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Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Wenceslao: Voters’ concern
By Bong Wenceslao
So what concerns voters? The question popped up after I heard people insist that issues raised against some candidates lately won’t affect preference of voters on May 10. There was, say, Fernando Poe Jr.’s admission he has a son from a woman other than his wife and the Perdido Lex controversy hounding Vice Gov. John Gregory Osmeña.
If you ask me, the Poe and Osmeña issues actually go to the very core of the characters of the candidate. A high school dropout without experience in governance, Poe is banking on his supposed honesty and integrity to see him through the campaign. But cheating on one’s wife surely does not speak well of one’s honesty and integrity.
And yet there are those who say this point won’t bother voters one bit. To strengthen their argument, they then use former president Joseph Estrada as example. The man, so they say, flaunted his many mistresses and yet he won by a wide margin over his rivals in the 1998 polls. That just means the matter of infidelity doesn’t really matter.
As for John-john, the Perdido Lex issue shows him at best a naïve government official or at worst a schemer. Because of his—at best—negligence or—at worst—corrupt act, the people in Cebu province stand to lose almost P5 million. And yet, again, I am hearing comments that, in the end, that won’t affect his candidacy for governor.
So again, what really concerns voters? In Poe’s case, the argument is that they will be blinded by the fanaticism developed through the years of watching his movies. Besides, so continues this line of thinking, people have accepted the supposed reality that husbands always cheat on their wives—or that this is part of our macho culture.
In the vice governor’s case, the argument is that voters in the province do not make enlightened choices but rather depend solely on the decisions of their leaders in the districts or local government units. Then there is the insistence that money is the more important consideration than a candidates’ honesty or his/her ability to govern.
If these are all that this country has really gone down, too, then I pity us. I mean, there should be reason for well-meaning Filipinos to feel disillusioned and burn all that remain of their stored hopes for the country. Or we should not blame people who are seeking other lands where they can repose their dream of a better future for their families.
But then maybe this view is just too pessimistic. Maybe there are still a good number of voters out there who know right from wrong and the better candidate from the bad one—meaning, those not swayed by gold and the maneuverings of spin-doctors. Maybe, there are still those who can make us see the water in this country’s glass as half full.
P.S. I remember lawyer Frank Malilong tackling this point in his column over the weekend. Anyway, here’s Text Reax contributor JJ of Lapu-Lapu City: “I went to the Land Transportation Office to register my car. Ang smoke test, P300. I failed. They told me to pay P300 more without receipt. I passed.
Texter Joe Olvido of Capitol Site has this sorry description of a Senate committee: “a group of senators who singly can do nothing but who, collectively, can decide that nothing can be done.”
Finally, here’s Huagie Chan on Fernando Poe Jr.: “CNN: Sir, how do you expect to win the presidency? FPJ: That’s easy, I just…ahhh, don’t talk…much.”
(e-mail: khanwens@yahoo.com; text: 0927-4912362)
(February 11, 2004 issue)
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