By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

SEEING how hectic preparations were being made for yesterday’s series of miting de abanse by candidates, I wonder how many cared to remember to prepare for the celebration of Mother’s Day today, May 8, which in my book is one of the most important days for celebration in our daily lives.

It is only on Mother’s Day when we are made to recall the day-to-day sacrifices of our mothers from the day they gave birth to us to what we have become today. I’m not saying Father’s Day is less important but it’s Mother’s Day that’s far more significant, at least to this day.

I underscored “to this day” because frankly, I do wonder how the new generations today and the next will view their mothers in the face of many changes in moral values today.

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CHANGING VALUES. For us baby-boomers, our mothers have made large imprints on our lives… and may I say, much more than our fathers, our traditional bread winners in the family. The difference lies in that our mothers made the bread that made us stronger, healthier, more confident, and above all, they were our reliable “best friends” in accomplishing our studies and assignments in school. 

Here are some of the roles I believe were played in most families in my era:

-Father paid for the prescribed medicine and it was, mother who saw to it we took them.

-Father paid for the tuition fees and books and mother planned our daily baon and helped us get our assignments done.

-Father paid for our new shoes and clothes but it was mother who made sure these were neat and clean when we wore them.

-Father took us to church and mother saw to it that we were well-dressed and said our prayers.

-Father took us to carnivals and it was mother who as busy looking out for all of us in the carnival grounds.

-Father took us to restaurants and mother made sure we all had our equal share of what’s on the table.

-Father provided money so we can watch movies, mother watched out for us inside the theater.

We can go on and note how our parents complemented each other as traditions dictated. Our fathers’ role was basically to provide, while our mothers were molded to look after our emotional and physical well-being.

But that was then. Today, family values and traditions have changed from 45 degrees to 360 degrees, no thanks to today’s changes in focus in education, modern technology, more liberal outlook towards religion, higher awareness towards gender equality,  and quality of life is more anchored on material possessions and dreams.

Will their mothers be loved more than we ever do our mothers in our time? I pray so.

But, let me say this: I am in awe and have nothing but pure respect seeing single mothers, they who have imposed on themselves the dual role of father and mother, raise their children to their image. They are made of a different breed, that’s for sure!

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ENOUGH OF E-SABONG. This corner lauds the decision of President Duterte to finally stop e-sabong in the country.

God knows how many families in the province have been negatively affected by the 24/7 online operations of e-sabong in the country. We do know of one resident who took his life out of shame when his relatives decided to help him pay off the debts he incurred because he couldn’t pay the hundreds of thousands of debts he took out for his e-sabong addiction..

Still, a thousand more families started having problems dealing with members who’ve become addicts and started losing heavily. Suddenly, incomes meant for households were gone!

Let’s hope none of our set of newly elected congressmen will dare support a bill that will restore e-sabong!

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MOVING ON. I dread the thought of seeing either BBM or VP Leni filing a protest over the results of the vote count after May 9.

It means, no one is accepting defeat and with millions behind them alleging cheating, such a prospect can plunge our country into a serious division among our people especially when the principal candidates begin to point accusing fingers at each other.  

It is bad enough that thousands of close friends and relatives already ended up bashing each other over their respective preferred presidential candidates even before May 9 as if their voices contra each other’s candidate would cause the loss of a million votes to their candidates.

Not even the mainstream media was spared. “Facts” cited in social media were quickly presumed to be true and factual reports of newspapers, TV and radio were discredited as fake news.  

It’s truly unbelievable how social media deeply polarized our people over this year’s election.

Let’s pray for early peaceful reconciliation among friends, relatives and help everyone move on to our more productive individual concerns.

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OUTDATED ELECTION LAW. If there is one thing that the next Congress should seek to deliberate and debate on, it should be a thorough review to amend the Omnibus Election Code which is already completely outdated. The mode of election and use of advanced technology alone provide the premise of it.

Among the provisions that need to be amended are those that pertain to limitations in campaign activities, i., use of posters, utilization of advertisements in print, broadcast and online.

Clearly, the focus of the present provisions is to enable Comelec to control campaign activities to level the playing field but the reality on the ground is Comelec does not have the resources to control what the law prescribes.

The study and discussion on the provisions will also provide the opportunity to debate the proposed hybrid voting, a timely process which is also being introduced in other countries.

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