Tuesday, May 21, 2013

We are not stupid! We are not!

Okay, so I read an open letter of sorts that addresses everyone who called the Philippines stupid for putting into power the ones we did during the recently-closed elections.

Just to get this out there, no, I didn't vote. Why? Because I don't believe in the power of my vote. End of story.

Ok, so here are Benjamin Pimentel, the author's, reasons why Filipinos aren't stupid.
  • The number of women in the senate has doubled
  • (murder-accused) Jack Enrile didn't win
  • (cheater-accused) Migz Zubiri didn't win
  • Leni Robredo won against the powerful Villafuerte clan.
I'm not sure if he's making a case for us winning a lesser evil in his article.

More women? Does that make things better? Sure, I'd love to see a society ruled by an equal number of men and women, but I think that's beside the point. For instance, Poe and Binay won by virtue of popularity and name recall. Is that supposed to count as female emancipation when both depended on their fathers' names?

Secondly, are we going to list down everyone else who didn't win and celebrate their non-winning as a show of intelligent voting? I didn't win (oh, wait, I didn't run either), but I don't think that adds any meaning to this event.

As for Leni Robredo's victory, can this event speak for all of us? How many Robredo-types do we have in the Senate? *tick-tock you're out of time*

Mr. Pimentel would have to be more convincing than that, I think.

No comments: