LEAVING A LEGACY OF CLEAN POLITICS

by Wilhelmina Orozco

The race for national and local positions is on and getting fiercer and fiercer producing a very stressful condition in our country today. The networks are vying for attention in providing the latest, most accurate and relevant analyses of issues that each candidate and party tackles. Every single event is blown up to get the public to react to even a simple case of Kris Aquino and Ruffa Gutierrez’s spat on tv where the former’s behavior became the cause of the latter’s resignation from the program. Individual biodata of candidates are being unearthed to serve as fodder for campaign smearing of reputation.

Along the same vein, relatives are being drawn into the fray, with mothers, cousins, uncles giving their own views about how the campaigns should be conducted. Although their views could be viable, the total picture that emerges is that only a few families really control the political field in the country as their acts are easily handled by media.

Worse yet, those so-called stalwarts of the radical movement have completely made a somersault into the side of those they used to chide for being bourgeois, they used to denounce for being human rights violators, and they used to charge with corruptible practices. Thus their true colors have now emerged – that they are not really hero and heroine of the nationalist movement but rather opportunists out to reach the top at all costs. Maybe their rationale is: “When I get up there, I will revert to my former political standpoint.” But the question is will they every be able to do so, when by that time, they will have been sucked by the system already?

To compensate for the dreary situation, we can say at least that now in this period, everybody is awake. Even the spiritual leaders have entered the picture, running for positions as Bro. Eddie Villanueva, and others endorsing this and that candidate. However, the public has to be discerning as to who has their interest in mind, as some could just be there to have the necessary connections with whoever wins so that their financial takes would not be pried open by the BIR later on.

It cannot be denied anymore that we are sunk into an electoral system that makes the candidates lose their self-dignity. I heard one local candidate pleading in a hoarse voice to the crowd to give her a chance to carry out her platform of government. Still another had to endure being called names because of her affinity to a Comelec Commissioner who is secretly being bandied about as a taker of bribes to get partylists and parties accredited.

Then we see how much a huge warchest a candidate has prepared for in the presidential campaign – in billions for the highest position but is not being interrogated for misusing children to become his objects for propagandizing about himself.

We disagree heavily in using children in political propaganda. Children are very easy to manipulate especially those coming from the urban poor. With a few coins, they could be made to do acrobatics, and this time, sing jingles without knowing the import of the lyrics- si………ay nangarap… etc or without having read the issues against the very person they are campaigning for. Perhaps all organizations working for children’s welfare should band together and condemn this malpractice.

Here is where the Comelec is quite remiss in its job of keeping suffrage a dignified and respectable field. It is just too preoccupied with the technical (and probably others of the financial profit from every transaction) aspects of voting, especially automated voting this coming elections.

Meanwhile, our streets are littered with campaign paraphernalia which might stay up there in the lampposts, the trees and every flat wall where they can be posted, even after the day of voting since the candidates, especially the losers, are not pressured to clean them up.

But the “worst of worsts” is the lack of clearcut standards for accrediting organizations – parties, partylists, and accepting the candidacies of individuals, with or without a party. The Comelec is simply providing a brickwall against any kind of prying open of their positions. Instead, we just have to keep our ears open and learn from the grapevine that this and that org had paid millions, or this partylist was being asked to cough up 20 million to get accredited but which they had turned down in order to remain true to their philosophy of good governance.

So whoever said that we belong to the new millennium? This is the millennium of the same corrupt and violative acts of human rights as before – during the martial law regime. We saw these then – but on a lesser scale, with Marcos dominating the elections and making sure that his party would be the only one winning. By the way, he even got Racuyal or some other person who was willing to be a stooge to his political manipulations -- to compete with him every time to give a semblance of democratic practice.

Finally, do we expect neat and honest results from the machines or the usual brouhaha – of numbers being juggled to increase or decrease; to increase those of candidates who have been able to fatten the pockets of Comelec officials; and to decrease those of candidates who would choose to play fairly.

“Pity naman our country. Why have we become this way?” said one colegiala. Every religious who stayed blind to the true meaning of EDSA 2 and the “hello Garci” tapes could probably provide the answers.

Hopefully, the 2010 results would induce everyone to think up of ways to make the Comelec veer away from its corrupt practices and to truly serve the interest of the public. It is high time for us to hold on to the idea that the power to choose our leaders under the most honest circumstances is sacrosanct and should not be tampered with by any official, nor by any individual at all. Otherwise, we are destroying not only our socio-political institutions but the lives of the future generations after us.

Our children and children’s children deserve a clean legacy of politics – especially in terms of transfer of powers and leadership roles. .