Friday, January 05, 2007 Roperos: Election season is on By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
READING this daily’s issue yesterday, I sensed that the mid-term election set on May 14 has become inevitable.
The Charter change noise has been silenced forever. The sounds of political feuding, political bickering and rumor-mongering are rising in crescendo. And politicians in the local and national levels are starting to flex their long dormant muscles.
Things are showing the promise of getting either better or worse over the next few months as the campaign move up in high gear all over the nation.
Indeed, a report in this daily yesterday told of how Malacañang denied the rumor circulating around regarding the administration’s plan to recruit persons with names similar to possible opposition senatorial candidates. These recruits will then be fielded as independent candidates.
It is a legit though possibly immoral political strategy aimed at undermining the victory of some opposition candidates.
In any case, the final barrier to the holding of the mid-term election appears to have been scuttled since aspiring administration candidates are now actively politicking. In fact, no less than the President’s political adviser has said that the opposition does not have to worry since the administration will fight them “squarely and even-handedly.”
My point is that it now seems all right to start doing what politicians should be doing when they campaign and be voted on for a position in the local as well as in the provincial and district levels.
Late last week hundreds of new voters were either hauled to or went to the local Comelec offices to register. The process went on for three days. And even if the Comelec announced that registration was over, hundreds of young voters still hoped to register.
But what is most interesting is the fact that, at the local level, the typical indicator that the elections will push through is the breaking up of old relationships and the making of new ones. New political feuds develop while political enmities take roots.
In Mandaue City, for example, where Mayor Ted Ouano reigns supreme, there has developed a potentially distracting political encounter between businessman Norberto Quisumbing (Norkis) and Mayor Ouano. Last week, the Quisumbings was reported to have filed a complaint with the region’s Ombudsman against Mayor Ouano.
Norkis sits on a business empire that has never been consciously used yet for politics. But if he wields the political potential of his firms and his influence as a well-respected Cebu businessman, whoever he supports can put up a political challenge to the Ouanos.
Anyway, this new political feud is a typical case in Cebu, though in a degree that is less violent.
Still, there are a number of potentially violent political encounters during the campaign, something that relates to aggressive actuations for the protection and/or preservation of historic political turfs that are now being passed on to a new generation of leaders.
They appear to me to be slowly but heatedly developing, and will probably become real political battles as the midterm election campaigns move on.
