It has not changed.

As in the past, today’s politicians go about their campaign feats in various parts of the country telling the crowds of their superlative qualities as leaders of men who could change the course of human events.

In so many words, all the presidential aspirants speak in shrilled voices on practically the same theme, and it appears they are encouraged by the responses from the crowds.

And the common theme has been as in the past, about human poverty and how it has enslaved the millions from birth whom they want now to be freed through their leadership, if given the opportunity.

Noynoy Aquino, for one, was in the front pages the other day celebrating his 50th birth anniversary with the poor children in Payatas, but it looked more like a badly rehearsed show.

All the presidential candidates from Manuel Villar of the Nacionalista Party, to Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party, Eddie Villanueva of Bangon Pilipinas, Richard Gordon of Bagumbayan Party, Joseph Estrada of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, and not the least Lakas-Kampi-CMD’s Gilbert Teodoro Jr. – and all the rest – display obeisance to the poor as they promise of their uplift from poverty once they get their nod at the polls.

And they say that repeatedly at every opportunity.

It is possible that they are sincere in their commiserations with the plight of the poor but there are indications many in the public see it as a ploy – an artifice – in effort to align themselves with the very poor who are very many.

“Many of us are poor,” a retired public school teacher was quoted in the newspapers the other day, who suspects politicians are using the poor in television advertisements and campaign promises simply to win votes.

The group called Council of Elders of the Confederation of Older Persons’ Association of the Philippines, said that of the seven million Filipinos who are aged 60 years old and older, three million are poor and 900,000 are what it describes as “desperately poor.”

The trouble is, according to former University of the Philippines President Francisco Nemenzo, the candidates for president today “remain insensitive” to the real needs of the people, particularly those who are below the poverty line.

He called the campaign promises as “mere platitudes,” without institutional program designed to dismantle the very means that makes permanent the deep-rooted poverty that we have in the country.

The former UP president who is adviser of the Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay, called on the presidential aspirants for a “system that does not allow people to remain without decent work or livelihood, adequate food and shelter, and without other social protection measures,” a society, he declared, where people live with dignity and courage.

Both organizations of the urban poor and the elderly citizens have cautioned the presidential candidates not to take advantage of the poor and the senior citizens in their campaigns, saying that the rights of the elderly, the workers, urban poor, and other vulnerable sectors of the population have always been mistreated and impaired during this period of the electoral contests.

With the start of the 90-day campaign period for national positions the other day, the reminder is still on time for those concerned to heed.
(zhern_218@yahoo.com)