TIME and again has proven that politics in the Philippine setting is always a feast. Prior to the elections proper, candidates wooing the electorates are often seen in street drinking aside from campaigning for votes.
The festive mood of the campaign is complemented by ubiquitous tarpaulin posters and campaign jingles. Candidates are very visible to the public as they drink with pot-bellied roadside regulars while having their discourses on issues affecting their respective barangays.
As it was observed, many old-timers were replaced by people’s votes with newcomers. Perhaps this is the result of the extensions of the terms of offices of barangay officials and that people wanted some new faces to govern.
In the province, many incumbents to the positions were outvoted by fellow incumbents aspiring for higher positions and even come-backing politicians who somehow hibernated for a while but maintained their connections with their captured voters.
During the voting, usual precincts experiences were experienced such as the missing names of voters, the long queue of electorates braving the summer heat and that was generated from the crowd. There were again last ditch efforts of politicians to win by committing electioneering activities through campaigning even at the door steps of precincts.
The usual campaign materials-turned-to-bulks of trash still existed with kids perhaps paid by candidates to distributed small pieces of papers containing names of candidates as sample ballots or the usual campaign materials with the faces of candidates on.
Vote-buying was said to be rampant especially if the losers were to be believed. There are no losers in elections anyway but there are those who were cheated.
The Philippine National Police has reported that the recent elections was “generally peaceful” with “only” 35 people killed in election-related violence. This is only if we are to compare with some previous elections where slightly higher number of deaths from election incidents were reported.
As expected, some candidates particularly in the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) election have cheated their ages. The Commission on Elections has reported that some candidates for the SK posts were disqualified for allegedly misdeclaring their ages in their bid to qualify for the elections.
The youth vying for SK positions were found to be either overaged or underaged. One thing is for sure: they are too young to be involved in election cheating.
***
Speaking of elections, my congratulatory felicitations goes to Punong Barangay-elect Bernabe “Bheng” Lopez Flores of Brgy. Sta. Lucia, Sta. Ana, Pampanga. He is a former kagawad of the said barangay who aspired for a higher notch so he may be able to serve more his would be constituents.
He vows for a cleaner barangay governance, more programs and projects and to serve fully well the people he will be taking an oath to serve. Again, my congratulations to Kap Bheng.
***
For any comments, ideas, suggestions or opinions, text or call The Advocate at 0921-3636360 or send email at dencious@gmail.com