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Saturday, December 27, 2003
Editorials: It’s still a ballgame
Lost in the flurry that followed the tragic mudslide in Southern Leyte over the weekend is the acceptance by actor Fernando Poe Jr. of his nomination as standard-bearer of the opposition Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino.
The move also ended all hopes by opposition stalwarts to field only one presidential bet—either Poe or the other wannabe, Panfilo Lacson—and showcased once again the nature of this country’s politicians.
Both the Poe and the Lacson camps were willing to discuss unification but wouldn’t budge from their positions, which is actually like negotiating about nothing.
And this is where the administration side seems to be heading.
There are efforts by the Liberal Party to unite the camps of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Raul Roco, with the slant that the latter would slide down to the vice presidency—a rather one-sided proposition.
The latter’s answer to that would not be difficult to imagine. Leading over the President in all popularity surveys, Roco’s counter-proposal will surely be for Arroyo to slide down or to give up her bid and unite under his candidacy.
Anyway, the failure of the unification efforts means the voters will be given a wider choice. The picture is almost complete in the presidential race, that is if nothing dramatic happens until the deadline of the filing of the certificates of candidacy.
Votes for the opposition will be split, with Poe and Lacson running. Votes for the administration will also be split, with Arroyo and Roco in the hunt. Then consider the independents, like Eddie Villanueva of the charismatic groups, who can snatch some of the votes away from the first four.
In a sense, the setup takes away much of the bite in the previous analysis that Poe, like another actor Joseph Estrada in 1998, will be waltzing his way to victory next year. Or that Arroyo, with the government machinery at her disposal, will take it all.
In short, the 2004 presidential elections, to borrow a phrase from basketball commentators, is still one hell of a ballgame.
‘Snail mail’ woes
The Philippine Postal Corp. (Philpost) 7 has noted a decrease in the number of the so-called “snail mails” sent during Christmas, supposedly the peak season.
But while Philpost 7 officials rightly attributed this decrease to the advent of modern technology, like e-mails and text messages, they failed to mention the one reason why people are resorting to alternative means of sending their mails.
Despite the shift from the old postal service setup to the new one, Philpost has not succeeded in changing public perception on the aspect of reliability.
Indeed, not all people can avail themselves of what the new technology has to offer and thus are forced to avail of Philpost services. The stress there is on the word “forced” for if given the resources, people would rather skip Philpost’s service.
This is because there are still complaints about delays in the arrival of letters or mails being opened while being routed through Philpost—something that is not contributing to the effort to cleanse the postal firm’s image.
(December 27, 2003 issue)
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