Our bloody choice

Joseph Carlo
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

In third grade, my teacher asked our class what we want to be when we grow up. “To become a doctor,” I answered. Unfamiliar with what they really do, I justified my answer with the most impressive intentions a child can come up to — to help others and save lives. Every time someone asked, I had the same answer. Until I came to understand how things work in my generation, realizing that helping others and saving lives are not my genuine intentions, nor medicine is the field I wanted to pursue.

As a child, I could count on my fingers all the jobs I know at the time. Few choices to pick from, easier decision to make. However, my early life decisions have lead me to a different ground; away from my childhood dream. There are times when the choices we make draw us apart from our dreams but keep us in doing good as we rely our decisions on what we believe is right. In one way, our choices bring us closer to our desires but cost us our being righteous as we decide to take the easier but wrongful path. In the Philippine politics, the latter always overcomes.

Change of mind is a powerful yet a dangerous move in the politics. But it happens as much as our principles constantly change, hence our personal commitments too. One day, we watch a comedian becomes the senate president while covering up an abandoned high-profile rape case. The next day, we see how one of the world’s greatest boxers turns himself into the most bigoted lawmaker.

Running for a position is not a choice some people make because they merely want to serve; sometimes, it only becomes a choice because it is an opportunity people are eager to grab as it gives them more advantages. Being a world pro-boxer or a popular comedian is already a fulfilling ambition for others, but a seat in the senate is more of a dream for some.

Those who run have their own considerations and motives why they fight for a seat in the government. Their potential agenda and platforms are the basis of our choice. Our only work is to evaluate our choices to make sure our vote will go to the right candidate.

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We probably heard all these versions of stories about wrong decision-making in our government except for one. The Rodrigo Duterte’s version. The one we choose not to listen to because we deny the fact that not every decision he makes is right.

It was in late 2015 when Duterte announced that he will not be running for the presidency. A month later and the filing of certificates of candidacy has already ended, he withdrew his first statement and finally decided to run for the position due to some considerations.

Many Filipinos may have seen a better nation during his tenure but not in the eyes of a child who lost his blameless father, or a family whose breadwinner was murdered because of a mistaken identity, or a mother whose son was shot killed by a stray bullet, all because of the “drug war” he orchestrated. Ironically, the safety that he promised has caused even more fear to the innocent Filipinos — fear of being killed while wandering the streets that were not marked with terror before. As he tries hard to eliminate the evils in this country, he compromises the lives of his people.

Every family that his “war” has broken is only one justification of our bad decision-making in choosing our leaders. We prefer popularity and legacy. We are blinded by their ambitious platforms. Now that we see the consequences, we still refuse to admit that we made the wrong decision and we choose to continue worshipping a man who has no respect for women, life, and human rights.

After all, it was not his candidacy that was a mistake; it was our choice. Today we drown in this predicament rooted from the decision we made during the 2016 elections. The chance we gave him was rather used not only to lead us but also to destroy families and to gamble our lands with opportunist countries and put us in debt, only to name a few.

Change has come and it will always come whoever serves as our leader. The change that we seek does not refer to the one in his campaign slogan that once fooled us, but it is the change that we make individually. It is the change of mind we consciously commit during our decision-making, beginning from the profession we decide to pursue to the candidate we choose to lead.

Joseph Carlo

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