“Let’s not be that man.”
In the wake of the ongoing campaign period for national and local aspirants, I love recounting this tale of the man who chose hell.
Once, there was a man who died and found himself before St. Peter, the gatekeeper of heaven. St. Peter asked the man, “Where do you want to go, heaven or hell? “
The man answered, “Can I see hell first?” St. Peter pointed to an elevator to his left. The man entered it and down and down it went.
When the elevator stopped and its door opened, the man was greeted by a good-looking man in a tuxedo, and beside him was a beautiful woman in a bikini, carrying a tray of white and red wine. The girl offered the man a glass, and the handsome man took the man around hell.
The man told the host, “Hell is not bad after all,” when he saw naked women all over the place, and bacchanalian feasts everywhere.
The man was very happy when he saw his “barkada” who told him, “Come, join us.” The man said to himself, “This is the place for me.”
After several hours, the man told his host that he would like to see St. Peter again. So, he took the elevator up and up and up it went to St. Peter. The man told St. Peter that after seeing hell, he would like to see heaven. So, St. Peter opened the Pearly Gates to Heaven. The man saw everybody, all very happy and contented, with sweet music and cherubims flying all over the place.
But, there was something that the man missed in heaven, the excitement and thrill he missed while on earth that he found in hell. So, the man went back to St. Peter and told him that he preferred hell. So, he took the elevator again, and down the elevator went.
When the elevator door opened, lo and behold, he saw Satan with coterie of hideous demons, with fire all over the place, with people getting tortured, tormented and screaming, by hideous and ugly monsters and demons. “What happened?”, he told Satan, “Yesterday when I came here hell was a beautiful place and I wanted to stay.”
Satan told him, “Well, yesterday we were campaigning. And today, you voted.”
Well, that’s the story of the man who chose hell.
There must be a lesson or two in this tale where a man chose hell instead of heaven because if you counted on all the campaign promises of aspirants of both national and local positions as being fulfilled, it could be heaven on earth. Sadly, most of the promises of past candidates have not been fulfilled.
Take President Duterte, for example. Has he fulfilled all his campaign promises like ending illegal drugs, criminality and corruption in government?
It’s for this reason why this tale of a man wanting to go to hell reminds me so much of election promises.
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Candidates for President trailing behind Bongbong Marcos and his teammate Sara Duterte-Carpio tell us the poll surveys are just that, poll surveys.
Yes, it’s true that only the results of election day will bear the truth who the next president will be. It’s also true that poll surveys are just the result of surveys at the time when it was done. But, in answer to doubting Thomases saying that the findings are all wrong, I am led to wonder—what are poll surveys even for?
Indeed, what are all these many poll surveys finding Bongbong Marcos as way ahead by as much as 40 percent, no less? Are they all wrong? From where I sit, poll surveys let the public know what the score is at a certain point.
Poll surveys are necessary during election periods for candidates. It lets them how they are faring so that0 they can correct themselves when they are failing and to let them watch out for pitfalls, if they are leading.
My gulay, poll surveys work both ways, to let those trailing behind to work harder and for those leading, not to be too complacent because things can go awry.
I have seen in my over 70 years as a journalist, about poll surveys not coming right at the end. But when all surveys find that the BBM-Sara tandem remains the frontrunner by great percentage points, then I say the tail-enders must work harder.
Spending of tail-enders in all poll surveys, like Senator Ping Lacson and Senator Manny Pacquiao, at the rate poll surveys giving them only 2 to 8 percentage points, while Bongbong Marcos is already way ahead over 60 percentage, they should be worried.
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Can BBM maintain his commanding lead until Election Day?
My answer to this question is a big fat YES, unless some man-made miracles happen on Election Day, like when the Smartmatic counting machine suddenly performs a miracle.
In our kind of elections, I know for a fact that miracles do happen, like when a precinct registers a zero vote for somebody, considering the fact that a national candidate for president has a watcher in that precinct. Santa Banana, can you imagine zero votes for anybody even if there is a watcher there to safeguard his votes?
It is for this reason why I warn supporters of Bongbong not to be complacent on Election day before some man-made miracles do happen to frustrate the will of the people.
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Speaking of surveys, the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations had two major concerns of the people which will surely challenge the incoming president. Utmost in the minds of people are jobs and high prices as an aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As I have said in an earlier column, the most challenging problems the next president will have to face are economic recovery, unemployment caused by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now high prices.
If the next president will be Bongbong, he will surely need the help of the people, the tycoons and taipans and his most senior advisers to confront these problems. He must solicit the best minds for his cabinet.
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When President Duterte campaigned in Cebu last week, endorsing no less than 17 senatorial candidates, he boasted to have dismissed no less than five or six members of his cabinet for corruption, without mentioning any names.
I started recalling events during Duterte’s presidency so I could remember who those were. I cannot remember any.
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Starting this Friday, April 8, I will go on a two-week leave for a well-deserved rest which my doctor prescribed. I will be back on Friday, the 22nd of April.