No more excitement

“We're all going to change. Otherwise, it's boring.”

—Alicia Keys

By Alex P. Vidal

ALTHOUGH they won’t complain, most of the presidential and vice presidential candidates are now probably suffering from physical, emotional, and mental burnout after a series of lung-busting campaign sorties nationwide for several months now. 

Thus, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) made a wise decision to scrap the remaining town hall debates and will instead air pre-taped interviews of poll candidates.

Although the debates were initially set on April 23 and 24, some of the candidates appeared to be not anymore enthusiastic as they’re now brimming with excitement and suspense for the Election Day on May 9.

Even the public must’ve been bored already by the prolonged debates, which had been repeatedly snubbed by survey frontrunner Bongbong Marcos Jr.

Everyone now seems to be hellbent to expedite the clock if only to satisfy their suspended animation.

Some people are mainly excited to cast their votes with less than two weeks to go, and another debate among the contenders doesn’t excite them anymore; they have heard the same wrangling and showboating in the previous debates.

They have seen and heard some panelists grandstand; they have heard the same questions and monotonous answers; and whatever will transpire in the debates might not matter anymore as most voters have already decided.

The PiliPinas Debates 2022 Series’ concluding event was supposedly scheduled on April 30 and May 1 after it was postponed over payment issues involving private firm Impact Hub Manila, which organized the previous debates. 

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Like in the Philippines, the top protagonists in the recent presidential election in France were a man and a woman.

In France, it was a man who beat a woman in a tension-filled runoff.

In the Philippines two weeks from now, will Marcos duplicate the victory? Or will Vice President Leni Robredo reverse the situation?

Days ago, it looked like reelectionist President Emmanuel Macron would be toppled by firebrand populist Marine Le Pen before the runoff, holding the woman challenger at bay by slim margin. 

On April 24, 44-year-old Macron, a centrist, comfortably secured a second five-year term, triggering relief among allies that the nuclear-armed power won’t abruptly shift course in the midst of the war in Ukraine from European Union and NATO efforts to punish and contain Russia’s military expansionism.

Macron spared France and Europe from the seismic upheaval of having Le Pen at the helm, who quickly conceded defeat but still scored her best-ever electoral showing.

Acknowledging that “numerous” voters cast ballots for him simply to keep out the fiercely nationalist far-right Le Pen, Macron pledged to reunite the country that is “filled with so many doubts, so many divisions” and work to assuage the anger of French voters that fed Le Pen’s campaign.

“No one will be left by the side of the road,” Macron said in a victory speech against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower and a projection of the blue-white-and-red tricolor French flag as quoted by Reuters.

He was cheered by several hundred supporters who happily waved French and EU flags.

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WE ARE STILL SUPERIOR. Human brains are smarter than creatures whose brains are larger than ours in absolute terms, such as the killer whales, as well as those animals whose brains are larger than ours in relative terms, such as shrews. 

Thus, the size alone does not explain the uniqueness of the human mind.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)