If you could add a constitutional requirement for the exercise of suffrage, what would it be and

why? Justify accordingly.

Exercise of Suffrage
If I were to add a constitutional requirement for the exercise of suffrage, then it would
be that only citizens with a secondary, tertiary level education or higher are allowed to vote.
This is because Article V Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution states that, No literacy, property
or other substantive requirement shall be imposed on the exercise of suffrage. This means
that even the uneducated and the illiterate people of our country can vote without any thought
or regard over their choices of candidates. According to Functional Literacy, Education and
Mass Media Survey, which was conducted in 2003, over 51 percent of Filipinos, have had at
most only elementary education while only 34.7 percent of Filipinos had completed high school
or achieved higher educational levels.
1
This means that there is a huge number of Filipinos who
are not educated enough but are still allowed to vote. A good proof of this is why we still have
actors and actresses who are now politicians, like Tito Sotto, Bong Revilla, Lito Lapid and the
well-known Joseph Estrada. They were clearly not chosen just because they seemed fit for
public service but also because they had the face to go with it. Just because they can comply
with the at least 18 years old age requirement and having resided in the Philippines for at
least one year, does not prove anything about wisdom of the individual in which he/she
chooses candidates.
Illiteracy has always been a factor used by politicians to sway the hearts of the majority,
those of which are uneducated. Just like in the previous presidential election polls of 2010, the
people never learned from history. As to how former President and movie star Joseph Estrada
became second with a tally of 8,758,675, is largely due to his popularity among the masses.
2

This is proof enough that Filipinos are not educated and foolish enough to vote for someone
who is clearly not fit anymore for public service. It was better that Aquino became the
President of the Philippines. But the fact still remains that Estrada is not the only one but there

1
Raya, Rene R., The Missed Education of the Filipino People,
www.socialwatch.org/sites/default/files/pdf/en/05_missingtargets.pdf

2
GMANews.TV, National Election Results Tally
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/eleksyon2010/nationalcount
are many more actors and actresses that became politicians too. The media is also not helping
with the elections since they distort the views of the people and help unfit politicians buy the
votes of the people. Despite limiting the exercise of suffrage, it can be said that it is not merely
a right but also a privilege. As said by Miriam Santiago, If majority of the voters are not
educated, then there is no reason why one vote should be equal to another vote. Not all votes
are equal. By placing such a requirement, then a greater sense of importance will be placed in
voting. Even if it will never mean that, corruption and other evils in voting will be stopped,
there will be a better future for our country if wiser choices of leaders are made.