We helped him during the campaign. In our part of the town, we were the only ones who gave him unqualified support. Other people in the barangay either didn't know him or were supporting his rivals. But, we didn't give up although the whole barangay seemed against us. My father campaigned hard for him and he was able to convince many of his friends and relatives to vote for my uncle. Still he was expected to lose very badly to his rivals.

When the votes were counted, he garnered the second highest number of votes in our barangay. His good name carried him through some of the other barangays, mainly because my grandfather's supporters backed him. And my uncle won. It was the first time my family and I actively campaigned for somebody and it felt good to have helped him win. My uncle's first term went smoothly. He invited my father, a practicing lawyer, to be the municipal secretary. My father agreed and got his The first few years were all right. My father often complained that the appointment from the vice mayor.

Councilors belonging to the opposite camp treated him with disrespect because he was the mayor's ally, but he kept his ill feelings mostly to himself. Once I heard him say that he didn't study law at the University of the Philippines only to be pushed around by someone who bought his college diploma from the sidewalk at Recto. But he had to bear with all the inconveniences of politics because he wanted to help my uncle.

Then the next election came, and my uncle had an easier time winning reelection. We again campaigned for him and he won by a landslide. The Vice mayor belonged to his party and so did the majority of the councilors the two who soon defected to his party).

The entire municipal hall was now truly under my uncle's control, and he wasted no time in turning this to his advantage. He appointed his jobless younger brother as his security aide, and then things started to turn ugly. The mayor's newly-appointed security aide dipped his hands into funds he was not even supposed to handle. He disbursed the funds allocated for the Sangguniang Kabataan and the SK-related projects. Instead of the vice mayor, the mayor's security aide controlled the anti-drug campaign funds. And it didn't take long before he rebuilt his small house into a completely new multi-level house.

The mayor had his way at the municipal hall, while his younger brother had his way with the people's money. But since all the councilors belonged to the same party, no one questioned all the wrong things that were being done. Everyone wanted to be on good terms with the mayor, no one wanted court his disfavor. He was popular and being on his side meant a sure return to the municipal hall for another term.

Besides, the councilors were not the kind who were fond of reflecting issues. Most of them got elected because they looked good or they were “magaling makisama" or they just had many relatives in our small town. They were happy and contented with receiving their salaries without bothering to give their job a serious thought. One councilor even sponsored an ordinance requiring all dog owners to have their pets vaccinated by the municipal health officer. It seems he didn't know that's the job of a veterinarian, not a doctor. What could be more stupid than that?

My father tried to advise my uncle to correct some of these things. The mayor interpreted it as a personal attack on his capabilities as mayor. Though my uncle admitted he knew nothing about legal matters, he would brush aside my father's legal advice and insist on having his way. Power corrupts, and we witnessed it first-hand. My kind and gentle uncle was no more. In his place was a proud person-the same face, but not the same man with the same sincere heart.

The rest of our relatives on my mother's side continued to doubt that he could have changed so much. They said my uncle could never be what we picture him to be. They forgot that politics could bring out the worst in people, and it brought out the worst in my uncle.

It also brought out the worst in other people close to us. My mother's own brothers' and sisters would rather believe the word of their politician-cousin than the word of their sister and her lawyer-husband. They felt so honored and awed at having a relative for a mayor and they believed their cousin could do no wrong.

Politics also brought out the worst, of my friends. I had two friends in the SK movement. The SK president could have come to my father's defense when he was attacked, but he did nothing, thinking it would be politically costly against the mayor and his cohorts. The other one did something: he allied himself even more closely to the mayor and his brother and was rewarded with an appointment as the campaign coordinator in our barangay. Both were longtime friends of mine. Both knew my family well. But politics exposed them for what they really were: one a coward and the other a buffoon who didn't have the sense of delicadeza.

Politics, however, brought out the best in some of our relatives and friends who stood by us. Though the mayor continues to enjoy wide support, some relatives, neighbors and friends have come to our support in the hope that together, we can undo or at least make my uncle realize the errors of his administration. Politics might yet get out the best in him, just as it showed us who our true friends were. Politics might have reared its ugly face, but it also became a most enlightening experience for us. It showed us the good and the bad, the best and the worst in other people and in ourselves.