During the coming elections, simply look at the resume

The nationwide Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections on May 14 takes place over a political landscape that has drastically evolved through the years, particularly with the advent of new technologies in communication and social media. The Commission on Elections has reiterated the campaigning rules and guidelines for the ongoing 9-day campaign period, mainly those that are provided for under the Fair Elections Act such as the use of common poster areas, sizes and limits of campaign materials and non participation of government employees in campaigning. Candidates are also not supposed to spend more than P5 pesos for every voter during the campaign. Most relevant of these guide posts is this coming elections is a non-partisan exercise and traditional political parties have been officially cautioned not to meddle. Still, the reality is that the barangay elections is an important political arena that traditional political parties and interest groups cannot and will not leave alone, no matter what the rules say. As the campaigns unfolded, the traditional "trompa" is still around and campaign posters printed on plastic rice sacks are still common, as are "miting de avances" and house-tohouse visits and handshakes. Noticeably, the candidates' use of the internet, mainly social media platform Facebook, has become a mainstream mode of campaigning. It's free and is a powerful took to reach out to a wide audience, hence its huge popularity as a medium. Today's electorate have far more resources compared to the past eras in profiling in more depth their local candidates. Without leaving the house and watching meeting de avances, they may know from social media what are the line ups for which to choose their bets. In the same manner, the convenient atmosphere for communicating a candidate's political platforms and agenda has encouraged, albeit empowered, many who have interest on public service or politics - even those who see livelihood or career opportunities from the exercise despite not possessing the skill set needed to be of real help to the community. Choosing the right candidates can indeed be done without breaking into a sweat, and the challenge we leave our readers is for them to simply to go out and discern their candidates by reading their resumes. This may be done though social media, or by going out of your way to search for the information. After all, we simply want to elect officials who can and will attend to our community's daily concerns, nothing more and nothing less.