Monday, May 14, 2007 Seares: Those scandals, today’s vote By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
A POOLED editorial of the Sun.Star chain of newspapers last May 9 listed scandals as among the campaign “imponderables”: How will they affect the vote today?
Ask that in Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu that were rocked by the street lamps issue. Mayors of the two cities were among 19 officials the ombudsman suspended for six months pending investigation.
Unlike the CICC building in which overpricing is not yet clear, the lamps have cast enough light on probable graft.
People are hopping mad about the multimillion-peso Asean summit lamps: The prices are grossly obscene. What’s uncertain is the size of public anger.
Are Mandaue voters so outraged they will vote against Jonkie Ouano, surrogate of his pa Mayor Ted and the Ouano political clan in the election?
It’s not known how voters will buy this argument: that (a) the father’s “sin” must not visit the son, (b) Ted is innocent until proven guilty, and (c) Jonkie rivals must share the blame as they were part of the ruling party when the lamps were bought.
Twin edge
In Lapu-Lapu, Mayor Ted Radaza, suspended over the same lamps mess, teeters on a twin perilous edge. He’s also linked to a videotaped “extortion attempt,” which drew out similar tales about graft having sent to the roof the cost of doing business there.
Have the scandals cut deep enough in the public psyche to unleash votes that no damage control or vote buying can stop?
The scandals can’t be isolated from other possible causes of defeat. There’s the political machine to reckon with: How has it worked? How efficient has the use of money and power been?
Tough to pin down in numbers and logic is the public mood. Will voters throw the suspected rascals out?
I don’t know. But if nightmares have shapes, they must take the form of those atrociously priced lamps.
