by Bobby Valentin
56 years old
Graduate school professor, De La Salle University

THIS MAY, I will once more be casting my precious vote to seek a president. This has become a ritual for me, just like the annual Christmases and Holy Weeks of Christendom, although the presidential election now comes every six years. But this ritual has another twist: I am king in it, and I have always been so in the previous eight or nine times that I have gone through it.

I am king in each election because every time, I choose who will lead me and my country. It is a duty I take very seriously, and I want not only for my vote to be counted, but also for it to be a product of prudent study.

I have always tried to be very careful about whom I vote for, and so far I have had no regrets. This time around, I will once again exercise judicious caution in my selection — to elect someone who will lead our country out of this quagmire of myriad problems that make us the sick man of Asia. I want to elect a leader who will protect specific national interests like education, peace and order, senior-citizen and youth welfare, the economy, and health services, and prioritize these in accordance with the circumstances that prevail.

All candidates will understandably be wooing the citizenry's vote. So far, candidates for national posts are conducting spirited but very professional campaigns. When the campaign period begins for the local elections, however, I expect things to get dirtier.

It is incumbent upon me to look at the candidates' social, economic and political platforms, their convictions in life, their way of thinking, even their jargon, so that I will be able to cast what I hope to be an intelligent vote. I know it is every Filipino's dream that someday, our country will rise and progress to the heights of prosperity — a tiger economy, so to speak — and provide a superior quality of life for all of us. I believe that this is possible if the electorate goes all out in its efforts to come up with a wise decision. Through the years I have found that it pays to do some research and conduct informal queries — asking everyone, from my own family to my students, to even mall salespersons and ambulant vendors — to help me come up with a selection that balances idealism with reality. If we set aside our initial biases and do some spadework, however crude, we can all go to that polling booth with confidence and conviction.

I will vote because I believe it is my civic duty to do so. I will even encourage all members of our household, including those providing support services, as well as neighbors and friends, to vote. Voter turnout is an important measure of this democratic process we call elections. Low-voter turnout means a lot to political analysts, crystal ball readers, media practitioners, and stock speculators. Some of these people may claim, for instance, that because of low-voter turnout, the election results do not reflect the true sentiment of the electorate, and that therefore the just-concluded voting was simply a sham. "We deserve whom we elect," political pundits would say. Each of these people is of course entitled to his own opinion. As for me, I want the election results to be fully representative of the nation's will.

I will vote because I love my country that has nurtured me since birth. I will not allow someone who is mediocre, incompetent, and/or corrupt to hold the reins of government and bring the country to ruin. If I do not vote, this type of candidate may eventually win. By then, the only thing I would be able to do would be to accuse myself of apathy and negligence — and of being party to the perdition and chaos that may ensue. I think of our children and our country's future each time I queue up at the election precinct to fill up my ballot. Voting means putting the right people to the proper positions of the government of the country that you love and owe allegiance to. I wish to one day help break the Quezonian prophecy by electing a government "run like heaven by Filipinos." Ludicrous dream, you may say, but I believe that this is not as impossible as it may seem.

Of course I will vote because I want my candidate to win, whoever he or she may be. Like any other voter, I fantasize that my candidate would win by a tremendous landslide. But reality often comes too soon, when the initial canvassing returns are published in the papers. Yet, in the last two decades, I have had no reason to despair because I always did what a responsible Filipino should do: I accepted being king for a day and participated in the shaping of my country's future.