"We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves."

—Blaise Pascal

ARE the Filipinos worth dying for?

Part of the answers will be known on May 9, the Election Day 2022.

Our heroes had risked their lives for our freedom and independence from slavery and dictatorship; they sacrificed everything to secure our future and ensure our survival as a nation.

If we don’t give a damn and decide to put all their noble sacrifices to waste, all we can do is elect bad leaders during the election and, thus, surrender the reigns of our government to the thieves, the thugs, and the pagans.

After all, we deserve the kind of leaders we elect. We choose our future and “we know what is best for us.”

We still have faith in the Filipinos who will vote for the new officials from the national to the local levels on May 9.

Not all the candidates are good and deserving. Some are wolves in the sheep’s clothing—charlatans who mesmerize the gullible for their nefarious intentions; scoundrels and con artists who want to make a living out of the taxpayers money.

They want to join the civil service via the electoral process not to serve as a primordial intention, but to take advantage of the government resources that will be at their full disposal once they are in power.

Some of them are also agents and dummies of foreign interests, or the so-called Manchurian candidates.

We are worth dying for if we know how to protect our country from fake and undeserving leaders. We are worth dying for if we know how to secure our patrimony and defend our sovereignty.

We are worth dying for if we exercise in full might and fervor our rights to suffrage by choosing only the leaders who can best represent our values and character and fight for our dignity and well-being.

We also need to spot the Trojan horse and those who are really genuine public servants.

Let me share a story that happened a long ago or more than 3,000 years.

A band of Greek princes and heroes made a war on the city of Troy, in Asia Minor.

They laid siege to the city, but the Trojans were not easily beaten and the war went on for 10 years.

It might not have ended even then had not Odysseus, the cleverest of the Greeks, devised a scheme to overthrow the city.

The Greeks pretended that they were giving up the siege and began making preparations to leave. One of the things that they did was to build a gigantic wooden horse.

They left this on the shore, and then went on board their ships and sailed away.

When the Trojans saw the Greek warriors depart, there was great rejoicing.

Believing the horse to be a luck offering to the gods, they opened their gates and hauled the horse inside as a prize of victory.

During the night, however, when the feasting was over and the Trojans were asleep, a door was opened in the side of the hollow wooden animal and out crept a band of Greeks who had been concealed inside. These men opened the gates of the city and let in the main army of the Greeks, who had sailed back again as soon as darkness had fallen.

Thus Troy was captured and destroyed.

Long ago the blind poet of ancient Greece, Homer, told about the Trojan horse in his Odyssey.

Even today the name is applied to a person or persons who get inside enemy territory and help outside forces to get in and conquer it.

We must vote wisely to avoid being invaded by a Trojan horse.

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