HOW is it that, on one occasion, the head of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was in near tears because some important decisions of the poll body were turned down by the Supreme Court (SC)? My media colleague, Cheking, in his column yesterday, expected Sixto Brilliantes, however, to stand up and fight the SC.
I read somewhere that one Comelec order that was challenged in the SC is the cap imposed on spending for campaign advertising. But the SC has lifted the limits so that candidates who have money to spend can put it where he wants it. It’s good for the print and broadcast entities but bad for poor candidates.
On this ground, Comelec has really a good democratic reason to impose the cap. But perhaps the SC also has its reasons.
It is really difficult for us to dig into the background of each electoral circumstance to dignify the ongoing political campaign. We are the only alive and dynamic democracy in our part of the globe, and sustaining its unique dynamism regardless of how it is affecting the political life of our people is immaterial.
There is the report that when the Liberal Party (LP) with the local political group Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) will hold its rally today at the Provincial Capitol grounds, the city opposition group called Team Rama will also be around as volunteers to keep the flow of traffic smooth.
Some streets in the city will be closed to traffic after lunch today. It is a demonstration of how elections are carried out in a democracy.
Team Rama will be helping the BOPK man the traffic in the area where the rally would be held, and it is interesting to note that although both groups are striving for separate election objective, they would be in the same streets and traffic routes to keep the rally as orderly and peacefully as possible.
After all, it is the same city and the same elections that they have been serving, although with different election goals. Still, it is the same city and people.
Indeed, what may be considered as the distinguishing colors for rally attendees who are LP-BOPK or Team Rama-NP or UNA, are only found in the the color and design of their election uniforms. Otherwise, they would all be the same race of people under one “country, one people, one family,” as a nationalist PMAyer-senator says, to remind us of our democratic ideals.
Yes, to be familiar with the anatomy of our elections, we must learn to accept that we belong to a great nation under one flag, and whatever the outcome of the political activity, we must remain as one great family.