An election battle between truth and lies

The presidential candidates battling in the coming elections are figureheads in multiple battles taking place in our country. The level of polarization among our people is unprecedented because of these conflicts, and the results of these skirmishes will decide who will be our next president. This is the fourth of a series of articles where I discuss these multiple battles raging in our country.

For the longest time, the bag of tricks kept by unscrupulous politicians in our country only contained three magic wands. These are the magic wands of guns, goons, and gold. These wands have been helping unqualified politicians win in our elections, and they’re the reasons why the best and brightest of our race have been losing.

However, a leader who’s one of our most qualified and most upright has emerged and she’s been winning in her elections. She has shown immunity to the three magic wands, no matter how vigorously they’re swished and swooshed against her.

But at the same time that this new leader has emerged, roguish politicians have discovered a more powerful fourth wand, and whose potency they’ve been harnessing to the hilt to hijack a win in the coming elections. This is the magic wand of lies. This new wand makes lies appear as truth, it cloaks evil in the garb of good, it disguises incompetence with the sheen of competence, and vice versa.

Because of this new wand, one of the biggest battles happening in the campaign is the immense war between truth and lies. It is the most crucial battle in the elections because so many of our people have been brought under the spell of the wand of lies. Our country is on the verge of electing or un-electing our next president almost entirely because of its dreadful powers.

As a matter of fact, devious individuals have mass-produced this magic wand of lies and distributed them to an army of trolls. Because of the massive spread of lies by these trolls, so many of our people now have warring moral values, divergent concepts of a model leader, conflicting dreams for our country, and—horror of horrors—even completely opposite versions of reality.

A group of journalists has set up Tsek.ph in order to fact-check the spread of lies. Their investigation shows for whose benefit the magic wand of lies is being used. Their findings reveal that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is the biggest beneficiary of “disinformation” while Vice President Leni Robredo is the biggest victim.

The head of Tsek.ph, Yvonne Chua, said, “(e)very week (Robredo) is the biggest victim of disinformation or negative messaging … with all sorts.” In contrast, Chua revealed that “a substantial volume of false or misleading claims about the presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in which case these are largely positive, in his favor, seeking to promote him.”

The wand of lies has twisted the Marcos martial law period as our “golden age,” instead of being one of the darkest periods of our history when hunger, human rights violations, and corruption were widespread; has portrayed Marcos Jr. as a victim of unfairness instead of being the huge beneficiary of horrific injustices in our country, and; has depicted Marcos Jr. as chivalrous, even when an army of trolls operates for his benefit, attacking his opponents with brazen lies.

The wand of lies has portrayed Robredo as a weak leader, even when she has displayed grit in the face of six years of bullying by President Duterte and by Duterte and Marcos Jr. minions; as having accomplished nothing, even when she’s worked tirelessly, coming up with livelihood and disaster-response programs with the measly budget she’s given; and as an elitist even when she’s been walking in rice paddies, trekking to mountain barangays, and riding bangkas to interact with poor communities years before she entered the presidential race.

The coming elections lead us to a forked road. We will elect as our next president either a leader who stands on the strength of truth or a ruler who will sit on a throne of lies.

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