It's the most exasperating season
again, the national election period. It is not even campaign period yet but
everyone can see that our presidentiables are already making their names known
already to the public thru their different infomercials. These politicians are
bombarding our populace with their so-called achievements and their plans to
make the nation a "better place". As a voter, these kinds of moves
make me cringe since they are just making themselves look good to the public.
For every election, I believe that a voter should make an educated choice for
their next presidentiable and scrutinize their plans for the next 6 years.
Honestly at this point in time, I
am still undecided on whom to vote as my next president. Looking at the
platforms of the popular presidentiables to date, I am leaning towards either
Sen Miriam Defensor-Santiago or Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. As a Filipino Citizen,
my top priorities for the next president to improve is our infrastructure
specifically our airports and urban transit systems. As a yuppie traveler, I am
always amazed on how beautiful and efficient public transportation and airports
are with our neighboring ASEAN countries such as Singapore and Malaysia. These
buildings abroad make me wish that we have something as modern and high-tech in
our own country. One of Sen Santiago's priority based on her speech during the
Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries Presidential Forum is that one of
her goals as the next president is to prioritize investment in public
infrastructure and build them at par with our ASEAN neighbors[1].
As for Mayor Duterte, as stipulated in his National Platform of Government
Thrusts and Priority Programs is that one of his priorities is Urban, Rural and
Transport Infrastructures[2].
Given that our country is disaster prone as manifested by the onslaught of
Typhoon Ondoy in 2009 and Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, I believe that the next
president should make disaster resiliency another priority program. In this
case, Mayor Duterte also lists building disaster resilient communities under
his priority program[3]. Moreover,
The Philippines as an agriculture dependent nation, I believe that the next
president should elevate the standards of our agriculture produce so that one,
we will not need to import our basic commodities such as rice from other
countries, two, we should make our seed varieties disaster resilient to
withstand the different calamities that ravage our country every year and three
give our agriculture research and development a priority in the national budget
allocation. This is part of Sen Santiago's plans to include having a more productive agriculture
sector which will go hand-in-hand with the manufacturing sector[4]. Lastly, it is important to me as a employee,
I believe that we should have tax reforms especially for those in the middle
class. In their platforms, both Sen Santiago and Mayor Duterte promise to
reform our current tax system.
Looking at these two candidates’
strengths and weakness, Sen Santiago is very accomplished woman who is a
lawyer, a judge and a legislator but who is also currently battling cancer which
may be a determent to her potential presidency while Mayor Duterte who is the
mayor of the 4th safest city in the world has a vigilante and aggressive
personality which may not be appropriate behavior as the head of the Philippines. Maybe
by 2016, my deciding factor on who to actually vote would be on how they will
fare on presidential forums and their actions during the actual campaign
period. Until then, I will still have to carefully discern on who will be worth the one
vote in my ballot.
[1] Miriam
Faces Businessmen, Bares Plan, (Philippines, October 27, 2015), http://miriam.com.ph/newsblog/2015/10/27/miriam-faces-businessmen-bares-plans/
[2] Mayor
Duterte’s National Platform of Government, (Philippines, November 27, 2015), http://www.manilalivewire.com/2015/11/look-mayor-dutertes-national-platform-of-government/
[3] Mayo
Duterte’s National Platform of Government, supra
[4] Miriam
Faces Businessmen, Bares Plan, supra
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