If you can’t beat it, work with it

I think it’s time the Comelec faced the facts.

Candidates will not be dissuaded from putting up their posters wherever they damn well please, there will never be enough outraged people to outweigh the voting power of those who don’t care, and the common poster area rule is perhaps one of the most ridiculously unenforceable rules in the entire history of unenforceable rules.

And orbiting this nucleus of hard facts, are a number of satellite postulates that can’t be ignored either: no matter how fairly the Comelec treats candidates and party-list organizations, those candidates and party-list organizations with the ability to mobilize media coverage will always be able to portray the Comelec as biased; the leveling effect of the common poster area is illusory at best; and – apart from the common poster area rule itself being intrinsically unenforceable – the Comelec’s own field personnel are either incapable or unwilling or too poorly motivated to even mount the good ole college try at tilting at windmills.

This isn’t to say that the idea behind the common poster area rule is trash. On the contrary, the concept that candidates should be restricted in this way is a good one because, if nothing else, the opposite means that candidates will most likely plaster anything and everything with campaign propaganda that they are not responsible enough to clean up afterwards; and because the practice of proliferate postering only reinforces the notion that it takes money, not character, to win in elections.

These laudable considerations aside, however, the fact remains that the mechanism for achieving those ends are pitifully laughable, exposing the Comelec to ridicule and accomplishing little beyond chipping away at what little credibility the poll body still has.

Hopefully, the Comelec’s bright boys and girls will soon realize that, perhaps, the Fair Elections Act is approaching the problem wrongly.

Obviously conceived as a means of making the elections more sober, for lack of a better word, using the boring American campaigns as a model, the Fair Elections Act ignores the fact that we Filipinos do elections differently. For us, this isn’t a process imbued with quiet dignity and somber gravity. It’s a fiesta – a festive occasion ultimately not far removed from basketball. And there isn’t anything intrinsically wrong with that if you were to accept that as it is and not compare with your idea of what elections should be, i.e., the way the Americans do it.

Take phone banking for instance. The Americans use rows and rows of telephones to actually call people on election day urging them to vote. Both the Republicans and the Democrats do it. They also send out vehicles to pick people up from their homes and take them to the polling places. Here at home, we call that hakot.

So, if some aspects of the way Americans run elections are undesirable to us, why should a boring campaign be more acceptable? It’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Sure, you can smash it into place but it’ll be a terrible fit.

Better by far to simply embrace the cultural realities in which the election campaigns are embedded and then institute process controls. Kinda like how they stopped men pissing on the floors of Schipol airport toilets. It’s a case of since you can’t beat it, work with it.

Okay. At this point, you’re prolly waiting for some idea I can propose. Well, I don’t have anything at the moment. But, hey! That isn’t my job, is it? LOL

Seriously tho, I do have something, although I can’t guarantee lawfulness at this point. I was thinking that maybe, the Comelec can work something out with the DILG so that no winner can assume office without first organizing and carrying out a clean up operation, post-elections. While there is scant legal bases for this kind of move, there is a chance that it will appeal to the Filipino’s sense bayanihan *cringe* which, at the moment of victory, will be tripping high on euphoria.

I know it’s lame, alright? But you get the idea, right? Hopefully, the Comelec’s bright boys and girls do too.

If you have an idea on how illegal postering can be controlled in the absence of a common poster area rule, why not share it in the comments below?

Or don’t. LOL

Filed under: 2013 Elections, politics, polls, pop-culture, Comelec, common poster area, elections

No money, no honey? WTF?!

Both the Comelec’s Chairman and its Law Director have said that there is no money for the Pampanga recall elections. The Chairman said that the Comelec would not ask for money from the DBM. The implication – being forcefully insinuated by those opposed to the recall – is that if the Comelec can’t cough up the money, there will be no recall elections.

WTF?

On a practical level, this might all be true. What get’s my goat, tho, is that the people who are opposed to the recall are trying to short-circuit the statutorily guaranteed process for kicking out bad elective officials through the ridiculous claim that there is no money. 

First of all, recall elections are a valid means of empowering people to remove elective officials from power. Once the petition is approved (which it hasn’t been yet), the recall election is an activity that the Comelec is mandated to carry out. Because it is part of the citizen’s right of suffrage – because it is an integral mechanism of democracy – money should be the least of Comelec’s concerns. 

While the petition hasn’t been approved, however (as is the case with Pampanga), the Comelec has no business saying things like ‘there’s no money’ and ‘we’re not gonna ask for money.’ That’s not even an issue! When the petition is approved (if it’s approved) the Comelec has no choice but to find the money. So these things that the Chairman is saying, what is he saying them for?

As it is, by insinuating that the recall petition is futile, he appears to be siding with Panlilio. Is that even proper for the Comelec? Or maybe it will be considered proper because he is, in effect, favoring a politician who is ranged against a known ally of the President?

Filed under: politics, Comelec, elections, Pampanga, Panlilio, recall

Popularity shouldn’t cut the cheese

A lot of people rhapsodize over the losses sustained by artistas in the last election; pundits – even those who ought to know better – were quick to praise the ‘maturity’ of the Filipino voter.

Bullshit.

The Filipino voter merely traded one kind of celebrity – the showbiz kind – for another – the political kind. And even that was only possible because the political celebrities deliberately used showbiz-esque tactics to make an impact on the masses.

If the Filipino voter were truly mature, people like Chiz Escudero would never have won. Or Sonny Trillanes. After all, what doe these people bring to the table aside from their tried and tested ability to orate in mellifluous monotones and throw tantrums?

And now Escudero is contemplating a run at the presidency in 2010? Come ON.

His is one of the blankest records in Congress; he made Senator solely on the strength of his anti-Gloria posturing; and now, before he has even done anything significant in the Senate – apart from introducing slim fit jeans into the plenary session hall – he’s gunning for the highest office in the land? On what fucking grounds? Quite possibly, the fact that he was number 2 ranked. What a shitty world.

This is proof that even as these politicians masturbate each other – and the civil society types – about how they’re riding the wave of a mature vote, they don’t really believe in what they’re saying. Popularity still counts as the highest good in this political arena, and substance ranks maybe 36th.

Don’t get me wrong, popularity is important. But in a situation – like Chiz’s – where popularity makes up 95 to 99% of the politician’s appeal, isn’t it fair to ask the politician whether he doesn’t feel like he’s shortchanging the nation? It’s kinda like a salesman selling you a vacuum cleaner he knows won’t suck up much dirt but looks good doing it. However way you cut it, it’s a cheat.

Filed under: 2010 watch, 2010, candidates, Chiz Escudero, elections, presidency, Sonny Trillanes

Almonte’s reform agenda

The redoubtable Jarius Bondoc reports on Joe Almonte’s latest foray into the wilderness of Philippine politics as – once again – a sort of Baptist, warning of dire consequences lest ye repent.

Elections are again around the corner. Conditions that marked the last national-local voting have worsened. Almonte is back with solutions for those who’d care to act. During the recent launching of his book, To Put Our House in Order, We Must Level the Playing Field, he chatted up past and present government officials on choosing a Malacañang candidate. “Make sure he’s a reformist now, because if not he will never be a reformist when he becomes President,” he brought the issue down to basics. On speaking tours, he painstakingly explains the need for a modernizing national leader to match a growing number of achievers in local levels. “In our country, only the President has that kind of transformative political power,” he told Galing Pook members, among them governors and mayors, last weekend.

… he pounds back on the need for electoral reforms. Cleaning up the voting process will not bring deliverance overnight. But it will encourage new leaders to try their hand in public service, and restore people’s faith in democratic exercises. Even just a handful of legislators and local officials can force some of the major electoral changes, to produce still more reformists.

Albeit a little obvious, all these things are just lovely. Of course everyone wants a reformist for president. It’s when a reformist actually gets elected that we have problems. More often than not, we realize after the euphoria of victory, that a serious reformist will not care who put him in power – a serious reformist will reform everything – even if it means stripping his supporters of their expectations of entitlement. And very few people appreciate that. So, in short order, the shining hope becomes a hapless target of the very same people – disgruntled now, for not getting what they thought was their just reward – who put him in power. It’s an old story; and one we see being replayed over and over and over …

And I love how everyone says the government should clean up the voting process. It’s like dirty streets, folks. You can field an army of street sweepers but the streets will still be filthy for as long as people keep littering when no one’s looking.

But Almonte doesn’t stop there. According to Bondoc, he has four other “bite-sized” proposals:

• Open up the economy and reduce state intervention — both to cut down oligarchic influence and to curb opportunities for rent seeking.

• Professionalize the civil service, by raising salaries into rates competitive with the private sector; installing a meritocracy through service grades set by examinations; and stabilizing tenures by transferring the appointing power for officers from the President to the civil service system.

• Strengthen political parties, the best way for which is to switch from presidential to parliamentary.

• Recapture the nation’s political center from oligarchic control, starting with putting in place a system of public financing for presidential elections.

I don’t know if I’ve suddenly gone autistic, but I see nothing bite-sized about these proposals. First off, opening up the economy and reducing state intervention? I can think of several ways this proposal might require a constitutional amendment. Considering how paranoid people get when constitutional amendments are being discussed, this proposal is prolly bite-sized only for those of gigantic proportions.

Professionalize the civil service? What? All 99 bazillion of them? Seriously. With government employees earning less than fucking call center agents, how the hell does Almonte propose to start this crusade? Karina David – as awesome as she is – had seven bleeding years to do it, and she accomplished squat. Are we now supposed to do better by 2010?

And transferring the appointing power to the civil service commission? This is the same kind of knee-jerk reaction that led to the crappiest Constitution this country has ever had, maybe we can make this work. 

And raising salaries? Does Bondoc realize how long it takes to manage to raise the salary of one itty-bitty government functionary, let alone the salaries of the entire bureaucracy? It took the Supreme Court more than three years to work on increasing salaries in the judiciary, Jarius honey, and they’re still not competitive with the private sector over there.

I want a hit of what Bondoc is smoking, man. Looks like some pretty heavy shit.

And we’re supposed to believe that strengthening political parties is easy too. Even better, we do that by switching from presidential to parliamentary! Sure, why the fuck not. Let’s do it next week. Oh, wait, doesn’t that take another FUCKING Constitutional amendment?

And finally, this absolute pearl: let’s recapture the nation’s political center from oligarchic control! WOOT! I feel drunk just reading this shit. Let’s put in place a system of public financing for presidential elections!!! AMEN!!! WHOOO-HOOO!!! YEAH!!! How about we calendar that between punching the moon and … holding back the tide? Will that work for you guys? 

Sheesh.

 

Filed under: 2010 watch, politics, elections, Jarius Bondoc, Jose Almonte, politics, reform

Automated Elections

Well hell. It looks like the Comelec is finally getting off it’s butt.

I strip on this other site.

Filed under: automation, politics, automation, Comelec, elections, Maguindanao

The year to come

I don’t know why the Sound of Music should be playing on Christmas Day, but there it
is on Star Movies. What with it being the ultimate au pair fantasy movie, there’s nothing particularly Christmas-y about it, after all. But then again, with a step-mom that breaks into song at the drop of a hat, I suppose Christmas would be like a year-round condition.

And speaking of Christmas … I think every kid on the block must’ve come knocking on our door today. I swear. I got to bed at around 7:30 this morning, after having worked on setting this new blog up from 4:00 am onwards, and I had been hoping to get some sort of sleep during the day. Unfortunately, the little buggers started showing up as early as 8:00 am. Kinda like office hours, y’know?

Most of them were pleasant enough – by which I mean they were sheepish enough not to act like they were entitled to Christmas dole outs. There were a few nasty ones though; kids who pretty much demanded that they get something.Ah well. Christmas is about charity, eh? As Papa Ratzi said, Deus Caritas Est.

But now that’s done with. I don’t imagine there’ll be much more coming tomorrow. Which means that its time to start thinking about the year to come.

Filed under: musings, 2008, Christmas, Comelec, elections, extrajudicial killing, firecracker injuries, firecrackers, journalists, Philippines, predictions, registration, Sound of Music