Is the recent loss of celebrities who ran for senators like Willie Revillame, Bong Revilla, Manny Paquiao and Philip Salvador enough for us to celebrate? Apparently not as many of their kind still made it as senators or for other elective positions. This is not to downgrade their abilities but, let us face it, many celebrities ran for positions for which they were not qualified or competent.
The bottom line is, are our kababayans wise or intelligent enough already when voting for candidates for public offices. The answer is a big fat NO! The proofs are the so many celebrity candidates who still made it. They might have been good in show biz or as athletes like boxers but for them to be voted for as senators or as congressmen or congresswomen would be ridiculous. Certainly, they would not be as competent were they trained for such positions.
However, to make our voters wise enough to make the right choices whenever the circus called elections come to town would be a long arduous process. It would mean a lot better educational system. That means our leaders should wake up to the fact many of our college graduates are still poorly educated. We are still giving millions of non-readers high school diplomas. That is not even mentioning the staggering number of out-of-school youths who will someday become registered voters somehow. How can such poorly educated become intelligent enough, much less wise enough, in selecting the right people to vote for?
To repeat, for emphasis, the first step is for our leaders to wake up to our reality as a nation education-wise. But that first step for a meaningful change is so difficult to achieve as our politician leaders would rather be in denial. That is a lot easier.**