Today’s Panorama Column: “Vote Wisely”

Reminders to vote wisely have become a cliché, if not an old joke. With sarcasm, one is tempted to reply, yes, of course, but who’s Wisely? Still, it is a reminder worth passing on especially to the young people of today.

There is much to be concerned about in the coming polls.

First, it seems there is an over-reliance on political advertising and media by the national candidates. Unlike in previous elections where senatorial candidates traversed the entire archipelago by car, plane and boat, today’s competition is all about whether one’s political ad is working hard enough. In which case, the candidate, true to his or her role as an advertising creation, is spared the true grit of a passionate, 24/7 campaign, where a handshake is more than just skin contact. He or she is associated with soundbites rather than homegrown, core beliefs and principles. And because it was so easy, the candidate feels just as grateful to the creative genius behind his or her ad campaign rather than the awe-struck balut vendor waving from a dusty sidewalk.

Second, the political arena that should be frontier of the candidates has been taken over by non-political players that have suddenly gone political. For instance, the platforms, ideas, and advocacies of mainstream politicians are drowned out by the ongoing battle between the Right and Left. Whereas initially the public anticipated the conversion of this campaign into a referendum between the administration and opposition, what has emerged is a real war between the military and Leftist party-list groups.

Third, because of the two points above, more people are tuning out rather than listening in with keen interest on what ideas these candidates espouse. The disengagement of the voters makes it easier for massive cheating to take place. If the May election bears this out, then we are bound to see the gathering clouds of political chaos in the national horizon.

It does not help that there seems to be weak party identification among candidates and their supporters. That one is with LAKAS rather than KAMPI is more a product of local politics than principled choice. That a candidate has signed up with GO may also not mean a heck of a lot at the local level, except that the first two camps have chosen their candidates, and the third one has nowhere else to go. Every voter would likely disregard party affiliations and simply vote for the candidate with a track record of serving or having the best potential to serve the community, and the country well..

To vote wisely is a given, but what about ensuring that our votes are counted? Here I take my hats off to my colleagues at One Voice for volunteering their time and effort to undertake this important service. Atty. Chochoy Medina of the Ateneo Human Rights Center, Professor Benjie Tolosa of the Political Science Department of Ateneo University, political analyst Mon Casiple, Atty. Guia of Libertas, Vince Lazatin of the Transparency, Accountability Network, with former Comelec Chair Christian Monsod and so many others, have been doing their best to form a national coalition to protect our votes.

The objective is to cover all 1,600 canvassing points, which neither the government nor the opposition has been able to do all these years, with about 3,500 lawyers and paralegal volunteers.

Atty. Christian Monsod, in a recent speech before the joint general membership meeting of the Makati Business Club, Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Management Association of the Philippines, said,” The numbers are formidable. Forty-four million voters, over 250,000 precincts, and 1,600 canvassing points, which imply mobilizing over 500,000 volunteers, including some 3,500 lawyers to monitor the canvassing, and raising total resources of up to P50 million in case and in kind, partly by local chapters.”

Those who wish to serve as a volunteer or donate whatever modest amount you have to this national coalition may get in touch directly with the Ateneo Law School’s Human Rights Center at the Rockwell campus. Atty. Monsod’s statement before the business community is worth revisiting: “(But) the fact is that after we brought our nation to glory in EDSA and accomplished the first peaceful transfer of power in 27 years in 1992, we folded up our banners, we put away the t-shirts with the imaginative slogans that brought humor to the seriousness of the time, and we went back to wearing our business suits and to monitoring the stock prices of our companies or focusing on our narrow sectoral advocacies. And as we went our separate ways with our separate causes, we lost something of the dream of a nation and the significance of our interconnected lives. Perhaps it is time to go back to our beginnings for the 2007 elections.”