Clean up

CRIS EVERT LATO-
RUFFOLO

This is a gentle reminder that running for public office comes with a price, which includes giving up a portion of your privacy

Before the campaign season goes on full throttle, I am taking the liberty to remind our dear politicians and political aspirants to please do not forget to clean up all the messes you’ve made.

By mess, I am zeroing on the garbage that you generate in your quest to be elected to public service.

After election day, please do not let us suffer from the horrific sight of your campaign flyers still posted on conspicuous walls of establishments along which we, the commuting middle class, pass by on our way to work.

If you are truly and genuinely sincere to contribute in positive social change, kindly remove those posters.

We do not need to be reminded of your slogans.

We heard your battle cry; we are quite familiar with it, thank you very much.

Your campaign jingle has drilled its way to our hypothalamus that we could swear it now regulates our body temperature, controls the length of our sleep and the pace of our children’s growth.

Some, if not most of you, have “protocols” in place when it comes to rewarding the loyalists in your respective communities.

Have at it.

Buy the votes, bribe the people.

But please be careful.

The world has eyes and the role of media as the watchdog in reporting corruption and crime has been exponentially raised to the power of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Because you have placed yourself in a position where the public is accorded the opportunity and privilege to poke and pry on your very person, do not be surprised if stories about you and photographs of you — including the unpleasant ones — make its way to public platforms.

This is not to scare you.

This is a gentle reminder that running for public office comes with a price, which includes giving up a portion of your privacy.

It is a tough choice to embrace public service as a profession.

I often wonder why one would choose to be in it when the probability of making enemies is higher than forging friendships when you are truly honest in navigating the rough waters of politics.

I saw this in the examples and experiences of my news sources, friends and family members.

The midterm elections is yet another exciting part of our nation’s history.

Nowhere in the country does it run with much fanfare replete with compelling plot twists and turns than in Cebu.

There is a long list of interesting persona: a comeback candidate, a not-so-surprising switch of positions, reelectionists, celebrities and somewhere in this narrative there will be friends turned enemies and vice versa.

Hope is not lost in what I, and many Filipinos, see as a dirty exercise of democracy.

I am writing this because whenever I am confronted with news of the inflation rate, the performance of the pesos against the dollar, the back-to-back drug-related killings, suspicions against our police force, I still see glimmers of hope in the inspiring stories of public servants who do what they can in their locality or community to be forces of positive change.

I pray to see many of you this time around. Do not fail us, please.

Do not fail my children.

Please start with cleaning up your mess after the elections.

Win or lose, please clean up.