Looking past the smoke and mirrors

IN BATANGAS (from left): Charlene Gonzalez, Aga Muhlach, the author and daughter Nicole Chien and Yvette Fernandez Yvette Fernandez’s Facebook

It’s a very cloudy, relaxing Sunday afternoon, and I’m looking out over Taal Lake. My friend and sometime leading man Aga Muhlach, along with his wife Charlene Gonzalez and kids Atasha and Andres, invited my family and a couple of friends to his Batangas getaway. It’s a trip that we had all been planning for years but was never realized. It’s very sweet that, finally, we were able to make this happen.

As in many other occasions before, significant time with this particular group of friends involved conversations about everything. While enjoying wonderful food and wine, the topics ranged from current events, architecture and design, (just looking at the layout and details of this incredible house, from the woodwork to the landscape to the furniture, one gets the impression that this isn’t just a hobby for the Muhlach couple, but a shared passion) and show business, to religion, personal philosophies and politics, both at home and abroad.

Topic of conversation

It’s election season, so it seems inevitable that this would be a topic of conversation.

No, this isn’t going to be an article of endorsement for one candidate or the next. I believe that whom I’ll eventually vote for is my own business, as I believe that whom you vote for is yours.

Politics in the United States is a hot-button topic. It can be very polarizing. I’ve seen two persons from the same family be divided along party lines, a heated argument ensuing because the Republican strongly disagrees with the Democrat, and vice versa.

All over my Facebook timeline, there are endorsements for this candidate and that, listing that person’s strengths and virtues, and why he or she would be the best person for the job of President of the United States.

Opinions would fly all over social media after each televised presidential debate, with one person saying Hillary Clinton will take it, while another will push for Bernie Sanders, for example. (For the record, if I could vote in the US, I’d decidedly vote Democrat.)

The political scene in the Philippines is just as, for lack of a better word, colorful.

Ads have been on television for at least a few months, trying to get as much name recall for the various candidates as possible leading up to Election Day on May 9. (I registered as an absentee voter, so for the coming elections, I shall cast my vote in New York on April 9.) My Facebook feed is also filled with endorsements for this and that candidate by various friends showing their political colors.

There are passionate status updates for every single person running for President, and equally passionate dissents as to why such and such should not be elected. It’s very interesting reading everyone’s opinions. And no, I still haven’t made up my mind about anyone.

It’s easy to get disillusioned about the elections. Speaking as a registered voter, there are questions that I ask myself regarding this process. I consider my vote as my investment in my country’s future, hence my taking my sweet time in figuring out whose name to choose.

I’ll try to do my due diligence in conducting research on that person’s political history; if they’ve served before as congressmen or senators, what laws they’ve drafted and eventually had passed for the betterment of their constituents; if they’ve figured in any scandals; and if they have concrete plans for the country.

I don’t want to hear empty promises; they better have something practical and achievable.

I’m holding on to whatever little hope I have that whoever we elect will be the best person for the job. That we as an electorate will pick not based solely on popularity, but on their track record.

As someone who works in the media, I know that campaign ads are carefully constructed to make a candidate look more “electable” to the public, in the same way ad agencies make shampoo, fast food and corned beef seem more palatable and sellable.

We need to look past the smoke and mirrors, and think seriously about which man or woman would be the best person to sit in that all-important seat for the next six years.

Oh, may God help us all.