By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
There is a game that I enjoy to this day. It is a strategical game set in medieval Europe where you would play as the ruler of a certain kingdom, duchy, or smaller territories. The overall aim of the game is not specified but it is often to be the supreme empire/nation and triumph over your neighbors. It is simply a game at the end of the day, and it is set in an era so far gone but the ploys inside it hilariously draw parallel to the real world of today.
Among the strategies to reign supreme over your neighbors include the ever reliant brute force through marching your armies against those with fewer soldiers. This has its own set of challenges, but it is overall the most direct and simplest manner to climb the steps into being the sole superpower in the region.
But this is not the only route towards being a hegemon. There are other ways to crushing your neighbors. One of the more complex but surely effective ways to destroying a neighboring nation is to influence them through different means that an incompetent ruler eventually becomes the ruler of that nation.
This tactic requires a bit of patience but from your point of view as the puppeteer behind the scenes it gives you every bit of satisfaction and entertainment just as marching your armies to conquering them into submission. With an incompetent and insane ruler at the helm, it would only be a matter of time before his kingdom spirals into bankruptcy, split into different factions or face small bits of rebellion all over. This leaves them open to foreign occupation with their defenses so low or simply unable to be mounted because of unrest.
With the next presidential elections coming in just 2 years and Sarah Duterte already announcing her intentions to run, there is a need to prepare and be informed for all the possible candidates. Being so close to a superpower nation brimming with ambition and the history of elections within small nations being tampered with by these ambitious countries, it would be within expectations for foreign influences to be mixed in.
Before casting your vote for a certain candidate, it would be wise to consider those who back and are backed by nations not flying the same flag as ours. An incompetent ruler does not benefit anyone except foreign superpowers whose interest include their neighboring nations to remain backwards and easily placed under their control.
When the next president is proclaimed and the applause from China or any other foreign power rings louder than our own citizens, then we would have just made another big mistake.**
