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Friday, March 19, 2004
Editorials: Incumbents’ advertising
Ads of President Gloria Arroyo show her talking about programs and projects. "They are part of her job," say her defenders in answer to her rivals' criticisms, "and the ads are well within bounds."
When is advertising of the incumbent a necessary consequence of her being in office and when is it political advertising and thus subject to the limits of the law and the Comelec rules?
A Comelec official says it's not as difficult as it sounds to distinguish one from the other.
The ad doesn't have to ask for votes to be considered a campaign ad.
It's campaigning if the roadside billboard says the road is being cleaned under the President's cleanup program.
It's campaigning if the President's face appears on health cards distributed to thousands of peopled identified ward leaders of her party.
It's campaigning if a commercial shows the President urging people to avail themselves of a government livelihood program.
Those ads offend good taste and fairness outside the campaign period. They violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the election law during the campaign season.
And the ads being informative or inspiring must not obscure that it's main, if disguised, motive is to woo public support for the incumbent candidate.
The problem though is not just the ambiguity of the law and the rules, as to what is campaigning and what is not. It is also the lack of will, capability, and time for the Comelec to enforce the law and the rules.
Then there's the dismaying cop-out, even among some watchdogs of morality in governance: What the heck, it's always done during elections and almost everyone's doing it.
Bribing the bribable
What people merely speculated about before has come closer to being confirmed: the existence of a shabu laboratory in Cebu or near Cebu.
The seizure of 1.8 tons of pseudoephedrine, a vital ingredient of shabu, has increased the likelihood of there being a shabu laboratory in the neighborhood.
The hugeness of the shipment in bulk (60 drums containing 30 kilos each, about P3.65 billion, and its value, about P3.6 billion) would make transhipment too risky.
More disturbing though than the existence of a shabu lab in our midst is the probability that several sectors of society, not just the law enforcers, have been corrupted by drug smugglers.
A gigantic illegal enterprise that involves billions of pesos would reduce the risk of being exposed by bribing everyone bribable all over the place.
(March 19, 2004 issue)
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