Summer is here again! Besides this hot summer, we have the El Niño phenomenon and the boiling tension caused by the upcoming May 2010 national elections as candidates are already mudslinging at each another

. Maybe one consolation in the summer season is that many fruit trees are also producing, like mangoes, langka (jackfruit) and other tropical fruits.

. Our favorite Filipino dessert is once again everywhere and it’s none other than halo-halo. Just the thought of eating halo-halo is very consoling when one is suffering from the summer heat. It’s a refreshing treat to stroll on the streets with a glass of halo-halo mixed with mango, jackfruit, beans, ube, leche flan, kaong (coconut gel) and evaporated milk with cool ice! Halo-halo is a tropical treat. Local and simple vendors are also earning with this stuff. It’s also a good way to start a conversation over a glass of halo-halo, or to reflect on the real issues affecting society and how to address them while enjoying a glass with someone. Isn’t Philippine politics itself a little like “halo-halo” as we have a mixture of different elements in the election campaign like showbiz personalities and religious leaders endorsing their favorite candidates? But the “halohalo” or cocktail combination becomes more deadly as the three G’s of an election campaign—guns, goons and gold--are added to the mix, increasing the election heat.

Besides these 3G’s, which have always been troubling us in past elections is another G, as Ambassador de Villa of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) points out, and this G stands for greed. She says that politicians’ greed has become so organized that candidates are buying an organization or a barangay (local village), so now the phrase “to moderate one’s greed” has become common. But greed in itself is intolerable as it is really the root cause of all injustices and poverty in our society.

. So what can we do this election season to protect our sacred right to vote which is so precious that we can’t afford to sell our vote? A spirit of being ready to die for one’s own people is needed by our volunteers.

. We can volunteer as poll watchers and educators in one of the credible and accredited non-partisan groups like the PPCRV, to see to it that elections will be clean, honest, accurate, meaningful and peaceful (CHAMP).

. At this new crossroads in our history, we need a lot of vigilance as the four G’s will find their way to destroy and trample on our sacred right to vote, as well as on our future.

. Of course this means that we have to be informed about the candidates and their platforms, and the new ways that cheating can still occur, in spite of poll automation. The PPCRV is already reaching out to the grassroots informing voters and educating them about poll automation, besides issuing general guidelines for the May 2010 elections. We only have to coordinate with our local Catholic parishes Our hope, is that, with all these mixed elements in this election circus, the “halo-halo” together with the combination of our spirit of readiness to give our lives for our own people, and our love for God and country, a proper discernment of whom to vote for, will converge to provide refreshment to our nation so tortured by the four G’s of election period.

. Together with our good intentions for the national elections, we can concoct a special “halo-halo” that will bring a fresh change to the politics of our sorely tried nation.