That is partly true. And yet one cannot help but wonder why politicians would insist to spend if only they could do it for free. With due apologies to the idealists, it takes two to tango. Politicians may offer the moon if they like but it won't mean anything if there would be no takers. On the other hand, one can get a bargain from voters if he knows how to get it.

The truth is that people make choices and they should be responsible for those choices. To insist that only politicians and the rich should get the blame for turning the electoral exercise into a bidding process is unfair and naïve. If there is anybody who should be more serious about elections, it should be the poor. More than anybody else, they should be the ones who should choose the best and the brightest from among the crop of candidates. To relieve them of responsibility just because they are poor is to be guilty of double standards. If they cannot be responsible for their lives when they are poor, they won't be responsible at any other economic category. It is time we stop treating the poor with kid gloves as some militants with questionable motives are fond of doing. Every human being, rich or poor, should be treated equally as far as being responsible for their choices are concerned. People are responsible for their choices – whether they are rich or poor.