EXACTLY after 90 days of campaigning and electioneering, the 2019 midterm elections are finally over. While official results for the national electoral posts are yet to be announced, various local candidates who snatched the most number of votes have already been declared by their respective local electoral boards of canvassers. A number of candidates both local and national have also conceded and even offered their congratulatory messages to the winners.
As the voting fever subsides, here are some of thoughts that deserve the so-called post-election attention:
Thank you, teachers!
First and foremost, I want to commend all the DepEd employees, both teaching and non-teaching for the invaluable services they rendered during the elections. Our teachers, together with the peace-keeping forces that include policemen and local authorities, have made the voting process orderly and peaceful. Our teachers are the most credible and most trusted people that our government always rely on to perform the crucial roles of being members of the electoral boards in their respective localities.
It’s clean-up time.
Candidates, both winning and losing, should spearhead their own clean-up drives. All campaign materials, particularly those made from plastics, should be disposed properly while those that can be recycled such as tarpaulins and papers can be made into more usable items such as bags and notepads. Comelec should actually oversee this after-election activity and impose penalties and sanctions to candidates who do not clean up their campaign materials especially the wall paintings, posters on trees, and others.
Time to move on.
This is the true spirit of democracy, and of voting. There will always be a winner, and there is always a loser. If the candidates we rooted for won, then good. If they did not, we can simply move on and stop the bickering, allegations, and even the violent reactions. What we need to do now is to heal the divisiveness that these elections has brought out, and respect the electoral process. Now whether there are anomalies and cheating that happened, that’s for Comelec and our national government to prove that the recent elections is indeed the voice of the nation.
For the winning candidates, it’s time to start rendering your service to the nation.
Our politicians should remember that they are winners because of the people who believed in them and voted for them. Because of this, they owe it to those people who have given their trust and confidence in their credibility and their promises during the campaign period. They should always out in mind that these electoral posts are entrusted to people who want to render public service, and that they have to always put the interest of the people forward, and not their own agenda. Their time as public servants is now ticking, and we, the people who voted and believed in this democracy is watching and hoping that we have made the right choice.