Musings after the 2016 Philippine Elections

It is now May 20, 2016, eleven days after the elections. Back to normal. No more discussions about who to vote, about who is the best candidate.

Did my candidate win? No! But no regrets. I chose my candidate because I believed in her, no matter how people vilified or criticized her. She proved herself to have a good character as she gracefully conceded to the frontrunner just hours after the close of the voting hours, when it was evident that she was way far behind the obviously winning candidate, and this raised my level of admiration for her.

A day after the elections, articles about good things about the incoming president came out. In my mind, I asked, why didn’t they come out during the campaign? During the campaign, he was very much vilified: questionable moral character, foul-mouthed. And that if he won, martial law is a big possibility; that there would be mass killings of suspected criminals, that because of this, there is a possibility that innocent people would be killed; that communists would be welcome in the government.

It’s true that two weeks before the elections, I was considering him as the best choice, because of his excellent leadership skills, but because of his foul mouth, questionable moral character, and the possibility of mass killings, I hesitated, then a day before the election day, I decided to stick to my first choice.

Now that he is the presumptive president, people are gravitating toward him. Some are well-wishers, others are favour-seekers.

As a Filipino, my hope is that the Duterte government will succeed in curbing criminality and corruption in the country. May God bless our country, and grant wisdom, guidance and good health to our new president!