Tuesday, May 22, 2007 Editorials: Integrity, control in Bogo count
THAT "citizen's arrest" of members of the board counting the election returns from Bogo town Saturday night was, to many people, shocking as it was questionable.
The legality of the move, which effectively halted the canvassing Saturday night, immediately became the subject of debate among legal and even legally clueless minds.
That debate, though, should not overshadow the bigger issue on the conduct of the canvass, which was the main cause of the problem that cropped up later.
This is the aspect that Commissioner Resureccion Borra, the commissioner-in-charge of the poll body for Central and Western Visayas, should give primary attention to.
Strategies
The proceedings have obviously become a battle of strategies between the camps of congressional candidates Benhur Salimbangon and Celestino Martinez III.
How big would be Martinez's lead in Bogo will determine the fate of Salimbangon, who is leading in the count in the other towns in the fourth district.
Because of the intense maneuvering, the role of the poll body is crucial.
Here, objectivity or being perceived as objective is only one of the requirements, the other and more important being the manner the counting process is being handled.
Integrity
Let us just say that Gallardo Escobar, Mohammad Abdulrashid and Genoveva Sevilla meant well in speeding up the canvass and did not "sabotage" the proceedings as alleged.
But in doing so they showed certain inflexibility that, if not intentional, fired up the supporters of Salimbangon and threatened the order in the canvass.
Thus, if the Bogo count were to proceed sans the controversies that hounded it, the new group of canvassers should learn something from the citizen’s arrest issue.
The board of canvassers should be composed of people with unquestioned integrity and who are careful enough not to do things that can be interpreted as proof of partiality.
Control
This does not mean, though, that the opposing camps should not be made to account for any disturbance erupting because of their failure to rein in their emotions.
Martinez, Salimbangon and their leaders should refrain from inciting supporters to take the law into their hands or transforming them into mobs in a lynching mood.
It is in times like this that characters of leaders are tested.
