Philippine Presidential Elections

Three years ago, during the last elections, I couldn't vote because it was also held in May and I would only turn 18 on November that year. This year, I couldn't vote again because I'm here in Japan. Hmmm. Maybe I'm not meant to vote in my country's elections. (Who knows where I'll be in the next 3 years?) >.<

The presidentiables: Fernando Poe, Jr., Panfilo Lacson and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Anyway, today was election day in the Philippines. The incumbent president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is running again even though ordinarily, a president is only allowed to have one term in office. Arroyo is different, because she wasn't elected during the last elections. She became the president because of a people power revolution--the second time in the country that a president was ousted in just over a decade.

Her biggest opponent is popular action star Fernando Poe, Jr. An actor, a school drop-out (high school, college, whatever, I don't know), and no experience in politics. He is a close friend of the former Pres. Joseph "Erap" Estrada who was replaced by Arroyo because of corruption charges, and is apparently backed by comrades of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos (this I heard on AFN, here in Japan--see how popular/notorious we are?). If he wins, hmmm. I don't know what's going to happen, and frankly, I don't care anymore.

My mother called me today and we talked for a bit about the elections. She said it was a tight race, and expressed her concerns if Poe would win. My reaction was: it doesn't matter. If he wins, and the people find out they don't like him (anymore), I'm sure there's gonna be another people-power revolution at EDSA again. But really, Philippine politics is just going in one direction, and that is DOWN. No matter how good that person is who comes to office, I doubt if he/she can make a difference. There are just too many obstacles and people just wanna pull you down if you're on top. At the end of the day, all I can say is: I don't care who wins anymore, it's hopeless. One thing is sure though, if Bush was the president of the Philippines, I bet he would already have been replaced ages ago. LOL. ^^;

On another note, today as I was on the train, I saw a middle-aged Japanese man rise from his seat on the train and offer it to an older Japanese woman. Wow. That was amazing. I finally saw it. You can't believe how happy I was. LOL.