When the news broke out that newly appointed House Speaker Harry Roque and Presidential Communications Operations Office Assistant Secretary Margaux “Mocha” Uson are among the ruling party PDP-Laban’s 2019 Senatorial Candidates, I was not exactly shocked.  

Just another maneuver, I thought.

A number of people whose opinions I have a high regard for have concluded that the current administration has a lot of tricks up on its sleeves, tricks that shift the people’s attention from one topic to another thereby preventing them from getting into the bottom of one issue or worse, stealthily blindsiding them from the real issue.

Announcing the probability of Roque and Uson to be among their Senatorial Candidates for the next elections this early could either be a ploy to distract the people from whatever issues are at hand or just a strategy for a cheaper popularity build up that will endure the next two years until the 2019 electoral campaign.

Mocha, after being asked what she has to say on the announcement, said that she didn’t know there would be one such announcement and with a tone of submission to the will of President Duterte, added that she will only run if Duterte himself would make her. Hearing that, I shuddered for it was almost as if Duterte was god and whatever he wills shall be, or at least in the case of Mocha.

But let me tell you what really irks me about this news.

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said that Mocha’s Senate winnability is a “no-brainer”. What with her millions of followers on social media. Despite the fact that the identities of these millions of followers have not yet been ascertain as real or fake doesn’t matter, what matters is that she has millions of them and this could be her ticket to winning a senatorial seat.

Andanar coming up with a statement like that confirms my belief that this nation really has no more respect for its political institutions.

The Senate, the Congress has the “power of the purse”. Meaning, its members shall determine where the budget goes, they shall come up with laws that will make the lives of their fellow Filipinos better.

What happens when someone like Mocha sits there?

I wish there is a way for me to write my thoughts without having to demean Mocha. But let me try with this one.

If you build a house with substandard materials, what happens?

Speaker Harry Roque may have the political background for a senate bid, but Mocha, will just be another smudge in the Senate should she run and win.

However, no matter how hard we try to discredit the lady, it is still the people who will decide in the end. They will come to the voting precincts and whoever they vote will either make or break this nation.

So as I sit here, I try to think of ways on how to alter the possible outcome of the 2019 elections.

One solution to this is to convince anyone who is courted by any political party to run for office to first take a hard look at themselves and see if they even have the mind and the moral ascendancy to run for office. But that would really sound naïve for it is very rare for man to refuse when he is offered power.

Another solution is to keep trying to change the people’s mind. But even that is quite a feat as there are a lot of different platforms of information for each class of people.

It is hard enough to make those in the middle class (who have access to the internet) change their minds. What with posts and sites that manufacture reality at the advantage of the current administration.

Seriously, if you immerse yourself in the company of people who have never seen things on the side opposite that of the Administration’s, you would really fall for the stories they read online.

Now, if someone from the grassroots would argue with you that they will vote whoever promises the most enticing change and seem different from many other electoral candidates who had once promised them the moon and stars, what exactly will you say?

These words have been spoken once. Let me use them again.

Those who are tired of toeing the poverty line, those who are tired of the same old ways of living, and those who do not seem to care anymore because they have seen no change in the last three or four presidents that came and went… how do you tell them which candidates must be elected? Clearly, if we can’t educate them on how to sift through their choices, then they will keep doing the same thing. Shade whichever names ring a bell.

And if that would be the case, then Mocha and the likes of her can really win.

Good for you if you can live with that, I can’t./WDJ