IT’S only a little more than a week before the midterm elections. The term there is “homestretch.” All candidates are gearing up for the final push. The remaining targets are the undecided, who often swing the results of the voting one way or the other, especially in a close contest.
Late the other night, traffic got tight a bit on the side road of the Mambaling underpass project going to the city. That side road has been fenced off with corrugated iron sheets to separate motorists from the dug area. And we know how candidates campaign in the elections. They would have their supporters paste every available space with their posters. Sure enough, I passed by a group of youngsters busy pasting posters of a candidate for Cebu City councilor. Thus the tight traffic situation.
Many of our election rules are not followed strictly during elections. One of these is the designation of a common poster area so campaign materials won’t be pasted anywhere else. But the hope for a clean election, at least with regard to the pasting of campaign materials, has remained just that, a dream. No open wall or fence has been spared so far.
The blame, of course, should not solely be on the Commission on Elections. Comelec is shorthanded plus it has difficulty pinning down erring candidates. Blame can surely be pinned on the candidates themselves, but if you are a candidate, why won’t you breach the rules if everybody else does and are not punished for it? On the breaches, we Cebuanos would often say, “Wa na tay mahims.”
Another thing. Vote-buying is supposed to be a punishable act just like pasting campaign materials on spaces not designated as common poster areas. But you know what many candidates are gathering in preparation for the homestretch? Money. These would preferably be in smaller denominations for easier distribution. Thus we hear of talks of candidates with bags (“maleta”) full of money ready for the homestretch. But have we heard of candidates disqualified for buying votes?
Of course, we have survived despite the imperfections in our electoral process. I can attribute that to the resilience that has allowed our race to also survive the challenges posed by an archipelagic milieu that is right smack in the Pacific ring of fire. The harsh surrounding has shaped our responses to every test, among these our version of “que sera sera” (bahala na).
We complain about the flaws in our electoral process, true, notably the failure to fully implement the rules, but we end up abiding with the results and bowing down to the so-called will of the majority no matter how questionable that will has been arrived at. We endure the rule of tyrants and jesters by doing things on our own. We move on mostly despite the government.
But I still hope things will change soon. Take that from somebody who, in his youth, sacrificed everything for a utopian goal. My dream of an egalitarian society without exploitation and oppression has remained. In the meantime, would it be too much if I ask the voters to choose their leaders well?