Philippines Election 2010

On May 10, 2010, we will select again our new leaders. There was no survey conducted that will show what is the majority of the Filipinos want to their new leader. But if you will base it on the survey that determines who is leading in the presidential race, it looks like that the Filipino prefers honest leader while expertise in business in close second. This is because the leading candidate for president is a son of pro-democracy icons. A win for leading candidate Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino would return power to a dynasty that has near saint-like status in the Philippines. His father, Ninoy Aquino, was a democracy activist and vocal opponent of martial law. He was gunned down and killed at Manila Airport in 1983. His mother, Corazon Aquino, subsequently led the famous "People Power" movement that ended martial law and ushered in democracy. She was later elected president from 1986 to 1992. Noynoy has done a very, very effective job as presenting himself as the least corrupt candidate. While Noynoy's main rival, Manuel Villar, is a self-made billionaire with a rags-to-riches story, who has tried to run a populist campaign promising that he will use his business expertise in removing the Filipinos from poverty.

If the Filipinos choose them because of their campaign promises, that means this survey also shows that environment is not yet the main concern of the majority of the Filipino right now. This is because Nicanor Perlas the presidential candidate known to be as environmentalist lags behind in the presidential survey. This is not hard to accept for the Filipinos to have this choice because Philippines ranked No. 139 in Transparency International's 180-country Corruption Perception Index last year, far worse than China (79), India (84) or even Indonesia (111). And the country's per-person GDP, at $3,300 on a purchasing-power basis, lags behind many Asian peers, and about one-third of the Philippines' 100 million populations live in poverty.

What is not acceptable is majority of the candidates does not include the environment on their campaign promises and sadly their way of campaigning is harmful to environment. I already discussed the campaigning strategy of Filipinos in my previous blog; entitled "Environment Friendly Campaigning" this will show how I consider it as not environment friendly way of campaigning. And unfortunately it is still happening in this election.