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A CHRISTIAN VOTER'S CALL

● 37 of them will be children, 14 years old and below.

● 4 are 65 years and older.

●Fifty-nine (59) of working age, only 38 can work while the other 21 are not capable of working due to varied reasons.

●Of the 38 who can work, 3 have no work; 8 are working but are underemployed and only 27 are fully employed and are carrying the burden of providing for the barangay.

●Of the 27 who are fully employed, 10 are out of the country working abroad. Therefore, only 17 are actually in the barangay working since there are not enough decent jobs available.

●In fact, in the whole barangay, 30 have to live at only P33.72 a day, not enough even to buy one liter of gasoline at the current price today!

●Twenty-six (26) in the barangay are living without access to running water or electricity.

●Four (4) in the barangay earn P50,000.00 or more.

●Nineteen (19) people earn p20,000.00 or more.

●Seventy-seven (77) people earn less than P8,000.00 a month.

●Of the 37 children in the barangay, 11 are underweight and 15 are vitamin-deficient. Hence, only about 26 children can be considered as healthy!

●So much so that, life-expectancy rate in the Philippines is one of the lowest rates in the region at 69.6 years

●The main causes of death are diseases or sicknesses that are treatable or preventable, such as: tuberculosis or plain lack of nourishment (malnutrition), malaria, diphtheria, cholera and heart disease.

●Because of lack of financial difficulties, only 4 out of 10 pre-school children would be actually in school.

●Only 9 out of 10 children aged 7-12 are enrolled in the elementary.

●While among those in the high school age, only 2 of 3 girls are actually enrolled; while half of the boys would make it to high school.

●Many more will drop out of school are they are forced to work to help augment the family income.

●Hence, only 3 out of 10 high school students make it to college.

●Hunger, Poverty, Malnutrition, Inadequate access to basic medical care, lack of clean potable water, pollution, crime and social vices (jueteng, drugs, prostitution).

These statistics are indeed INHUMAN. And they must CHANGE. We are all agents of change. We can do something. We have the right and the privilege of choosing our leaders who can work with us in the attainment of our aspirations for a better life, our desire for a more equitable share in the national patrimony, our right to live with dignity that belongs to each human being and equal in every person, our right to participate in charting the destiny of our nation. We need to exercise our POLITICAL RIGHTS more responsibly.

●Politics in the widest sense in the dynamic organization of society for the common good. It calls for the RESPONSIBLE active participation of all citizens.

●Politics may be described as the art of government and public service. It is the use of power for the common good, the art of governance to enable the State to realize its purpose for the common good.

●Politics can also mean the competition to win or retain positions of governmental power. This is called Partisan politics.

●The power is just handed over to certain people in an election by the people with the hope that it will be used with them for the good of the people. Hence; the beginning and the end of political power is the people.

●This power is only lent by the people to the elected persons holding offices. Elections allow the people to choose the right people who they believe can take care of the power borrowed from the people, and use it for the common good.

●Negatively, Philippine politics is often described as basically "patronage politics", "a politics of personalities" and a "politics of pay-off".

●PCP II summarily described our politics in the following way: "Power and control are also elitist, lopsidedly concentrated on established families that tend to perpetuate themselves in political dynasties." (PCP II,24).

i. Deriving from the feudal system of master and servant ("amo" and "kasamak"), (landowner and tenant), the politics of patronage considers the relationship between public officials and ordinary citizens as that of patron (master, "amo") and client (servant, "kasamak", "bata-bata").

ii: Rewards of benefits are distributed according to the LOYALTY of clients to their patrons. Clients or VOTERS depend on their patrons or public officials for every development projects or assistance and solutions to community problems. Developmental projects become REWARDS to loyal clients/voters. These are distributed NOT on the basis of justice but due on the basis of the government official's "kindness"("kabutihan").

iii. Dependence and subservience, passivity and inaction on the part of the citizens is characteristic of such a system.

iv. "Family Dynasties": political positions are treated like feudal properties, public funds are used by some officials as their own, for personal and family interests. Political office is passed from one generation to another.

i. The popularity of political candidates count more rather than competence and integrity of the candidates and their stand on issues. The criteria for selection are the "connection" of personalities to the powers that be, including family connections, which would result in family political dynasties (cf. above).

ii. Political "turncoatism": frequent changes in political party' affiliations come because parties do not have political ideologies that present voters with clear cut alternatives on key social issues, instead are based on the personalities of the leaders and members.

iii. "People seem to care more for the projects and gifts and less for the substantive issues on which their elected political representatives should take a stand" (PCP-II, pp. 279-280).

i. Political advantage is the reason that a politician takes one position over another with regard to issues. It's like: "What will you do for me if I support you in this issue?"

ii. Decisions are based not on principles but on "horse trading", vested interests and on so called "party loyalty".

iii. Vote-buying is one indication of this brand of politics.

Politics of "Popularity Contest"
i. Just like in the popularity contest, it is not always the most beautiful woman who wins in the contest but the one who is able to "buy" the most "votes".

ii. In selling our votes, we are not anymore allowing these candidates to "borrow" the power that belongs to the people but we have sold it to them. We have lost that power, and sold that right to them! Thus, they can do whatever they want with it, no matter how dire the consequences are!

●It is tantamount to selling our votes.

●It means that we have surrendered our right to choose candidates with integrity and competence in exchange for money we will spend so fast as compared to three years of non-stop stealing of public funds.

●It means we have lost our right to right to question corrupt activities of those who we have "voted" into office.

●It means we have sold our power to govern which rightly belongs to us: power from the people, for the people, by the people?

●It means we have allowed ourselves to be tied down by these politicians!