BEHIND THE SCENES

A portent of things to come

By Edison Baddal
Guest columnist

On several instances on the runoff to the May 14 elections, Metro Manila Development Agency workers were shown on television dismantling posters of candidates in Metro Manila on several fronts. These were torn down because they were not posted in common poster areas and other places allowed in Section 23 of Comelec resolution No. 7767.

Accordingly, posters and streamers should not be displayed in thoroughfares, sidewalks overpasses, bridges and other public structures. In direct contravention, countless campaign paraphernalia were posted on those very prohibited places aside from those posted on electric wires, electric posts or tied on trees.

Showing reckless contempt, those displayed on thoroughfares were tied across buildings on both ends like buntings during fiestas. To rub salt to the wound, supporters of the candidates put up again another set of posters in the same places which were cleared the night before. The unambiguous prohibition in the issuance notwithstanding, the violation is inconceivable. If anything, it is an unconscionable mockery of the resolution.

What was unthinkable is that one suspect was every caught by the police to the chagrin of the Commission on Elections boss. In Section 23 (b) of the resolution, it provides: “Members of the Philippine National Police and other law enforcers agencies called upon by the election officer or other officials of the Comelec shall apprehend the violators caught in flagrante delicto, and file the appropriate charges against them.”

The failure of the PNP to apprehend even one of the violators could spawn many malicious speculations such as either their palms were greased or they just looked the other way while avid supporters engaged in the illegal act. What’s worse might be the plausibility of the illegal act committed right under their noses.

Or it might be the plausibility of the illegal act committed right under their noses. Or it might be that their hands were simply full of more significant electoral matters to attend to than keeping watch on illegal posted campaign materials. Ironically, candidates could not have been aware of this prohibition as they have been surely admonished by Comelec personnel and staff in pre-election orientations conducted nationwide in violating this provision much less their responsibility in observing the spirit and letter of the resolution which for all intents and purposes is law itself. This is so as they embody the implementing rules and regulations of RA 9006, the Fair Elections Act of 2000.

But as they say, “familiarity definitely spawns contempt.” The candidates know too well that like most laws in the country, either local or national, they are more honored in the breach than in obedience.

The crux of the matter is that while the legislatures and bureaucrats like those in the Comelec are claiming they are implementing the laws and, effective implementation leaves much to be desired by those charged. Even promulgators of the law and who may have even helped in crafting the latter are themselves among the violators. At other times, shrewdness being itself a national virtue, at worst loopholes in the wordings of the law, are always cited by those with intent to skirt the law like the violation of the aforementioned resolution by the candidates.

Election campaign as a contest for winning votes through sights and sounds is by itself a given and this was prudently remedied by the resolution. Under Sec. 22 of same resolution, the Comelec allows all candidates equal opportunities to use the tri-media (press, radio and TV) “to make known their qualifications … within the limits set forth in the Omnibus Election Code, RA No. 9006, and these rules.”

All things being equal, each candidate then has a chance to air his/her platforms and qualifications through tri-media complemented by the posting of campaign materials. For the latter, the candidates have the common poster areas, to be installed at their expense, identified by local Comelec officers, as their posting places, Section 24 of Res. 7767 provides that common poster areas “could be erected in public places like plazas, markets, barangay centers for each area that have 5,000 registered voters and one additional common poster area for every increment of 5,000 registered voters.”

This is aside from the privilege granted under Sec. 23 (b) that “private places homes, private lots, compounds, private vehicles could be utilized as posting places by candidates on condition the owner consents. Most probably, the reason why the Comelec prohibits the posting of campaign materials outside the common poster areas is for aesthetic considerations. This is because it is not uncommon for bridges, public parks, streets, electric posts and other public places to be defaced and uglified by campaign materials in all forms and sizes every election period.

A cynical observation is that plain avarice for power is one valid reason that materials. This is aside form the cavalier attitude towards the provision of Re. 7767. This is plain enough especially in the case of the moneyed candidates who have enough disposable funds to splurge on an expensive and high-profile campaign. They want to ensure their victory by methods fair or foul by saturating every nook and cranny of their coverage. As in previous electoral exercises, the poor candidates with limited resources are always at the losing end due to shenanigans by well-off candidates.

In Mountain Province , local candidates displayed more respect to the provisions of resolution. But most of those who did are candidates for legislative positions. They parlayed such favorable regard by posting their campaign materials in private homes and private vehicles even as they maximized the Comelec-identified common poster areas in strategic corners.

Some still bucked the prohibition by posting outside common poster areas but they are the exception rather than the rule. Conversely, the posters of the candidates for senators, congressman and governors are the ones dotting public places outside the common poster areas. Their posters are splashed on slope protection walls, suspended on trees and electric wires and glued on electric posts.

In some towns herein, non-government organization volunteers managed to tear down campaign materials posted outside common poster areas like in Sadanga and Bauko towns. In Bontoc, their campaign posters outside of the common poster areas were obliged to. By now, campaign materials in the thoroughfare of the capital town could only be found in common poster areas, perimeter fences, windows and walls of private homes.

With the display of brash insolence towards the dictates of the resolution by some candidates, one nagging question that begs to be categorically answered is this: What kind of leadership do we expect to have under such kind of candidates? The conclusion that could emanate from such hypothetical question: In more ways than one, the brand of leadership will more likely hew to one devoid in integrity and other positive virtues. It is not farfetched to deduce such conclusion as the act of not obeying a simple rule smacks of not so noble intention in seeking public office.

What better way to base this judgment than the expression that “Good leaders who displayed obedience to simple rules are bound to enforce the law to its spirit and letter being primarily the foremost respecter of such law or rules. On the contrary, those not complying to simple rule while courting votes have the implication that they are wont to circumvent laws to achieve selfish ends.

In this crucial juncture in our history in which the nation is still licking her wounds as the perennially sick man of Asia, basket case of Asia and recently the most corrupt nation in Asia , it is but proper that candidates with the right attitude, coupled with the right does of intelligence, should be elected to office. It is not hard to discern the character lurking behind the blabbering speaker haranguing the crowd or that urbane, backslapping campaigner wearing a perpetual smile (or is it a smirk?) on his lips. Among the giveaways to the hidden motive is by the way a candidate regards simple rules of dos and don’ts in the campaign.

If memory serves me right, before RA 9006 (upon which Comelec resolution 7767 was based)
came into being, there was also a resolution from the Comelec promulgated in 1995 which forbade the posting of campaign materials outside of common poster areas.

Among the many candidates for senator only one among those who constituted the eventual winners’ circle followed the rule. All the rest should have been disqualified but the Comelec sort of ignored the violation done by the rest as one person cannot complete the required number to make a quorum.

Simply put, a candidate’s regard for simple rules is a portent to the kind of leader he will become. It is a truism in politics that persistent violators of rules will mostly likely end up circumventing all laws of the land just to get a slice of the political cake. Such kind of candidates will turn out to be leaders who will have their pie and eat it too. If the latter type currently wooing the voters will win, then the Philippines will be back to square one as far as development and progress are concerned.