Magnanimous in victory, gracious in defeat

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza

The elections are over and most local winning bets have been proclaimed. We cannot avoid it but for sure, in a country such as ours, there will always be sore losers. There are reasons for this. One, it takes years for our justice system to resolve election cases; two, Comelec has not sent anyone to jail for violations of election rules; and three, we are not confident about the election system in this country, and even Comelec workers have said that election automation is not tamper-proof.

Elections in the country, whether these are barangay or national elections, are never conducted minus the protests, cheating, over-spending, vote-buying and worst – bloody violence involving candidates and supporters in identified election hotspots.

The same unsettled problems and issues of the past prop up such as missing voters’ names or disenfranchisement of voters, malfunctioning voting machines that Comelec workers assigned in classroom precincts do not know how to fix.

Then we keep appointing new Comelec commissioners who become additional problems themselves because they do not have solutions to the main problems. That is one main reason why there is doubt and diminished faith in the election system.

As a result, some winning bets do not come out magnanimous in victory and some losers are not gracious in defeat. British Orator and Prime Minister Winston Churchill said this in many other ways in the past, but the meanings are all the same. People should be worthy and upright winners and classy losers.

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Actors and actresses, other celebrities grabbed the headlines late last year upon filing their certificates with the Comelec. Many of us thought such personalities would not share political spaces to the more serious politicians, but no. After the earliest official results were announced, we find some of them losing in the counting.

Isko Moreno, Edu Manzano, Mark Lapid and Alma Moreno who joined the senatorial race are all losers, while former senator Lito Lapid was trailing incumbent Angeles mayor Edgardo Pamintuan.

The only not so surprising election result was that one clinched by boxing champ Manny Pacquiao who is still in the Top 10 of the partial and unofficial results for senatorial bets being counted in congress.

With millions of boxing aficionados all around the country who do not care to balance the effect of electing a boxing champ into office against having a serious lawmaker,Pacquiao’s win in the senatorial race was expected.

Pacquiao’s performance as congressman of Saranggani reveals his capability in lawmaking and legislative work. He attended congress for only four times in 2014, the most embarrassing absentee record in the House for that year. He never passed a single law. Zero.

The province is one among the 16 poorest, with more than 50% of households missing at least one meal a day, according to the 2015 World Food Program report. This, despite the fact that their congressman has been earning millions of dollars, and has been reported in the news to be distributing food donations in calamity-stricken areas.

To show to the public that he is not just a boxing champ, Pacquiao stood on the House floor and announced his opposition to the reproductive health bill. His argument was not based on prevailing facts, but with lines lifted from the Bible.

Now we have a problem of a “wild and mindless lion” that we just sent to the senate. We voted for an absentee congressman who aspired to be senator who eventually won. Let us hope that millions of people’s money spent on his office will not go to waste.

We now expect him to debate on the floor, propose laws and policies that will shape the lives of millions of Filipinos. While he dreams to be magnanimous in victory after you vote for him as your President come 2022, we expect to be gracious in defeat.