Wednesday, April 11, 2007 Carvajal: Bets that voters must dump By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
I HATE to be a cynic even if it is a privilege of one’s senior years but the Holy Week that just passed would once more come down as one big act of hypocrisy for many candidates. Their attendance in Holy Week rituals was for show even as their holy retreats did not diminish their resolve to do anything immoral and/or illegal to win in the coming contest.
I do not want to belabor the subject of hypocrisy, but I must put in my two-cent worth into the Herculean task of making elections in this country honest and fair. Dishonesty, corruption, immorality (the type that is worse than the sexual kind) have become so woven into the fabric of our political life as a nation that for this coming election to be the beginning of a new life for us we have to work on what should not happen and on who should not win.
It is a fact, for instance, that candidates are campaigning for people to vote for them in ways that violate the very laws they enacted and/or are commissioned to implement. Many, if not most of them, are set to spend much more than what the law allows. Many, if not most of them, display posters all over and outside legally designated areas. Many violate so many other laws in order to advance their candidacy. What kind of a country are we when those who run for office violate our election laws in order to win?
The Dilaab foundation, God bless this admirable crusade, has come up with a campaign not to vote for what it calls the “shaburakot” candidate. The “shaburakot” must not be allowed to win and hold office from where he could protect and expand his illegal drugs business. We know how illegal drugs like shabu are wrecking the lives of their victims. Nobody can probably prove anything but when it comes to drugs, we should play it safe and not vote for anybody with the slightest taint of a suspicion of being a “sha-burakot.”
One way many candidates will overspend is by buying votes. I wish for once that we can convince people not to sell their votes. They ought to know that politicians are not doing the right thing to liberate Filipinos from poverty because, for as long as they are poor, their votes can be bought cheaply.
Some candidates will lie to their teeth about what development programs they will implement once in office. The sweet-talking double-faced type of candidate will adopt programs popular with the voters just to advance their candidacy but will proceed to forget them once in office. We must not let this candidate win.
There are many other reasons why candidates should not be allowed to win. In the other day’s paper I read that somebody somewhere ran for office unopposed but nobody voted for him anyway. For once and for our own sake, let us vote wisely.
