The Price Tag of My Vote

As someone who just turned 18 last October 8, I am a bit excited for I am now able to vote on
who among the candidates this upcoming election is I am going to vote for. It’s pretty exciting that I get
to finally vote for my candidates to different position. Regarding the vote buying, I am fully aware of
this kind of campaign in which the candidates buy the votes of the voters so that they can win. I know
this pretty well since the location I am currently living, which is in the province of Lanao del Sur, the
vote buying is very relevant. I think every election, they always do that strategy. Based on my
observation, those candidates who buy votes usually win, and those who don’t usually lose the election.
With this kind of election, I refuse to accept money to sell off my vote to the candidates.

It is good to realize that at such a young age, I have known the importance of choosing great
leaders. Especially in this time of pandemic, I have seen those candidates who are really dedicated to
their job as the leader of the community. With this regard, I am kind of excited for this upcoming
election where I can now cast my vote to my chosen candidates, I can finally choose the leader who
really deserve to win. A leader with dedication, integrity, courage, and principle. It is really sad to think
over the years, many Filipinos are selling off their votes to the undeserving candidates which we can all
see the result of this situation. Because of electing undeserving candidates, some local government and
officials were corrupts who steal money that is supposed to be allocated to the many Filipinos who
really need that financial support. But because the elected leaders and officials were not dedicated,
integrated, courageous, and principled, they take advantage to the power given to them. And who’s fault
is this? I say, it’s both the candidates who buy votes and the voters who sell off their votes.

If you were to ask me if I am also going to sell off my votes like of the other voters, I would
absolutely decline this trade-like for my vote is priceless and cannot be bought by anyone. But I can put
a price tag on my vote, but not through financial aspects, rather something that is immaterial but very
reasonable. My price tag says that in order for me to vote you, you must satisfy the four basic aspect of
being a great leader as I perceived. First, you must contain dedication with your services, second is the
integrity of you as a person and as a future leader, third is the courage that you have, and lastly, you
must have certain principles that are hard to break. If you have these four aspects in my price tag of my
vote, then I would be delighted to give you off my precious vote.