HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRIPE-VINE
(Part One)
In my very first column of 2025, I drew up my wishlist for the year that was to unfold, and prioritized peaceful, violence-free elections come May. Even if this year would be a mid-term election, I could foresee how much was at stake in terms of setting the stage for the 2028 Presidential elections. In my eye, this May would be all about whether a candidate was pro-Marcos or pro-Duterte - whether the candidate was looking at the next three years, or seriously considering what would happen post-PBBM administration in 2028.
That there is an impeachment of the Vice-President hanging over our collective heads only makes the stakes higher, and raises the collective temperatures of the rabid followers and trolls from both sides of this new political divide. And let’s not discount how those, who in the years since 2016, would have counted themselves as the opposition or ‘kakamPink’; would now see the situation as their opportunistic moment to gain back some vestige of credibility or influence. So welcome to the 2025 Philippine Elections, and don’t say I didn’t warn you!
The Manila Bulletin has embarked on a Matalinong Boto 2025 campaign, which this year stands on the three pillars of No to fake news; No to election violence; and No to mudslinging and character assassination. Of course, we put a positive spin on the three ‘bullet’ points; so it’s Yes to facts; Yes to peaceful elections; and Yes to platforms and issues. But the intent is clear for all to see; it’s to be vigilant for the truth, be fact and issue-oriented, and to reject vote-buying and violence.

Why are these factors so important this year? One over-riding reason would be social media. Just like our Party-List system, social media has been used, abused, and mis-used by all sides of the political equation. It’s become a tool for dispensing with fact-checking, with forgetting about verifying or substantiating reports and claims, and it’s the perennial go-to when we skirt issues or disguise them for emotionally charged and/or ‘pa-justice’-type content. It follows the new adage of no matter how false or questionable, if you say it often enough, it may become ‘believed’. It’s the classic case of perception over truth; and one of the main mediums for the proliferation of fake news.
Social media is the repository for all forms of character assassination and mud-slinging, as fact checking isn’t a requisite here. You just put a kernel of the truth, make the calumny credible, believable enough, arrange for the boosting, and abracadabra. So much better when there’s a hint of scandal, of being anti-poor, or spending in the billions. And let’s face it, we eat up that kind of ‘garbage’, it’s the kind of thing we relish reading, and we’ll share and comment on that kind of content.
Just recall what transpired in the wake of the Congressional commitee hearing of our vice-president last year, and her subsequent ‘assassination’ video post - the flood of memes, the jokes and doctored videos, the manner in which it made us look like a resurrected ‘banana republic’ to the rest of the world.
It’s easy now to take sides, be fueled solely by blind loyalty - and forget the reasons why this mess happened in the first place, resulting in being such a divisive issue. Call this blind loyalty a very Filipino trait (along with very forgiving, and/or extremely forgetful); but let’s realize it can either be very admirable, or be partially responsible for why we don’t really move forward as a country.
We all know that when it will come to voting time in the Senate, some of the Senators won’t even care if there was an abuse or misuse of confidential funds, or if there were acts committed that threatened the security and stability of our country - it’ll be blind loyalty guiding their vote, and nothing to do with some objective right or wrong. And where you stand on the issue will dictate whether you’ll applaud loyalty in this context.
The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao 2025 elections? The Party List System? When I speak to people, these are two aspects of this 2025 elections that most aren’t even clear about!
With the BARMM elections, it’s understandable, as this will be the first time it’ll happen, delayed from 2022 on account of the COVID health crisis. But we owe it to ourselves to understand what’s happening here, instead of falling back on the fact that we are part of the rest of the country that won’t be voting for this set of BARMM candidates. The implications of the Bangsamoro Organic Law on national sovereignty as we know it, how this form of autonomy for the region can lead to better integration (or not), the issues that swirl around these elections, should not come as a surprise to us.
If we don’t stay informed, we only have ourselves to blame - which is the case with this party list system, which some would describe as the “power lust system.” More on this in a future column. For now, I’m just hoping you support what we in the Manila Bulletin are advocating; and you join us.