Today’s Blog Action Day comes soon after the latest survey updated the nation on the horserace among the prospective candidates for president in next year’s elections.

As Filipino bloggers and the Philippine online communities (and those in many parts of the globe as well)  take on the issue of climate change, I wish to pose these questions to these same candidates and their political parties and coalitions:

• What is your position on climate change in the Philippines and the globe?
• If elected, what steps do you plan to take to confront the issue?
• Will the people themselves be involved in drawing up, finalizing and implementing your plan?

Climate change is a relatively new term in political discourse but that does not mean it is irrelevant or unimportant. While people themselves have started to act, it is very disappointing that our so-called political leaders have been mum on the issue and only contribute to the dumbing down of the public and the electorate. Song-and-dance numbers may entertain during political rallies, but they cannot solve our festering problems.

Climate change is not an issue that can be wished away. It must be confronted and the best possible option for the Philippines as we go to the 2010 elections is to have a new president and a new leadership that at the very least acknowledges it and at the most willing to lead the public in understanding and resolving climate change.

Most importantly, it is us the people who must press these candidates to shape up on climate change, jobs, wages, rights and other essential issues or ship out. Its about time we bind them to their public commitments and to workable, practical platforms as well as their visions. Although this may take time and  require extra efforts from us as a people, it does not mean that we must give up. Neither can we surrender to cynicism and apathy because that’s un-Filipino and that cannot solve the problems we all face.

If we don’t take a stand, unite and act, we face a bleak future where Ondoys and Pepengs and man-made tragedies would always be the norm rather than the exception.

[On the occasion of Blog Action Day, I also signed the Peoples Protocol on Climate Change.]

To know more about the Blog Action Day and to find out what you can do, go here, here and here.