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BLIND SPOT: Circus of Candidacy

All the world’s a circus. I didn’t realize the deadline is just around the corner. When they would talk about filing of certificates of candidacy, I felt that it would be a remote occurrence in the not so distant future, that it would be months from now. Maybe I lost track of time and got caught off guard that aspirants for government office are bringing the fanfare to COMELEC offices in true fashion of Filipino democracy. Included in the surge are a dozen and a half party list candidates. This party list thing is getting to be a humor of humiliation. As far as I understand, party lists are supposed to give opportunity of representation for marginalized groups (which is actually ironic because should not the state implement programs for them and not wait for them to represent themselves?). But it seems that lately, I’m having a hard time identifying what sort of underprivileged sector these parties are representing. Some groups claim to be “marginalized” because of a principle or ideology they stand for. In that case, they shouldn’t be in the party list, they are in essence, a political party. Recently, party list nominees were at each other’s throats, accusing each other of being frauds or something like that, and a major player in this exchange of allegations is former PCOO Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson. Now, why am I still surprised? Wait a minute, how did she get into a party list? There’s the modest senator who rode a bicycle to COMELEC. From wheels to the worldwide web, a former senator and former presidential candidate posts video teasers on social media. I know it works with music but what’s with accompaniment? Yes. There’s the generic throng of supporters who allegedly have begged this or that person to serve the people. Manny accompanies Bobby. Erap accompanies Jinggoy. But the one that sweeps them all and takes the top spot of grabbing attention in the category of number of companions is SAP Bong Go. (What is SAP anyway? Since when did Special Assistant to the President become an official title?) Not only did he take crowd just to …. Well, I don’t know, what do these people who accompany do? Watch as the aspirant fill up forms? What boosts the honorable SAP to the top is among his mob are Cabinet members and no less than the incumbent and celebrated (or whatever it is that is the opposite of “celebrated) President of the Republic of the Philippines. Okay, world boxing c hampion senator and former president and incumbent Manila mayor, eat your hearts out, you can’t outdo this one. No offense, Sir, but where have we met? Have I Just awakened from suspended animation or have I just gone from involuntary hibernation, but you don’t look familiar. Why is Mr. Go here, all of a sudden the boy wonder of the 2019 elections? Why is he being purported to be the rising beacon of hope for national statesmanship. The Palace is playing publicity game on us, and full force at it. The more we see and hear of someone or something, the more the public would adore or abhor that something or someone. Well, I guess for some people, it’s working. Okay, maybe I’m being unfair. Maybe he would be the best senator the Philippines ever had. Maybe he’s worth all the hypothermia, worth it for the President to make military official event delay for two hours because he tagged along at the COMELEC. Come on. The guy has friends. Incidentally, this filing excursion has violated some rules, like the “tag along only four friends rule”, implying some sort of favoritism to administration boy wonder SAP Bong Go. Interestingly, the President is less supportive of candidacy endeavors of Atty. Harry Roque; and I thought he likes this guy. These are weird times indeed. Among the filers are a former PNP Chief, an iconic folk singer and a Muslim princess. Now with the popularity of social media, we can set ourselves up for a kaleidoscopic campaign period. Locally, I had seen propaganda of banging blame of bribery of barangay officials to support a congressman’s candidacy. After it, I was left reeling in confusion which party was accusing and which party was being accused; thereby rendering the propaganda ineffective (well, at least for me). Interestingly, the publicity ploy was months ago, way before the season of filing of COC and even further away from the legitimate campaign period. There’s also this post of a comparative analysis of the accomplished infrastructure projects of two incumbent elected officials. One is in executive and the other is in legislative. So , I wonder if that’s a fair basis of comparison. From the looks of it, one could easily determine the source of the stint (but then again, inferences could be wrong because we can never tell the true truth sometimes.) It struck me of the air of juvenile irreverence against a neighborly uncle. Maybe this is what happens a precedent is set of abandoning gentlemanly modesty and conceited chatter. Have they filed their certificates of candidacy? “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” Hebrews 13:7

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