As Filipinos embarked on their annual Holy Week exodus, they were met not only with the usual traffic jams but also with an unexpected barrage of “safe trip” messages courtesy of none other than Bong Go, the incumbent senator turned early bird campaigner. While commuters navigated through congested highways, they couldn’t escape the omnipresence of Go’s shameless positioning for re-election, plastered across roads like confetti at a parade.

In a move reminiscent of a desperate carnival barker, Go seized the opportunity to hijack the holiday spirit with his thinly veiled political ploys. What should have been a time of reflection and family bonding turned into a spectacle of political opportunism.

While technically within legal bounds, Go’s antics left a bitter taste in the mouths of many Filipinos, reminding them that good intentions can quickly sour when they come wrapped in the garish packaging of self-serving ambition.

As the saying goes, there’s a time and place for everything, and the Holy Week highway is certainly not the place for shameless political grandstanding.

Many will recall that in a previous senatorial election, Go, longtime aide of President Rodrigo Duterte, was accused of using government resources for his campaign with his face plastered on signage for the government-funded Malasakit Centers.

And while we’re at it, a member of the House of Representatives, Camille Villar — a virtual unknown except for her surname from that influential and moneyed family of Las Piñas, ditto’d Go with the exact same grandstanding message.