In just about four more weeks, we will get to know who will lead our country for the next six years.

Since October last year, Go Negosyo hosted a series of forum with the presidentiables and one vice presidentiables forum together with TV5, Sta. Elena Construction Development Corporation, RFM Corporation, and PLDT-SMART SME Nation.

The entire Go Negosyo community, which includes entrepreneurs from different levels, joined the fora together with partner institutions such as the Philippine Franchising Association, Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc., Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and other groups of entrepreneurs.

We had more than 500 guests every forum. We even trended online during our last Vice Presidentiables Forum. Many attended and joined the discussions. And thanks to our partner TV5, many Filipinos were able to watch the fora we organized.

We personally had the privilege of meeting the candidates. I have known some of them for a long time, but I got to know them better through their responses to the questions asked by our panelists Mon Lopez of Go Negosyo, Babe Romualdez of Philippine STAR, and Mike Toledo of the Philippine Bar Association and other guest panelists Myla Villanueva, Rosalind Wee, Myrna Yao among others, all veterans in Philippine politics and business. Through their questions, we got to know the candidates’ platforms and their plans for the country. Aside from those, we were able to know their personalities as they were asked about personal issues and intrigues.

We’ve asked them about entrepreneurship development and I can say all of them are in full support of entrepreneurship development. They even suggested programs as to how they plan to empower more Filipinos to venture into entrepreneurship. This encourages us more to continue our advocacy and expect greater support from our government.

In summary of all Negosyo Talks: Meet the Presidentiables and Vice Presidentiables Fora, there will always be the top-running candidates in our minds. As I share with my friends and our community the chance to get to know the presidential and vice presidential candidates, we will all have our own choice of candidates who we think is best as the president and vice president.

My youngest daughter Bella keeps on asking me who she should vote for. She’s only nine years old but wants to take part in the election. I advised her to choose the candidate she trusts for her future. I cannot say who she wants to vote for, but I told her that if I am choosing someone for her, I will choose someone who I can entrust her life with.

For parents like me, let’s try to look at who among these candidates we can entrust the future of our children. Sometimes when we look at it from this point, our personal choice will change. We consider not only their track records as politicians, but also their personal values and characteristics.

If we are to go under any major operation with a small chance of survival, or travel abroad for an indefinite period of time, or if we experience a life and death situation and we have to entrust our kids to one of the four presidential candidates, who among them will you choose?

We can ask ourselves these questions:

Who among them have the correct values and principles in bringing up your child in case something happened to you?

Who among them have the will to mentor your child to be successful in life and will serve as a model of success and inspiration? Will they support your child to grow in the industry best for his/her? Will he/she provide the needed facilities your child needs in order to develop his/her skills and talents?

Who among them is God-centered and practices his or her faith in action? Who among them recognizes the value of faith?

Who among them do you think has the greatest amount of love for the country? Who is selfless enough to sacrifice his/her time, effort, and personal life, for the life and welfare of the country? Do they have an inspiring vision for the country?

Who has the heart to share the prosperity to those who are at the bottom of the pyramid? Who among them recognizes the presence of those who are poor and underprivileged and makes them his/her top priority?

As you answer the following questions, I am sure you have the names in your mind who you think best represents you as a parent. The president and vice president will be leading this country like how parents head a family. Their priorities will be the priorities that need to be addressed.

The most important thing to remember is, we are entrusting the future to these top government officials. We are entrusting the life of the next generation.

That is why we need to choose well and vote wisely.

Joey Concepcion with daughter Isabella.