Elections’ Derelictions

Forgive me if I haven’t moved on yet. But the last elections left us with so much to unpack. I already did my take on it last issue, but there’s so much to jump into like a dumpster dive. I’ll just try to fit them in my space here.

Yeah, yeah, the winners have won. I heard he did this dance with some of his family. I guess, winning candidates have to do a victory dance nowadays. The opponents fought a good fight, but lost. That leaves me thinking, maybe, on the next round, they could get that win. While chomping on rice with meat on dinner, I heard on national news that more than 40 election complaints have been filed in Camarines Sur, all on one particular position. I just wonder, the news director and the newscaster seem to be in connivance in downplaying the delivery of that piece of news. That should be a major headline. But, it sounded like a minor additional paragraph on a secondary news item. Even the tone of the newscaster sounded like the complaints were not very important; as if saying, okay, let’s just get this over with, and move on to the next one. These are multiple questions on election integrity. We can’t just hop over them and move on to whatever the next one is. This should be big news.

Election protests would be very expensive for losing opponents. What’s interesting about these complaints is that they come from voters themselves. One could argue that the complainants could be allied with the losing candidates, but that remains to be proven, and I doubt it.

This time around, it has become normal. In previous elections, I just heard about it from distant barangays and laughed in awe (or I was just too naïve),. Now, it happened right on my face and everyone seemed to be okay with it. Getting a couple of thousands of pesos from candidates became normal. The good thing is there remains a couple of score of people who have the guts to formally file complaints against buying votes. In one news item, the complainants say the envelopes contained 1 thousand peso bill each. I say, that was low. In many areas, prices for votes went higher than that. Take a look; all the complaints (or most of them) are directed against one personality. I hope something concrete and decisive comes out of them, and they don’t fizzle out.

I know you feel bad that he didn’t get the endorsement that you think he deserves. But, family is family. At the end of the day, what other people would think or say would not matter as long as all is good within the family. After all, we’ll all forget about the elections and move on. But, family will remain family. They’ll meet in reunions, weddings and funerals, and have to be bonded as family.

This party list system is really problematic. I can’t get over it. The way I understand it is it’s supposed to give a chance of representation for marginalized sectors. These sectors should include persons with disability, indigenous people, fisherfolk, LGBTQ, informal settlers, HIV patients, persons with mental health issues. You get the deal. What marginalized sectors do Akbayan,, Duterte Youth and Tingog represent? Are youth who support former President Duterte a marginalized sector? Are Warays a marginalized sector? Akbayan is a political party. Duterte Youth is a youth group. Warays are people of Samar, Leyte and Biliran. No offense, but they are mainstream groups. They are not in the margins. Yes, there are authentic marginalized groups among them, like senior citizens, PWDs, employees who lack benefits. Even Diwata’s vendors group is a more legitimate marginalized group. But, politicians have hijacked the party list system and mangled it to serve their ulterior motives. It is what it is. I don’t see anyone wanting to change it.

The sudden and surprising shift of names on the list of senators elect from the list that appeared on the surveys have been attributed to the last surveys having been conducted three weeks from the actual elections. So, millions of Filipino voters decided to drastically shift their preferences within three weeks. Of course, we could not possibly ask millions of voters. But, would you do the same? Have we not made up our minds for months now? Maybe some of us would change our minds. But would millions of people do that in three weeks? I’m starting to have doubts with these surveys. How much would it cost to be included in them?

The list of senators elect doesn’t seem to look good for the President. Included In it are staunch, loyal, ready-to-die supporters of the former President who despite official claims is believed to have been conspired against by the President BBM’s people. Then, there are those who have been historically identified to go against the Marcoses. There are senators elect who have their independent stands that could go in directions which may not support the administration. None of them are definite loyal supporters of PBBM. That doesn’t look good for the President.

“I said to myself, “God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.””

Ecclesiastes 3:17