FILIPINOS, by and large, have been very public about their demand for good leaders. Across all public discussion platforms, across social media and mainstream media platforms, in letters to the editors of the major newspapers, during rallies and mass protests, there is this palpable, strongly expressed yearning for good and honest leadership.
Complementary to this yearning is this strongly expressed sentiment for electing to public office men and women of unquestionable personal integrity.
But if we subject all these definitive public clamor for both good governance and leaders of competence and integrity to the test of praxis — which means translating words into practice — we often tragically find out that declared statements are just hollow words that do not translate into concrete action via votes in the polling booths. We may be strongly advocating for good governance and good leaders but more often than not we do not vote for the more deserving candidates.
Let us go to specifics and examine the results of the last two senatorial elections. The choice of the Senate here is not a random choice but a deliberate one. Right now, it is the most scandal-rocked institution in the whole public polity.
The 2019 senatorial elections was topped by a pardoned felon, Robinhood Padilla. What motivated the voters to vote for Padilla in mind-boggling numbers, which was contradictory to the expressed desire for competence in their political leaders? Remember that in that particular election that elevated Padilla, two candidates with both integrity and competence — Leila de Lima and Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno — were rejected by the voters.
In a context of strongly expressed sentiment for electing brilliant and competent senators, how can the voters reject de Lima and Diokno and elevate Padilla? Unless, of course, the Filipino is a bundle of contradictions who says one thing then betrays that expressed sentiment once in the actual voting booth and doing the actual choices.
Relitigating the track record of Padilla in the Senate from mid-2022 to mid-2026 is useless. There is no there, there. Recently, the pardoned felon was accused of helping a senator-colleague with a warrant of arrest from the International Criminal Court (ICC) escape from the Senate under the cover of gunfire. A few days later, he was offering a master thesis on what conditions qualified as force majeure, which were all bonkers.
The 2022 senatorial elections further validated the thesis that the Filipino voter is a bundle of contractions. In that election, Christopher Lawrence T. Go, more known as Bong Go, was the number one choice. Is Bong Go a paragon of integrity? The answer is “no.” And this is based on the routine act of compiling the recent news about him.
Bong Go has been named as one of the eight co-perpetrators of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is now awaiting trial in The Hague for “crimes against humanity.” One of the eight who is also a Senate colleague of Go, Sen. Ronald “ Bato” de la Rosa, has been issued a warrant of arrest by the ICC. A construction company with Go’s initials, Davao City-based CLTG Builders, partnered with the construction company of detained couple Sarah and Curlee Discaya to carry out around P1 billion worth of projects in Davao City in 2017. The Discaya couple bagged P207 billion worth of public works projects from 2016, the start of the Duterte administration, to mid-2025. They are allegedly among the principal actors in a sordid story of corruption that is now known as multibillion-peso flood control scandal. A former senator and an incumbent senator linked to that corruption are now detained. The story is still unraveling and more senators are expected to be arrested in connection with the scandal.
Go will not pass the test of integrity and competence vocally expressed by the majority of Filipinos. If the Filipino were not a bundle of contradictions, professing and advocating one thing and voting against those professed ideals, Go will not top, or even probably win, in a senatorial election.
Want more proof that the Filipino usually votes against his professed beliefs and convictions? A recent polling said that 86 percent of Filipinos wanted the Philippine government to team up with its traditional allies to protect the sovereignty of the West Philippine Sea, which has been under assault from Chinese aggression. Filipinos also support the arbitral ruling from the UN body that upheld the sovereign rights of the Philippines over the WPS. That UN arbitral ruling also rejected China’s nine-dash line, the fictional basis of China’s territorial aggression.
Despite this, Rodante Marcoleta placed sixth in the 2025 senatorial elections. Included in the deeply held beliefs of Marcoleta is denying the existence of the WPS. Not only that. Marcoleta has been advocating for the supposed return to China of the Kalayaan Island Group, which has been part of the Philippine territory from time immemorial.
You can’t reconcile the two. Unless, of course, we have to accept the reality that the Filipino expresses support for one thing then betrays that deep belief whining inside the voting booth. Unless we accept the sad fact that the Filipino is a bundle of contradictions.
