ASPIRING actors for movies and TV shows, even players for two bit roles and sitcoms undergo rigid audition before getting a contract.
It is not so with our candidates for President which requires a minimum of qualifications. Likewise with the other aspirants for national office and local elective positions.
This anomaly encourages and emboldens ego-tripping individuals. Otherwise known as nuisance candidates, they mar the landscape like rugby-sniffing urchins in the neighborhood.
Our lawmakers have ignored the urgent need to amend the Elections law specifically by mandating higher qualifications for prospective candidates.
The nation is not lacking in loonies and crazies who think they are qualified to run for national positions. The Commission on Elections which is part of the lunatic rigmarole indulge the nuisance candidates. It even set them up for TV interview.
Idle most of the year, Comelec officials find the filing of certificates of candidacy an occasion for fun. They spend precious time entertaining the Presidential bets-to-be while tolerating their time-consuming comedy.
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While a law was enacted to put an additional two-year curriculum to the high school course also known as K-12 to make our secondary school graduates globally competitive, we allow the basic minimum requirement of citizenship and literacy to determine our candidates for President, etc. This rotten system is one root cause of the bad leaders in our country, the Congress especially.
This is the chief reason why the results of elections take a long, long time to be finally known. The over sized ballot contains candidates's names that run to a hundred or so.
The Comelec enforces the law mandating those who are qualified to run, including morons who are natural born citizens and imbeciles who can read and write.
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Should the next Congress decide to make on a Charter amendment t, I hope Congressman Oscar Rodriguez (3rd Dist. Pamp.) will sponsor a measure that would revise the decadent provision and raise the standards for aspiring candidates.
Cong Oca promises good things to come after the 20l6 elections. I hope raising the bar of candidates' criteria will be one of the lawmaker's priorities.
This will put an end to nuisance candidates who make a mockery of our electoral system and clog the ballots for local positions.
It is a criminal anachronism that an ordinary job seeker is required to submit a set of Clearances (Police, NBI, Barangay) while an aspirant for public elective office, perhaps in conflict with the law, with a criminal record, enjoys immunity from necessary requirements that make public office a sacred trust.
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The best deterrent to nuisance candidates is to impose a type of bond similar to a Performance Bond to aspirants for President down to municipal councilors.
If the candidate fails to muster at least 2 per cent of the total numbers of votes cast in the constituency, he/she forfeits an amount equivalent to two-month salary in office.
Failing to get the required votes in two consecutive elections means that the aspirant is rejected by the people and is considered undesirable. It is a ground for perpetual disqualification. All the bonds will be paid to the Comelec.
Requiring the candidate to invest in his/her venture will prevent adventurism, indiscriminate enterprise, and the homegrown nuisance politicians in muddling the system. Most of them are running for the funds of it.
The idea of requiring a cash bond for all candidates may prove to be accidentally beneficial to certain Comelec people.
The losing candidate, whose bond will be forfeited to the poll body, may decide to part with a fraction of his cash bond, according to the good discretion - and by a favorable certification of- the Comelec official in charge of the refund, as the case may be, similar to an arrangement between a BIR examiner and a cheating taxpayer wanting a big discount.