Esquire Philippines has featured 4 of the 5 candidates running for the highest position on the land: Mar Roxas (November 2014 issue), Grace Poe-Llamanzares (December 2014/January 2015 issue), Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte (March 2015 issue), and Vice President Jejomar Binay (December 2015/January 2016 issue).

This election month, Esquire takes the spotlight away from the candidates, and dedicates the May issue to the most important—and unelected—part of this country: its citizens. In cooperation with Juan Portrait and Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, hundreds of portraits were taken to create the cover and to serve as a reminder to Filipinos of the role that they play in nation-building.

“There is much to be hopeful for, elections or no, and this is the issue where we do our part to remind everyone of that,” stresses Kristine Fonacier, editor-in-chief of Esquire. “The unelected individuals and the groups we feature here as part of our cover story are but an infinitesimal and random sampling of the kind of work that makes the Philippines endure, no matter who we choose to sit in government.” 

With this issue, Esquire aims to remind us that, no matter who the next president may be, the power will remain with the Filipino people—the power to endure, the power to change, the power to build this nation. This is true as long as we remain a free and democratic country, and as long as each Filipino has hope.

The Election issue also focuses on one of this country’s unintentional heroes, who simply wanted to do her job in maintaining clean, orderly, and peaceful elections. One of the 35 computer technicians who walked out of COMELEC in 1986 and helped spark the People Power revolution shares her thoughts and experiences in What I’ve Learned.

Elsewhere in the issue, Esquire also shares an exclusive ESQ&A with the hackers from Anonymous Philippines, who take credit for the COMELEC hack, as they [cryptically] answer questions about who they are and why they do the things they do. Teddy Locsin, Jr. writes in the margins of the Aquino administration’s legislative record and gives us the real score, while Audrey Carpio discusses PNoy as we knew him—as a meme, not as a man.

Esquire Philippines May Election issue is available for download via Summit newsstand, Google Play, Apple Newsstand: http://bit.ly/esquireph, www.bit.ly/EsquirePHandroid, and http://bit.ly/esquirephapple. Follow Esquire Philippines on Facebook: /EsquirePh, and @EsquirePH on Twitter and Instagram.