When all this is over, when the polls close and the winner is proclaimed, when the new administration begins its own six-year journey, our nation – battered and bruised by the chaotic campaign – will continue to face a myriad of problems.
After the recriminations and promises, and the exuberance of this noisy campaign season dissipates, we will be faced with the stark realization that our country is in disarray and there are multiple challenges to face on every front.
Foremost, as the recent typhoon Agaton reminded us, we continue to be at the mercy of extreme weather events and our uneven – at best – capability to anticipate disaster risk, much less plan for them and respond when they do strike close to home.
There remains the threat from China, which has not tempered its violations of our sovereignty in our own territory.
Our education system remains pitiful, worsened by the lockdowns, and millions of young Filipinos are not fully equipped to face the employment challenges of the next few years.
Our farmers and fisherfolk continue to live on the margins of society, even though they are the ones literally bringing food to the table.
Corruption remains endemic and many continue to believe that government office is not a public service but an opportunity to amass and protect their wealth.
Justice remains elusive, and the victims of crimes committed with impunity cannot seem to imagine a world where they can argue their case and win on its merits.
We have degenerated into a culture of free-for-all “information,” where many Filipinos are not able to tell if the “news” they are being fed is true or not—and worse, they do not seem to care.
And, of course, COVID-19 took an extraordinary toll on our health care system. The threat of the virus remains, even as fewer cases have been observed in the past few months.
The next days will be critical because it is then we will choose the next leaders who will steer us to recovery and development. Whoever the winner will be, however, faces the more daunting task of plodding through all these problems and more. This will be the true test of their mettle: they will be held accountable for their promises, and they will be measured by their ability to actually produce results instead of just rhetoric.