LAWYER Jose Manuel "Chel" I. Diokno, founding Dean of the College of Law of De La Salle University - Manila and son of the illustrious former Senator Jose "Pepe" W. Diokno has pinned his hope towards the youth in their choice of decent and servant leaders of the country.
The younger Diokno has once ran for the Senate in the recent elections.
He spoke before the students of the University of Saint La Salle Bacolod yesterday along with former Negros Occidental Governor Rafael Lito Coscolluela, Dr. Violeta Lopez-Gonzaga, Author, and Social Scientist, among others.
The forum was attended and participated by the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Political and Social Sciences students and likewise of the Office of the Mission and Development of USLS Bacolod.
Diokno was banking on the continued voter's education as the youth has the capability to discern and choose the right leaders for the country.
Filipinos should learn to choose leaders who can truly serve them and not just choose those who are just good for vaudeville or entertainment.
Diokno said even though he did not win, it never deterred him to continue his pursuit of helping the country solve its problems.
"We have to keep our eye on the target which is for us to be able to build a nation that we can be proud of. I know that those who supported us in the last elections have the same dream as ours," he said.
Anyone of the youth can become the likes of Ka Pepe Diokno and anyone of them can do great things for our country. They are never too young to know what's right and they are never too young to speak the truth to power.
"The youth has the ability to discern. They can look beyond who can dance well and those who can have a nice advertisement. But we also have to do a lot of voter education so that it can reach to the ground. The most precious right of all our rights is the right to vote because if we don't use that right properly, we can vote the wrong people into becoming our leaders and those are the realities that people who sold their votes did not realize. They don't understand how precious that right to vote and we need to do something about it," he said.
The last election was actually the biggest kind of vote buying. But it is very hard to prove because of their claims that the money was not meant to buy votes but for some other purposes, he further said.
"I hope that there will be more electoral reforms between now and 2022 because under that present system, those candidates who don't have money are sure to lose. Those who are moneyed can spend hundreds of millions only for advertisements. Poor candidates can only spend for one or two candidates. It should change. In other countries, television stations give equal time to the candidates as a form of public service of the networks," he added.