Saturday, December 30, 2006 Roperos: Politics without dignity By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
For the past three days, people have been cueing around the block where the office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the city is located. Hundreds of new voters want to be registered to be able to vote in May 14 next year when the mid-term elections will be held.
The democratic spectacle could only mean that there is no more doubting that the constitutionally mandated political exercise that has been the subject of political tussle will be held after all.
In keeping with the practice in local politics, it is a given that those who are interested to run for a local position will already be “hauling” voters to the local Comelec to register. Note that our democracy calls for the most number of votes cast in a candidates’ favor to win. And here lies the violence and indignity of homegrown politics.
Now that it appears the May polls will push through, political pots in the provinces have started to boil. Old political feuds and petty enmities are resurfacing.
And real or imagined political contenders are starting to get “political treatment” from incumbent opponents. It always happens that incumbents looking forward to reelection are very conscious and jealous of those they identify as having secret aspirations for their position.
There is, for instance, the incident in Mandaue City where Mayor Ted Ouano threatened to have the title the City earlier conferred on businessman Norberto Quisumbing Jr. withdrawn. Quisumbing is the well-known patriarch of the Norkis Group of industries that include the Yamaha motorcycle and multi-cab assembly and marketing firm.
In essence, it is undignified and unjust politics. The mayor feels that the Norkis business empire has become politically threatening.
A few weeks ago, NQ had also filed as a counter charge a complaint against the mayor before the local Ombudsman. It was said to be in retaliation to what the Mandaue mayor did earlier, which was to take over a piece of reclaimed property of the city leased to Norkis.
Of course, that is only one of the many imbroglios in the local political scene that have started to surface. Much earlier, there was also the Eddie Gullas-Tommy Osmeña political skirmish over the mayorship of Talisay City where the two political leaders have each a candidate for the coming mid-term elections.
These small encounters are what makes the local elections lively, violent, and without dignity. The political thrusts and parries at either the town level or the district could easily escalate to dirty politics.
Indeed, the general outcome of the political exercise in a town or city will largely depend upon how heated the campaign will be conducted, and these conflicts will soon be showing their ugly heads as the political shindig grows hotter. In the past, the aftermath of the campaign was always unbridled recriminations.
If you ask me, I would say that with politics being identified as the votive source of power and influence in our local and national governance, it cannot be helped that some of our politicians will seek and desire it even at the cost of their life.
