‘While I expect to be scratching my head over the results of Halalan 2025, I’m hoping that in the few races I’m closely following, the people’s choice will parallel my own.’
INTO the homestretch of Elections 2025, some races are wide open, some are too close to call, but many of those offering themselves to the public leave me wondering if the public is discerning enough for such a process as “free and fair” elections in Southeast Asia’s second biggest democracy.
There are a few races I am keenly watching for different reasons.
One is the race for mayor in my hometown of Alaminos, Laguna pitting the incumbent mayor against a businessman and a neophyte scion of one of the town’s founding families. The latter happens to be my kababata, Ate Baby Baylon-Faylona (a widow), whose father, Casimiro, served as the town mayor in the 1970s.
Alaminos has grown and changed dramatically since the 1970s, with more migrants now than original residents, so the makeup of the electorate has changed, too. Being a neophyte, Baby (who transformed her name into her slogan Bayang Alaminos, Babangon, Yayabong) is matching her rivals in the money being spent. The strategy is refreshing, but the polls will tell the makeup of voters in my hometown.
In Taguig-Pateros, I am keenly watching the race for two Congress seats, one currently held by Pammy Zamora and the other by Ading Cruz. Re-electionist Pammy is the daughter of former Congressman Ronaldo Zamora of San Juan and used to be the favorite of Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano.
But a falling out has resulted in the Cayetanos pitting Fort Bonifacio barangay captain Jorge Bocobo against Zamora, and in a way, it is a fight to “political” death for both sides in the 2nd district of Taguig-Pateros covering BGC and a few other barangays, including some newly transferred from Makati.
The race for the first district congress post covering the town of Pateros and a few other Taguig barangays is also interesting as it pits incumbent Ading Cruz against former Mayor Lino Cayetano. Cruz is an old Cayetano family factotum, as he was already around during the time of the family patriarch, the late Senator Rene Cayetano; over the years, his loyalty has been rewarded with positions in the city council as vice mayor and now as congressman. But his challenger is formidable in Lino, the youngest of the Cayetano brood, who is running as an independent. This race, too, is in a way a battle to the death politically for those involved. How the district votes is something I will track very closely.
The race for mayor in next-door Pasig is also one I am following; though not a voter there, I am rooting for the incumbent. The race in Makati is also of keen interest to me, as is the race in Manila. Old loyalties and family ties are involved, as is often the case most everywhere else.
If one wants to see up close the weaknesses of “free and fair” elections in a developing country, our polls come closest to being the best to examine. There’s money – lots of it – that flows up to the day of voting (and maybe even after?); there’s the lobbying for key endorsements which include payoffs to operators with links to key “ministros;” there’s the oft-pronounced but oft-ignored sermons from the pulpit of Catholic churches; and there’s the song and dance acts on stage that are part and parcel of the campaign.
In the end, no matter how idiotic or smart the candidates are, when the people decide, it’s based on their chosen criteria. I have to admit that I’ve long given up on thinking that my political inclinations are in step with those of the majority of our people.
While I expect to be scratching my head over the results of Halalan 2025, I’m hoping that in the few races I’m closely following, the people’s choice will parallel my own.
