Memoirs of an Amnesiac

Like a white elephant in my own living room, I avoid all talks about politics and the elections. When everybody else is ranting about it in the social media, I wait for the day that the election advertisements would stop airing. Why? You might ask.

I’m fed up. With all the talks about “daang matuwid.” All the six years of waiting for things to change. I wonder why only when elections are forthcoming would there be loads of road projects needed to be done. I would wonder why roads that were, well, “decently passable,” suddenly got scraped and in their place are road signs of “sorry for the inconvenience”. In a highly traffic congested city like Cebu, this is not a welcome sight.

I’ve had enough. Of promises that I know only have a short period of getting accomplished. Expiry dates run up to only the election day. When the candidate gets elected in office. After that, things are still the same. I keep wondering why despite the talks about “good governance” or whatnot, I still could not put my trust in a kind of government that favors sisters arriving in government choppers, just because she’s the “highest taxpayer”. Since when has integrity been equalled to the amount of tax one puts in?

I’m tired. Of red tape and senseless bureaucracy. I’ve witnessed this firsthand in our city hall. During elections, they always say we come first. But this isn’t true. We don’t come first. We come third. First is themselves, then their families, then us. Talk about the loathsome nepotism that still plagues most of us.

I’ve seen enough. I could probably think about the most common catch phrases there are thinkable. Name it. All the candidates have it. They use the ordinary citizen as backdrops, appeal to the most poignant of emotions, target the latest issues and pick on each other in order to get themselves the popularity ratings they so wanted. You just watch them in debate platforms; with the way they banter and bicker, you could already sense their ulterior motives.

It’s all the same. No matter who you put in office. Whether that person promises to improve the peace and order situation in six months or so, whether that person is under the incumbent government, whether that person projects a clean image by always wearing white, whether that person is smart and eloquent in debates, it would still not matter. It is in the system. Unless somebody makes a radical change in changing the system and everyone cooperates, only then will change occur.

I’m still hopeful, though. Every six years, (Thank God it’s just every six years!), I cast my vote on a candidate that my conscience (that little voice that keeps saying this guy is worth it!) dictates me. My vote may have been against what my family believes in. It’s all right. We don’t let the differences in our opinions as to who should be the rightful person to sit in office get in the way of our relationships. I still haven’t lost hope in a country that I so love and cherish as well as serve.

How I wish politicians would stop doing what they are doing now! If only they were more transparent about their services, they need not advertise about them. If only those services would be made more available and convenient for everyone, then there is no need for empty boasting.

It’s because I’m not buying any of their crap anymore.