Philippine Election Campaign season 2016

It's that time again in the Philippines. Incumbent and aspiring politicians are once asking for our precious votes. Aside from the political sorties, campaigning here in the Philippines involves posting a lot of posters. This is prohibited in the well developed business districts and affluent villages but everywhere else is fair game.

Although there have been noticeably less of these in the past two elections, some are still hilarious as hell. In my hometown of Cainta, there are some concrete pipes lying around on the side of the road for drainage improvement and some campaign posters actually got tacked on these.

Abby Binay has some politics cred, but why do you need to include her dad in the campaign materials?

 As usual, elections have a bit of drama this year. One only needs to watch any of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates to see this. Apart from being about their platforms and game plans, it was more about attacking each others character. 

There are also some candidates banking on the popularity of their parents. The biggest seems to be one of the Presidential candidates. She seems to have a plan, concentrating on improving transportation infrastructure, but her posters and a commercial features her superstar mom. Some posters also include her deceased superstar dad. 

Why do I have a sense that "Coming Soon Vice Mayor..." is some sort of a threat?

The election campaign in the Philippines has improved a bit over the years but some things have lasted as well. I just feel like it's always been about popularity over the past few years and not about how a candidate will be able to perform that decides who wins. Can we change that this year?