There’s a thoughtful opinion circulating on Facebook on “Why the ’Winnability‘ Mindset is Undermining Democracy” from Ang Alpas Publication. It points out how such behaviour favors ’winnable‘ candidates even if they don’t have principles, platforms and performance worth voting for. Democracy (and voting) is about participating in and shaping the future, it declares.
The eloquent opinion usefully articulates why voters should vote for candidates whose values resonate with theirs, no matter how ’unwinnable‘. This is indeed worth repeating and bolsters confidence that one never goes wrong when voting for what one believes in.
The assertion that the ’winnability‘ mindset is the ‘parasite in our politics’ which undermines democracy may be a little overstated though, with a potential misinterpretation that borders on victim-blaming Filipino voters.
The real villains
The far greater blame for undermining democracy surely lies with the trapos and their business elite backers who dominate and distort our electoral system at every turn. They define and control elections with their money and power, while shutting out genuinely pro-people mass-based alternatives. They use patronage and violence to entrench dynastic rule. They make sure that policies consistently favor economic elites rather than the poor majority. And they manipulate minds with distortions and disinformation.
A case can also be made that, more than wanting to be on the winning side, most Filipinos are simply not given real choices nor the tools, information or space to evaluate their choices. More than voting for the ‘winnable,’ a stronger case is that Filipinos vote for the familiar – for names they hear again and again, and particularly for those who’ve been able to craft false positive images of themselves and avoided vote-losing controversy.
Take the last Pulse Asia survey on senatorial preference covering April 20-24, 2025. The top 15 ranked candidates all have near universal awareness ratings of 95-99% with everyone in the so-called Magic 12 getting 97-99% ratings. Their high awareness isn’t due to principles or policy depth – the names are familiar for being dynasts, plunderers and media personalities. They will take office propelled by their visibility, not from any vision.
The real heroes
In contrast, the much more socially significant 15 candidates of the Left who would go so much further in improving the conditions of Filipinos have awareness ratings of just 2% to 30% at most. The majority are even at the low end of that range with only three candidates at 20% or over, three candidates at the 10-19% range, and the remaining nine with just 2-9% awareness.
Put another way, progressive Leftist candidates still wouldn’t land in the survey’s “Magic 12” even if all those aware of them voted for them – with the exception of the Makabayan bloc’s Teddy Casiño who has the highest awareness rating among them of 30 percent.
Simply put, it’s hard to get voted when people don’t know who you are – and even harder if people know who you are but you’ve been systematically vilified and red-tagged by the state and ruling elites every which way they can.
The core insight about voting in a democracy is robust though – we should all vote according to what we believe in, with the critical qualification that what we believe in is truthful and undistorted by lies, disinformation and propaganda. The vote is to show that we believe in something better.
Which is why what the Left is doing is the most democratic thing about these mid-term elections. Specifically, the Makabayan bloc’s bold 11-person slate for the Senate campaigning with a comprehensive platform that embodies the demands, needs and hopes of ordinary Filipinos. They are the biggest challenge to the trapos, oligarchs and foreign capital that have lorded over the country for far too long.
The real change
The insurgent politics of the Left includes electoral skirmishes – while limited in its ability to bring radical change these can still be arenas for raising consciousness, challenging dominant narratives, and building grassroots movements.
The Left brings attention to labor rights and social justice, exploitation and systemic inequality, and national industrialization with agrarian development – all topics ignored by mainstream politicians. Participation also signals that alternatives to elite-dominated politics exist and make it harder for the system to ignore them. It helps if media had more coverage, debates and interviews to spread counter-hegemonic ideas instead of over-emphasizing the elections as just some kind of race, competition or popularity contest.
Campaigns are a platform to engage with people, educate on political issues, and encourage political activism beyond elections. Political breakthroughs rarely happen overnight and daily mass struggles with periodic electoral campaigns can lay the groundwork for revolutionary successes when conditions shift. Real political change comes from mass movements, not moments of electoral victories.
The value of a vote lies not in whether it backs a victor, but in being about what one stands for. It is not a bet on who ends up in power, but an act of conscience and commitment.
When the vote is for Leftists who stand for the poor, workers, farmers, indigenous and other marginalized, it is also a declaration of solidarity and a repudiation of the status quo. It is choosing substance over spectacle, clarity over celebrity, and principle over populism.
Fighting for justice needs hope and courage, and votes in the fleeting electoral moment can help keep that hope and courage alive for more to see. ###
