Monday, May 21, 2007 Covington: A filthy business By Gary Covington Looking in
POLITICS in this country is a filthy business isn't it? Burning schools, cheating, and killing. Come election time the Ten Commandments (and their Islamic equivalents) are elbowed aside and for what? Power. And cash. Whoever it was said money is the root of all evils was right on the nail.
What's the body count so far? 116? 120? And still mounting. How politicians can call themselves honorable is beyond me.
There was a curious fact revealed in Tuesday's paper; Lacsasa Casar, Davao City's third district election officer, commenting on names missing from the electoral lists, pointed out that these (missing names) were names that had been "de-activated."
I bet you didn't know that - what Mr. Casar is apparently saying - that folks who don't get around to voting in two consecutive elections get their names struck off the electoral rolls. By Comelec. The agency, which oversees, free and fair elections.
"Those that complained (about missing names) are not really voters," said Mr. Casar, "that's why their names are not on the voting list."
Not really voters? What is the man talking about? What happens if a guy breaks a leg and can't make it to the polling booth? Or goes on holiday? Anyone - ANYONE - of voting eligibility is a potential voter once he or she has registered. That he doesn't vote for two elections or ten should be neither here nor there. So that he may practice his right to vote his name should be on the list until the day he dies.
Why is there such a "de-activation" ruling I really don't know? I could think of only one reason and that's the government's notorious passion for red tape (you know, the red tape a certain someone has sworn she'll get rid of); that taking a voter off the list requires he or she to re-register. And we all know what that means don't we?
Lining up for hours at a minimum of three different agencies. Paying for photocopies and registration fees and documentary stamps and anger management medication. Even then there's a good chance your name will be miss-spelled or entered at the wrong precinct.
More politics and the Rody-Nogie spat is still claiming column centimeters and on Saturday came the news that somehow the Bankerohan bridge reconstruction might suffer. How come? Surely a major bridge comes under the nation's infrastructure and thus the civil service and the DPWH. How could personal politicking possibly endanger such a project?
There wasn't much to smile about last week (unless it was the all-dancing, all-singing Unity troupe being shown the stage door) but I did like the photo in Thursday's paper of a capybara at Tokyo's Tobu zoo. The zoo apparently has four capybaras, 29 squirrel monkeys, one white pelican and two bucerotidaes.
