The electoral victory of a senatoriable who hardly had political ads on tv prompted a number of people commenting how the Filipino voters have become more intelligent in choosing their leaders. If the Filipino electorates have indeed become more intelligent, it is a much welcomed development. However, we have all been witnesses to what the Philippine election remains to be—dirty and voters easily swayed by vote buying as cheap as 100 pesos. There are ways, though, on how we can see the fulfillment of having wiser and more intelligent electorates. Here are some ways that I can think of:

Let our educational system provide our younger generation with teachings on the importance of suffrage. Education is most useful to teach future electorates the importance of voting. A number of first time voters, for example, have failed to practice their suffrage because they do not see the importance of their votes. Providing them with ideal standards in choosing for a leader will also help them effectively assess who among the election candidates are worth choosing for. When our educational system teaches our students the importance of voting for a candidate with high moral standards, concern to the environment, and the ability to execute or legislate laws, for example, then we might be able to foster future electorates to vote based on their own research, evaluation on particular candidates and conscience.

Government leaders should be encouraged to lead the way of having high morals during elections. The reason why many Filipinos fail to become wise voters is that a number of our elected and even appointed officials do not have high morals when running for and even sitting in public office. Why would voters be tempted to sell their votes? Because there are politicians and even public officials offering to buy people’s votes. Imagine having Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez offering P10,000 to every barangay captain in IloIlo if they can deliver a 12-0 victory for the TU party. Is the offer not an attempt to buy the votes of the ilonggos? Some senatoriables did not even follow simple election rules. As of the first week of May, the Pera’t Pulitika Working Group findings has reported that Manny Villar already spent P138 Million in campaign expenses when a senatoriable is allowed to spend only about P135 million. In Marawi City, it was also reported that sample ballots come with money. Are politicians in Marawi not responsible for this? Our electorates can become wiser if our public officials are not as shrewd and corrupt as many of them are.

I hope that the time when Filipino voters become wiser will come soon. By then, we can say to Filipino critics that “we are an intelligent people who choose our leaders wisely and with conscience.