Letting my Vote Count

Today, I voted for the Philippines elections.  It was quite easy here in SG. You just have to go the Phil Embassy, show your ID, then go the booth assigned (there's AC by the way) where you'll be given the sheet to select your choice/s, shade the choice you picked, insert the sheet on the machine thingy that counts the votes, put a thumbprint beside the name on their list, and get an "ugly" purple ink on your right index finger (this is to prevent double voters).  The steps all under 20 mins tops. I guess we (together with my Filipino colleague) went early in the morning before going to work, thus, not a lot of people were queuing.   

My last experience wasn't this breezy. I remember going inside a very crowded elementary school. My name was listed under a different list on a another different floor from my other family members.  So I had to go up a couple of floors to look for the specific booth indicated.  Other than these steps, all I remember was that it was hot and very stuffy inside the room. It was my first time voting then, and I just shrugged and thought that it was just the way it is.

"Just the way it is!"  This is the kind of attitude I find most Filipinos possess. Ganun talaga eh, wala na tayong magagawa!  I also had this kind of attitude because I grew up accepting that we cannot change the way the system works.  Why bother right?  I know a lot of my friends are not voting because they did not bother to register.  The mentality is that it's just going to be same anyway.

I'm 26 years old and honestly find it disheartening to hear and think that there's no way for the Philippines to improve at all. The country is very rich with resources. The potential is quite big, especially coming from the largest English-speaking country in Asia (I believe).  Filipinos are very adaptable.  See how many OFWs are around the world.  Every place I've been to, there will definitely be at least one Filipino there. Case and point from my recent trip, I walked in the streets of Vietnam, a guy approached me for directions and I find out he's a Filipino working part-time there.  Another Filipina I met was in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, she was the assistant manager of the hotel we were staying at. Filipinos get jobs just about anywhere because they can adapt quite well to any situation.

If we are the type that have already learned to let go of the past and turned our backs, since we're already in another country, why not help others get the opportunity that we got? Give them a fighting chance back home through stable governance.  These are people we grew up with - the person who served your favorite food at the Siomai place, or the kind manong at the parking place who greeted you every morning before going to school, or the smiling Lola on the street selling sago gulaman during those hot sunny days.  Give them a chance for a better life.  All they ask is a chance, and you have the power to give that.

I feel a bit positive with the emergence of Facebook and Twitter.  Honestly, these 2 platforms helped in making the youth understand politics, and to get them to care.  I see posts from people regarding the campaigns, candidates, political issues and what-not.  Since I'm not in the Philippines, these are my links to finding out who's who and what's what.  Honestly, I didn't care at all at first, but once you see a post, you just can't help but click and find out more.  So here I am, finally making my vote count.  I don't know how much change can be done, but like in any task or journey it starts with a single step. So let's be informed and make the decision.  Your first step is by voting your choice.  And I just hope that others will also see that a vote does count because we carry the potential for the whole country.  We, the Filipino people, are the best resource of the country.

It's a bit blurry, but here's the "blood" of our democracy , as quoted from my Singaporean colleague, which I would like to thank since he insisted that I vote because it's my right, he says. To be reprimanded by someone not even from our own country can be such a kick in the butt (figuratively, of course).  :p