Busting bluffers in the 2010 Philippine Elections

With the Philippine Elections less than a year away, it has become more and more crucial to educated and inform the public about the candidates who will be seeking national and local positions.

If I had a hat and if I were wearing it, I'd doff to Better Philippines, Get Real Philippines, and all other Filipino bloggers I don't know off for taking up the cause of trying to educate and inform Filipino voters about Presidential candidates in particular.

Better Philippines came up with a movement to bust the political bluffers with "Hindi Ako Uto-uto" in May 2009 and months after this, Get Real Philippines came up with Platform Plez which basically asks candidates to talk about their platform -- if they have one.

Hindi ako Uto-uto asks people to spurn the TV ads of people clearly aspiring for the Philippine Presidency and Platform Plez demands that the Philippine Presidential candidates present platforms of governance.

I support both of these movements, however, after viewing the Platform Plez matrix I noticed that BenignO (the blogger behind platform plez) I noticed a couple of things which could be added.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to include a column that could contain a rap sheet on each of the candidates. Because, if it came down to choosing the lesser of many evils, we should at least be forewarned of whatever evil we're buying into. I realize that this proposition might involve reworking the matrix and assigning a positive/negative point system. Moreoever, candidates will not admit to having any negative traits and the best Filipino politicians have made careers out of hiding their negative traits.

Take the case of this article on Vice President Noli De Castro or this article on Senator Chiz Escudero.

A group that I am with actually has a matrix of all of the presidential candidates andI'll post it, perhaps, after I get approval.

Till then, support the movements "Hindi Ako Uto-uto" and "Platform Plez".

(And, if in case you're wondering why I put the picture of Rene Requiestas here, it's because I would have nominated him for President but he died ahead of his time.)