Channel our strain feeling to local

COMELEC offices
Don’t boo. Vote. – Pres. Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States of
America
This was the delivered by Pres. Obama during the 2016 Democratic National
Convention. In his words, booing can’t stop then Presidential candidate Donald Trump
to block Trump’s election as 45th POTUS.
In the Philippines, the election of Rodrigo Duterte in 2016 as President of the
Republic stirs strong emotions among both supporters and opponents. This
unprecedented political polarity that lingers for years is evidently worsened and
manifesting in social media. The emotions are already in stratospheric level, primarily
stemmed due to government’s no-direction-no-plan reactionary response against
COVID-19 that paved way to more than two hundred thousand (200,000+) infection
cases, with about almost four thousand (4,000) death tolls. Not to mention the low
morale of the medical and essential front liners themselves.
This situation is exacerbated by the contraction of economy by 16.5% with an
unemployment rate of 45.5% which means there are 27 million Filipinos jobless. This is
a new record high since March 2012 which registered 34.4%.
On the other hand, the way the government behaves is clearly not in response to
pandemic – the closure of the media giant with about 11,000 jobs relying on it,
prioritization of the passage of Anti-Terror Law, and most recently, the corruption in
country’s public health insurance with nothing but a graceful exit of its top officials.
Now that the voter registration is open, it is imperative for young ones to register
and cast their voice in National Local Elections in 2022. The call should saturate the
social media world to remind the aghast citizens, to channel their emotions about the
happenings in the country in their local COMELEC offices. Our consensus to take back
the country from tyrannical rule and the insensitivity of the government to people’s
plight should start with the first step: be an eligible voter.
The narrative of this country can be redeemed if we have more young voters and
better leaders.
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