For any position that will involve legislation such as those of councilors, congressmen and senators, it is best to vote for lawyers. A lot of errors in the crafting of laws are committed out of legal ignorance. To avoid that, vote for lawyers for those positions.
Most of the candidates, however, will be occupying positions of leadership or who will be administrators. We all know our worst problem is corruption in all levels. The person I would recommend would be the one who really exerted effort to stamp out corruption in his jurisdiction. The only way to stop that is for a leader to be proactive. Have you ever seen a local leader going out of his way to stop corruption such as by entrapment? If you have seen one, vote for him. In this country, the ones being entrapped are usually the opponents of a certain politician. It is never regularly used as a standard operating procedure to keep government clean. If you are a friend of those in power, you can get away with any kind of corruption.
Another big problem preventing us from progressing as a country is the red tape everywhere, from top to bottom. Have you ever seen a politician or the head of a local government leading the audit of processes in an office to lessen the paper work and other requirements people have to satisfy when dealing with government offices? I am old already and have yet to see one. So, in your application for a business permit, for instance, there are so many requirements that can be done away with. The same thing when applying for a building permit. And, lo and behold, such requirements are fertile grounds where to hatch corrupt practices.
These lead us back to the same question. Have you seen a politician who is hands-on in efforts to make life easier for people by preventing corruption and red tape? We mean by meaningful actions not just lip service.
In my first job as a corporate counsel for a sequestered company, we were entrapping a lot of people there and dismissing so many employees and officers. I and another lawyer as hit men in those operations were practically spending our time, night and day, at the NBI preparing for entrapment operations. We were quite successful. But then “government culture”—corruption and incompetence– started creeping among the top guns or those connected with the national leadership. We got so demoralized leaving us no option but to resign. That company, once a national pride, went to the dogs.
Our country is almost there. But we should try to make a difference in a few days by voting wisely.**