Some Filipinos living abroad are quick to judge the way we conduct our elections. They view us as filthy electorates who only seek money as the only compelling force in our election decision. They brand our country as a hopeless society, saying our attitude towards election has never gotten any better since 1986 when Philippine democracy was restored through a people-engineered revolution. Our straight-from-the-heart reply is this: Yes, our politics is dirty. Yes, our election is done in beastly manner. But we are learning the lessons, albeit slowly. We remain hopeful and we will always nurture hope that one day, somehow, the way we conduct our election would surpass the expectations of the rest of democracy-based nations. Certainly, the Philippines is not the worst among nations. Just because Philippine election features assassinations, vote-buying, threats and violence, or perhaps PCOS machine cheating, it would be unfair to brand our country as a hopeless and dangerous place to live on earth. Not at all.

America, for instance, may have shown the best example of an honest, orderly, and peaceful election that is worthy of emulation, but can we say the same to its millions of KSP (kulang sa pansin) individuals who at any time of the year can massacre our children at schools, friends in malls, relatives on streets, innocent civilians in public places? There is no killing during American elections, but some attention-deprived, depression-stricken Americans have made their schools as their slaughterhouse and transformed every part of the country as a dangerous place to live on earth. For those who are living in Norway, they cannot claim perfection for their nation. Two years ago, a lone gunman massacred hundreds of innocent young people who were camping on an island. Elsewhere in the world, we hear of the same bleak report, the same shattering tragedies, the same sad news, the same heartbreaking stories. And that if the outsiders would criticize us of being gullible and stupid for we have allowed ourselves to become helpless victims of Aman scandal, will they opine the same of Americans who had lost billions of hard-earned money courtesy of Madoff investment scandal?

If this is a slide presentation, what we’re trying to present here is a stark reality: we all have problems of all sorts, and just because some Filipinos have happened to live abroad do not give them a better position to criticize their now forsaken homeland, or any countries in the world for that matter, but come short of solutions. The picture of Philippine election does not actually represent the soul of the Filipinos. Even if our election is fraught with headaches and intrigues and scandals, still there are so many good things lurking within the hearts of the Filipinos which cannot be obliterated by the world’s impression over our political exercise. We Filipinos must remain grateful that no matter imperfect our election is, we are still given the opportunity, every three or six years, to transform our society by choosing the individuals who would become architects of our political and economic history. Think of North Korea, and you will praise the heavens that we will have elections tomorrow.