Top 10 bizarre life lessons you can learn from Philippine politics

And so it comes to a final close. The Philippine elections season will be ending soon and despite the doomsday scenario painted by many pundits, the recent and first ever computerized elections turned out to be quite peaceful, relatively credible and surprisingly successful. Philippines, welcome to the 21st century elections, finally!

But amidst all the mudslinging, grandstanding and political backbiting that happened over the last few months; no one can deny that Philippine politics doesn’t lack ‘color’ (yes, pun intended) and excitement, enough to feed the world with interesting stories that will rival that of the best movies Hollywood has ever produced. Heard about the Boxing champ who ran for a law-making position and sang ('Para sa ‘yo ang laban na ‘to') his way to victory? How about an 80-year old imeldific shoe collector who just refuses to retire? And this one is for the books, a CEO who wants to become a Clerk, only CEO actually means President and Clerk, Congressman. Certainly, there is nothing more ‘colorful’ than that.

Believe it or not, it’s not only fascinating stories that dominate Philippine politics. There are life lessons too! Bizarre as it is, you can’t help but wonder whether these things are the new rules to be successful in life. The list below smacks of dumb analysis. Or does it? Judge for yourself. Here are the Top 10 Bizarre Life Lessons You Can Learn From Philippine Politics:

10. Begin with a ‘color’ in mind. Old rules say: Begin with the END in mind. Not true in this elections. Everybody picked their ‘colors’ first. You would think that candidates will define and share their platforms first but you would be wrong. It’s colors first. Orange for Villar, Green for Gibo, Yellow for Noy. The rest just followed after that.

9. If at first you don’t succeed, find an easier challenge. We heard of a boxing champ who ran against a highly influential and political heavyweight in one province but lost. So he ran again, but this time choosing a different opponent. He’s now headed for victory. In life, there will be a lot of challenges; maybe the key to success is not to keep on trying but to keep on finding easy challenges. Hhmmm.


8. Whether you mean it or not, always promise change. Nobody gets satisfied in this world so any prospect of change is always welcome. Now, whether you can deliver it or not, it doesn’t matter. In Philippine politics, we’ve seen one too many People Power revolutions that are supposed to bring change. But here we are, still demanding change. How can we apply this in our own lives? Apply exactly that lesson. Promise change to your boss, promise change to your parents, promise change to your girlfriend. In everything you do, always promise change. It will give them hope. They will love you for that. You may not deliver, but hey, you can again, promise change.

7. Loyalty is for dogs only. Dogs are loyal fellow, we know that. We don’t need to demand it from them, they are just like that, loyal. For us humans? It’s a different thing. Loyalty is an alien concept in Philippine politics. Whoever is in power, that’s where your loyalty lies. Today you try to impeach a President, tomorrow you try to be his running mate. It’s ok. In life, you will not get ahead if you have loyalty. You must be ‘flexible’ so you will be in good graces of those who can make your life better.

6. Keep your friends close, and your celebrity friends closer. If there is someone who is as busy as the politicians themselves this past election season, it’s your favorite local celebrity. Nowhere in the world can you see celebrities playing such a huge role in shaping who will be the next leaders of the land, only in the Philippines. In life, you must do the same thing. If you don’t have any celebrity friends, start by “Like”-ing their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter, try to interact. If you’re lucky, your will get an “RT”. Being friends with these folks will make you much more successful in life.

5. Rules, promises, they are all meant to be broken. Don’t start campaigning before the actual campaign season, Do not use your office to promote yourself, Be truthful in your ads. These are just some of the rules that were wantonly flouted by some politicians. But it’s ok, nobody got punished for it. Rules, as with promises, are there to be broken anyway, right? In life, do not care much about the rules; it will only make your life more difficult. Just do whatever is in YOUR best interest. That way, you will be successful.

4. Doing nothing is better than doing something. We’ve seen this all too often. Qualified guy who is an active proponent of progress and has good track record loses an election. In the meantime, guy who’s been silent on many important issues and got no track record at all wins the election. It’s classic. They say something is always better than nothing. I don’t know. The reality is just quite the opposite.

3. You will commit mistakes. When you do, deny them. All of us make mistakes. Some even commit mistakes that are illegal in nature. In Philippine politics, we’ve seen great examples of men (and woman) who were caught red-handed doing illegal stuff but they still get away with it. All they need to do is to keep denying any wrongdoing, no matter what. In life, maybe we should do the same thing. Never own up to a mistake, lest you’ll be punished. Own up to any mistake and you will not get very far in life.

2. Never underestimate the power of your mother. Mothers can feed you, raise you, dress you up, send you to school, cook dinner for you, give you advice and many other things you can never imagine. She can even make you a President.

1. No matter what happens, life goes on. Putting levity aside, we’re now at a stage where whatever the outcome of the recent elections, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Like the many politicians who ran in different positions across the country, whether they won or lost, life has to go on. And same thing for us. The ‘lessons’ I cited above teems with sarcasm and should not be taken seriously. The thing is, most if not all of it rings true based on actual realities in Philippine politics. My only wish is it won’t be for long.

Life goes on. We may not agree on many things that happened in the past and might still disagree with how we should live our present. But we are united in wishing for a better future. We have new leaders. We have a new beginning.We have an opportunity to make things better.

Let us use this opportunity to shape our own destiny. It starts here. It starts now.