Saturday, May 18, 2019

Issues and number of positions, candidates in May 2019 elections

I got these infographics from ONE News page.

First the main concerns of Philippine voters as of last December, from Pulse Asia survey. High inflation, affected salaries, and reducing poverty and joblessness are the top issues for the voters.


During a live interview with ONE News last election day, May 13, host Tony Abad asked me my opinion about the party-list system in Congress. I said their main purpose is to expand government, expand taxes to sustain an expanding number of elected politicians and bureaucracies. The district representatives are supposed to handle the concerns of farmers, fisherfolks, workers, women, disabled people, etc. in their geographical jurisdictions, why create another positions for Congressmen/women to represent these 'marginalized sectors'?


For Senators, 62/12 = 5.1 candidates per Senatorial slot; District Representatives, 633/244 = 2.6 candidates; Governors, 273/81 = 3.4 candidates; Mayors, 3986/1,634 = 2.4 candidates; City and Municipal Councilors, 33,064/13,544 = 2.4 candidates.


The local candidates are more realistic than national and Senatorial candidates. I think this is because many people -- including those who did not run for Senatorial posts -- have national central planning mindsets. They think their 'bright' ideas and biases should be legislated and implemented nationwide, irrespective of cultural and economic differences among municipalities, cities and provinces.

If I were younger and rich enough, I will run for a local position, like a municipal/city Councilor, later as Mayor, have a strong local party that will simplify and cut local taxes and regulations, have few government employees and more private businesses and investors creating more local jobs. Encourage also PPP in some big local projects like a local seaport.

But then again I am not rich so I limit myself with advocacies for less government taxation, regulations and bureaucratism.

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