Tomorrow is Election Day. Every citizen who is 18 years old and above and who is a registered voter is qualified to vote for the candidates who will preside over the next three years of our socio-economic and political life. These three years are too short for good political leaders but can become too long a nightmare under insensitive and corrupt leaders. It is time therefore to make a collective decisi0n to ensure our future and the future of our children by voting to office the leaders who can make life especially of the suffering poor (there are those who enjoy being poor by choice) better than what they already have. Let our every vote be a building block for a better Philippines. Let us go out and vote for the candidates whose platform of government and whose pronouncements have identified themselves with our own visions of the future and therefore made them closer to our hearts. With that plea and call I could end this column. But we know that reality is stranger than fiction. How else can we understand the fact tht many times in past elections, voters have forgotten what they believed in or the principles and values that guided their way of life in exchange for a very-short lived pleasure and comfort. For whatever and sometimes obvious reasons, the voters allowed the politicians to cloud their own better judgment. Thus instead of them deciding on whom to vote for based on what they know and perceived of the candidates, it was the candidates who made the decisions for them.

That is what makes Filipino electorate and particularly the Boholano electorate still immature in making political decisions. Call it the result of a long culture of passive political participation and lack of empowerment among the voters, or what have you. But as I have repeatedly said in the past, our kind of election campaigns has been dictated by politicians when it should have been dictated by the electorate. Politicians will do anything to win, but not when the electorate set the conditions for an election campaign. That is applied empowerment.

Even our poll surveys, no matter how scientific the methodologies and valid are the results, are meant for the politicians’ consumption more than the basis for the people to see, analyze and devise programs or mechanisms to improve the conduct of democratic elections. Poll results have become means for creating bandwagon mentality for those leading the pack in the rating or for resorting to threats, intimidation and vote buying by those who are at the bottom. As proven in the past, candidates at the bottom of survey results have won because then they knew where they were weak and had the means and the resources of the three Ms (men, money, machine) to reverse the results on Election Day. With the release last Friday of the results of the pre-election round of the Bohol Poll that is regularly conducted by the Holy Name University (HNU) during election year, I’m sure the candidates are now implementing their contingency plans either to keep their lead or climb the totem pole on Election Day tomorrow.

The Poll was conducted from April 21-May 5, 2013 which gave candidates enough time to strategize and repair any perceived weakness or damage. Let’s just take the example of the result for the gubernatorial race which has been so hotly contested if we take the exchange of barbs between the camps of incumbent Gov. Edgar M. Chatto and challenger Mayor Che Toribio-de los Reyes of Carmen. Gov. Chatto has a very comfortable rating of 72% voters’ preference as against Mayor Che’s 22%. Compared however to the result of the regular round released last month, Mayor Che rose by 6% points while Gov. Chatto remained at 72%. Another factor to consider is the 17% who said their vote preference could still change. Of course even if Mayor Che could get the 17%, her 39% will still not match Gov. Chatto’s 55%.

But who knows? Winners are not winners until they are proclaimed. The vaunted vast financial resources of Mayor Che’s camp may still spell victory just like what happened to moneyed candidates in the past. Money is still the best cure to the lack of and need for it. The events and incidents that took place in the last 45 days prior to the campaign period have given us enough information to make an informed decision tomorrow. We are sad about the violent incidents that once again have marked the election campaign period. Those were incidents that tell us there are candidates who will stop at nothing to win. Let’s not even think of them among our choices. In conclusion, let us reflect once more and recall what we have listened to from the very words of the different candidates. Let us recall what we have observed about the behavior and decorum of candidates because these are outward manifestation of one’s true values. Let us recall what are the platforms of government and programs of development that the candidates said they would implement. Are these the answers to our woes in life? To the community’s problems? To society’s problems? Let us look at their inner self and find out how big really are their hearts for the people. From these we will know whether they will be good or bad political leaders. Only then can we decide who to vote for. Above all let us pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.