Hindi Kandidato, Hindi Pulitiko Kundi, Tayo!

By: Mr. Ezekiel Rodriguez

I often visit my mothers’ native barangay in Lipa, Batangas. For years, it developed and became a well-
known city in the province. For twenty-two years, I’ve been a witness in its development, from 5-8 old
Spanish-type houses to over a barangay full of newly constructed buildings and commercial
establishments. People earn their living by means of selling goods in the nearby market, there are also
several OFW Families within the area (including my mom), some earn by means of being an employee
and others, by means of their sari-sari stores and/or by means of gambling.

I was amaze on how they survive in their daily living, actually, I feel so guilty knowing that I consciously
work in a well-paying university and yet, my earnings doesn’t coincide with my personal expenses. Going
back to my story, almost every day, my aunties and uncles work to earn and gain their daily necessities.
Amazingly, they are capable of eating more than three times a day including midnight snacks
(sometimes, in a 24Hour fast food chain) yet, the sad part is, some children in the area and even their
families, do not value education that much. Seldom can you find teens that have earned a college
degree and most of them ends with families of their own at a very young age.

One Sunday, I went to the said province for a special reason. While I was walking around the eskinita
leading to our old house, I saw a poster of a presidential aspirant and it states the name of the candidate
with the tag line, “TAPUSIN ANG KAHIRAPAN”. For almost two days I’ve been reflecting on the said tag
line and I have asked myself, how would this presidential aspirant alleviate poverty? What would be his
platform in dissolving poverty not only within the portals of Metro Manila, but also within the eskinitas
of the far flung areas of Lipa and other areas of the country with families who are suffering because of
it? Is he a person who can really remove poverty from the vocabulary of the Filipino people? Is he really
capable of living within his campaign tag line?

As I have reflected, neither the said candidate nor any other presidential aspirants can alleviate poverty.
They cannot dissolve poverty as long as the Filipino people refuse to accept the value of education and
encourage the young to study and enrich their families’ knowledge and skills. The way of life of the
Filipino people needs to be changed. Our views about some aspects of life should be overhauled. Filipino
families should be reformatted to cope up with the rapidly changing economy and way of living.
Education should be valued for it will reciprocate scarcity to abundance.

Corruption hinders the delivery of adequate government services to the people. Yet, it is only secondary.
The Education sector should be empowered and let people realize the value of it. Parents should be
eager enough to send their children to school. Parents should be aware of the brighter effects of
education for the future of their children. Poor education may likely result to poor quality of living in the
near future.

Our families’ suffering is due to poverty that should not be blamed solely in the government. The way
we live depends on the way we perceive things. The way we earn is perceived by the way we work. The
way we view success depends on how we sweat for it. Poverty is caused by poor and misled conception
about education and as long as there are Filipinos who view education secondarily, the Philippines will
always be a third world country. Politics covers almost all aspects of living, from shelter to personal
needs, yet, our status of life doesn’t depend only on elected officials. The status of our lives depends on
our own perception. It depends on how we value education.