Politics in the Philippines

[mtbc]

New to me is campaign season here in the Philippines. I had already seen video of outdoor exercise classes and such that were somehow tied to political campaigns. Now I get more time to explore for myself, two aspects strike me, especially in more rural areas. One is the vapidness of the many posters: they feature some candidate, or group thereof, smiling or looking enthused or patriotic or whatever, with a name, a slogan, often some color retouching, and little else. The other is the music: songs play in public that are somehow associated with campaigns, even played from vehicles that drive along the road. I suppose that there is also rather more contentful engagement from or among candidates, admittedly I have made little effort to seek such in local cable news. For day-to-day life, what I do see from the campaigns, I do not learn much from.