The People's Choice: IBON and Pagbabago's Election 2010 Voters' Education Kit*

An overview of the Automated Election System, "Election Facts and Figures", "The People's Criteria" vis a vis the nation's situation, and "Where the Presidentiables Stand" (a matrix of the 9 presidential candidates' views vis a vis The People's Criteria)

Read "The People's Choice" online at http://peopleschoiceonline.wordpress.com.

* Correction: We apologize for the incorrect data in the "Where the Presidentiables Stand" portion vis a vis "The People's Criteria" on p.5 under presidential candidate Manuel Bamba Villar's column. In the first bullet point with regard to "Corruption", "Arroyo" should have been "Estrada" and "2005" should have been "2000". Thank you for bearing with us.

The overwhelming majority of Filipinos suffer chronic poverty and backwardness. The last nine years of the Arroyo administration have only seen their situation become even worse. Many are hoping that the May 2010 elections will be a fresh start and that new leadership will address their plight.

Yet the elections can only usher in the needed reforms if the people are able to choose national and local leaders who are genuinely pro-people, patriotic and democratic. The country’s problems are huge and demand committed leaders willing to challenge long-standing monopolies of economic and political power. The people have to be critical to see if such leaders are at hand.

Elections can be used to put real progressives into government but the reality for now is that they are going to be a minority at best. At the end of the day their strength will come from being part of a larger effort to build democracy based on people organizing for their democratic rights.

Whatever happens, elections must be a venue for raising the awareness of the people about their democratic rights
and the kinds of leaders that they should have and deserve. This kind of awareness can be the starting point
of struggling for these rights even after the May 2010 elections.

* Correction: We apologize for the incorrect data in the "Where the Presidentiables Stand" portion vis a vis "The People's Criteria" on p.5 under presidential candidate Manuel Bamba Villar's column. In the first bullet point with regard to "Corruption", "Arroyo" should have been "Estrada" and "2005" should have been "2000". Thank you for bearing with us.