Vote for the Planet, Not for Power
The 2025 midterm elections is fast approaching, but they risk becoming another futile exercise if we continue electing leaders driven by the instant pursuit of wealth, fame, and power. Many of today’s candidates are backed-up by big businesses interests because, in our country, it has become nearly impossible to win without money. For decades, our elections have been dominated by what is infamously called “money-politics.” If this continues, elections will remain a costly spectacle— “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Now more than ever, we must push for a paradigm shift. We need to elect transformational—not transactional—leaders. Leaders who will champion meaningful change and break the chains of poverty, inequality, and social injustice. Despite decades of struggle and sacrifice, genuine social change remains elusive because the systems and structures that breed poverty are as formidable as ever.
The process of voter awakening must begin now. It is no longer enough to focus on traditional campaign promises. We must prioritize leaders who stand for the cause of the environment—a matter that has become not only urgent, but existential. Around the world, particularly in countries like Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and within the European Parliament, voters have elected more Green Party parliamentarians. Why? Because millions of young people have taken to the streets demanding decisive action on the climate crisis.
These nations have recognized that environmental education must be a top priority. They have seen firsthand the collapse of ecosystems and the alarmingdecline in biodiversity. Mere awareness is not enough. These countries are taking action—with conviction and courage.
Here at home, we must do the same. Our country has been ranked by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO) as the 4th most affected in the world by climate change. This is not theory—it is fact. Res ipsa loquitur—the thing speaks for itself. Environmental disasters have claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands more. When Typhoon Sendong struck Cagayan de Oro and Iligan on December 17, 2011, more than 3,000 lives were lost and over 10,000 families were rendered homeless.
It is time to trailblaze a new path. The growing environmental consciousness must now evolve into a national awakening. We must elect leaders who will treat the environment as a national emergency and survival issue—not just a campaign talking point. Only then can we begin the long-overdue transformation our country so desperately needs.
The time has come to think globally and act locally. This call is more urgent than ever as we approach the 2025 Mid-Term Elections. Choosing our leaders is no longer just a political act—it is a moral and ethical responsibility. The very survival of GAIA (Mother Earth) is at stake.
In this time of climate crisis, our vote must reflect our environmental consciousness. We must choose leaders who protect, not plunder, our natural resources. Climate scientists around the world have warned us: without major change, the world system may collapse in less than a century. Let us begin by looking inward. Ask yourself: What is the real state of our environment, particularly here in the Philippines?
Why did we allow powerful loggers to destroy our 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forests, leaving less than a million today? Do you realize that a single shipment of logs could earn a logger P360 million—money that too often is shared with corrupt law enforcers? Many of these loggers were later elected as Mayors, Governors, Congressmen—even Senators. But the exploitation doesn’t end above ground. Beneath our land, especially in Mindanao, lie 72 kinds of top-quality minerals. These are now targets of massive illegal mining operations, often carried out by Chinese nationals with mere tourist visas, in collusion with powerful officials.
People of Cagayan de Oro, it is time to WAKE UP! These foreign miners have smuggled in tens of millions worth of heavy equipment—buck-hoes, bulldozers—and in 2014, five Chinese nationals were arrested in Barangay Tumpagon during the implementation of the Writ of Kalikasan ordered by the Court of Appeals.
We found Shabu, Armalites, and AK-47s in their campsite. But here’s the outrage: these miners were detained for only a week and then escorted back to China—by a Kagawad, no less.
Why? Who protected them? We’ve received credible information pointing to the involvement of top elected officials, including Barangay leaders, in these illegal mining operations.
These criminals are not just destroying mountains and forests. They are wiping out agricultural lands, causing massive siltation, and plunging coastal communities into hunger and poverty. They are making billions, while our people suffer. Now ask yourself, dear voter: Will you still vote for these politicians?
This 2025, let your vote be your stand—for truth, for justice, and for the environment. Think globally, act locally. Choose leaders who will defend the Earth. After the widespread destruction of our ecosystems through relentless illegal logging and mining, we are now witnessing the tragic transformation of what was once our “Eden” into a living hell. Yet despite this devastation, many Filipinos remain ecologically apathetic—trapped in the illusions of politics and the daily grind, numbed to the loss of our land and dignity.
Why do we keep electing transactional leaders who profit from our pain? The consequences are dire. Our fertile agricultural lands are vanishing, leading to chronic hunger and deepening poverty—especially for our Indigenous Peoples who depend on the land for survival.
Let us now reflect on what is truly happening to our millions of hectares of agricultural land. In Bukidnon alone, foreign agri-corporations control vast plantations spanning hundreds of thousands of hectares across the eight sub-watersheds of the Cagayan de Oro River Basin. These corporations use massive amounts of toxic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides to mass-produce fruits—not for us, but for overfed markets in rich countries. They earn millions of dollars exporting this produce while we, the people who host these plantations, cannot even feed ourselves.
Here is the painful truth: the Philippines is now the world’s largest rice importer. Ninety-five percent of our milk is imported. As a result, 85% of Filipino children are malnourished, according to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute.
What is even more alarming is the use of toxic chemicals, many already banned in other countries, that have now contaminated our water tables—causing rising cancer rates and birth deformities. Yet our leaders remain silent. Why? Because many of them are in collusion with these corporations.
When cooperative leaders in Puerto Rico and Costa Rica learned about how we allowed these corporations to seize our lands, they asked, “Why did you let them destroy your food security?” In their countries, citizens take to the streets to protest against such land grabs. But here, we allow it to happen—silently, passively, tragically. Search it yourself—this is not fiction. It’s all over YouTube, backed by real stories. Meanwhile, many of our political leaders act not as defenders of the people, but as loyal protectors of corporate greed.
We must now wake up. If we don’t, our people will remain trapped in the cycle of hunger, disease, and poverty. Voting is not just a political act. It is a deeply ethical one. Will you vote for God’s creation—or for egoic evil that has buried our nation in collective insanity?
We need compassionate political leaders—those who will serve Gaia (Mother Earth), not wealth or power. So, dear Filipino voters: Debunk the ego. Seek the sublime. Choose life, not greed.
Huwag na po tayong paloko! Gising na po tayo! Let us choose candidates who genuinely care for the people and the environment. Enough of money politics—the grand circus of election spending, where the wealth they waste will be easily recovered once they return to power like vultures draining the nation of its last resources. Remember: in a republic, sovereignty resides in the people. All power emanates from us. Use that power wisely. Vote responsibly.
Let us show the world that the Philippines is not a land of “stupid and coward people,” as some critics claim, but a nation of the brave and the free—guided by conscience and high ethical standards.
