Limlingan: Campaign fuzz

A COUPLE of days ago, I was awakened by some indistinct melody and chant seemingly coming from a street in our community. The noise or should I say, jingle, is played from an election showboat or a vehicle used for campaigning.

Annoyed and curious, I stood from my bed and went to our gate where I saw a senatorial line-up being marketed by a van wrapped in tarpaulin and stickers while playing a campaign jingle. I suddenly realized then that it’s the campaign period for political hopefuls trying to get a seat in the Senate and in the House of Representatives (Party-list).

While it’s not yet the “official” campaign period for local candidates, there are already a number of showboat plying our streets, brandishing candidates faces, playing loud their jingles. The jingles are usually the re-lyricized rock and loud music which can make one dance.

Jingles intend to catch the attention of the electorates. They usually have the happy tunes with different lyrics with the latter telling something about the candidate and the number corresponding to a place in the ballot to which the voter shall shade come election time.

In Pampanga, there are a number of jingle makers who are at this time of the year, are raking in profits from their talent fees in composing and matching lyrics to music. The polosadors or the traditional singers and songwriters of local novelty songs are also in-demand these days for politicians.

These jingles showcase the great talent of Kapampangans in composing music and putting in them the appropriate lyrics. The lyrics are no ordinary ones as they have the stories in them, some wisdom and some lessons in life.

Some years ago, campaign jingles are recorded using a cassette tape recorder and a simple guitar. The tape is then reproduced and distributed to showboats that will go the places up to the remotest part of barangays.

Today, campaign jingles are recorded in studios. Once recorded, they are reproduced to flash drives or thumb disks, commonly called as USBs. These USBs are played via amplifiers and loudspeakers mounted on showboats.

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Last week, I have been a witness to the decongestion of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) particularly the Mindanao Avenue to Cloverleaf in Balintawak. The A. Bonifacio Avenue that connects Cloverleaf into the City of Manila was likewise tremendously decongested of vehicular traffic. The C3 Road that connects Navotas City and Caloocan City was likewise free from high volume of trucks.

The reason for all of these ease in vehicular traffic is the opening of the Harbor Link road that connects the NLEx to the pier area in Manila City. I am a witness, among other motorists, to the convenience the new road provides to the public.

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