Cheap tricks and promises

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza

Time flies. If not, then one term for an elective post from congressman down to the last councilor is too short. And so, after some two and a half years or so, we are in an election season again. In those couple of years, voters heard broken and fulfilled promises, and witnessed politicians’ cheap tricks. We saw elected politicians keep their simple lives and stay as they were while others changed, consciously forgetting their modest beginnings – some even forgetting friends who, at the outset, propelled them to occupy their present status.

In the local scene, some who campaigned in the last elections about championing the environment did exactly the opposite by becoming its destroyers instead. Hooded interests backed by arrogance, shamelessness, greed for power and money are the elements behind environmental destruction.

In Baguio and the mountain districts, opposing politicians race to become richer everyday, either illegally by coddling jueteng lords and gambling operators; or legally through their deputies who engineer the plans and procedures on how gains and spoils are divided. I wonder if these friends are able to sleep well.   

One complaint that keeps coming back every election time is that a politician’s supporters who spend their time in the field distributing leaflets, talking to people, posting election material and doing all the dirty jobs are the ones who are often left out when payback time comes. Only the trusted few remain under his wings to get rich along with him. Knowingly, the winning politician does not “spread the sunshine”.

The candidate and his supporters are inseparable “lovers” during the campaign period. They go out strong together and never doubt each other. But after the winning, changes are suddenly felt, one knows that he will be out of the graces of the person he supported. And the politician who won will not even bother to call to say thank you for all your help.      

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Once upon a time, comedian king Dolphy Quizon said: if I run for an elective post, I will surely win but what will I do? “Magpapatawa ako?”Dolphy said this to stop his friends in the silver screen as well as musicians, basketball players and prizefighters from getting entangled in politics because he knew that doing so will be better for the country.

Dolphy meant that it is time for Filipino voters to judge candidates based on actual accomplishments and stop banking on popularity. Indeed, it is time for both voters and candidates to be more decent, get rid of distasteful campaign styles and cheap tricks.

Since Comelec announced that they are not backed by laws to charge candidates from early campaigning, the latter came up with all sorts of gimmicks. What has become the practice is for local candidates to flock to wakes I funeral parlors and residential houses, expressing fake sympathies, even when they are not known by the immediate families.

Sincerity in paying respects to the dead is accompanied with consistency, which is doing the practice even before they had planned on running for public positions. Consistency is not choosing which wake to go to. It is dropping by wakes located in places where they will not be voted on.  

In some provinces, political candidates choose to tell jokes and entertainment pieces to attract the crowd, letting go of the chance to inform voters of more serious issues that should be addressed. But in Benguet, votes cannot be cast in favor of a clown or politician-entertainer because development in Benguet is not a laughing matter.

In shaky times, people are waiting for solutions to persistent problems in their communities that should be addressed. Jokes and entertainment make serious moments lighter but it is an abuse to the intellect of voters if these unresolved issues are put aside by rubbish talk or jokes.

From the start of the local campaign in March, politicians will pull their opponents down in the mud little by little. In the end, it will be each to his own just like what happened to a congressional bet in Benguet who was promised financial support by his party-mate.

But even while this may be the case, voters should better pay attention to candidates who will make intelligent speeches that are dignified and delivered in a decent manner.

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Before I forget, Dalton Bocyong Afidchao whose mother Elizabeth traces her roots to Alab, Balili and Samoki, and whose father Atanacio Sr. hails from Bontoc and Samoki filed his candidacy for councilor of Bontoc. Similarly in other places, there are new faces who jump to politics.

Change, they say, is one thing no one can stop. So if residents in the prime town of Bontoc as well as in the other towns in the Cordillera are looking for different innovations in running communities, they might as well look for new breeds of public servants. No one knows really what they have under their sleeves, but it does not hurt if they are given the chance to serve.

More info about new faces in politics next week.