After May 9

As election day approaches, it feels like our future for the next few years is at stake. And the power to decide what our future would be like lies in our hands.

However, it sometimes feels foolish for me to remain hopeful for the future amid a stack of  problems that our country continues to face– from the brunt of the pandemic to the structural struggles that enabled such impacts that we are dealing with today. I should know, especially as a student journalist who chooses to write and continuously sees history unfold before her every single day.

In the past few months, I repeatedly ask myself whether my one vote would stand a chance against all these problems, and what this vote would mean for the coming days ahead. With this one vote, does the power that the Constitution entrusted to us, the sovereign Filipino people, hold the key towards ending our suffering and the bright future that we are dreaming of having for years?

I’d like to think that it does, that this vote holds the key, but for the past administrations that we have seen, these problems remain, and some even got worse. It’s as if no matter who wins, these problems will never go away. 

The reality is that the promise forged in the streets 36 years ago to solve our country’s problems and pave a path for a just and equal society remains unfulfilled, even though we had overthrown a dictator out of power. 

Even in a democratic society, inequality remains, poverty still ensues among our countrymen, and corruption among many leaders we elect into power remains rampant. Seeing these problems, it feels justified at times for me to question why I still feel hope and wait for something better than this. 

This unfulfilled promise that we continue to witness in our democratic society proves that the decisions we make for our country as Filipinos, from overthrowing a dictatorship that held our country back to choosing the next leaders, is not the end of years of our suffering. Rather, our decisions that we make as we mark our ballots and choose our leaders on May 9 serve as the starting point that we take towards the future that we dream of having for years.  

I hope we remember that the fight against the multitude of problems we face as Filipinos does not end after we place our votes. The fight continues beyond election day, and I hope we have a leader that will fight righteously alongside us after May 9.