Punchline
Who wants to stop vote-buying?
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
It’s too early in the day for candidates to accuse each other of vote-buying. Everyone knows the real vote-buying happens three days before and during Election Day.
So what are Speaker Joe de V and Mayor Benjie Lim carping about? They are just making themselves a laughing stock, particularly when they make those empty threats to file cases against each other.
Be serious guys.
If there are charges that people would be more inclined to believe or listen to at the very least, it would be charges of corruption while in office.
But I doubt if either one will be inclined to start this kind of word war in the media. I’m sure our readers would be more than happy to give credit to the first one who shoots first.
So, let’s hear it from either one. Let’s see who reportedly stole the most, from what project and how much. This way, the public interest will definitely be served. Will the true brave between the two please shoot first?
Harping on vote-buying with still 3 weeks to go in the campaign is a big joke! Give the people a break.
***
Vote-buying happens like clockwork, or as they say “sure as the sun rises in the east,” monies will fall like manna from heaven from May 11-14.
But will any candidate seriously dare file a complaint? Firstly, nobody will admit to having been bribed because to admit would make him/her equally guilty. So what complaint will stand in court?
Only an entrapment laid out by Comelec will make a case stick. But who will Comelec try to entrap? Not the administration candidates for very obvious reasons. Not even the opposition candidates since the motive and the means will be suspect.
So, why even cry “Wolf” when nobody will listen?
***
But I truly wonder if we Pinoys don’t even feel the slightest embarrassment for readily accepting the practice of vote-buying as a reality in Philippine politics without feeling a tinge of guilt as a participant or for simply tolerating the corruption of the electoral system.
Am sure we do.
Watch how most laugh nervously when we talk of anecdotes on vote-buying. Worse, we want to talk about it on a third-person situation, i.e., they got, he gave, etc., but never on a first person basis, i.e., I got, I gave.
The nervous laughs that accompany these talks give us away. We are insulted, embarrassed and humiliated but that we are simply not strong enough to resist it or to fight the system.
Today, we even hear of people justifying the practice. “Binabawi lang ng tao ang ninakaw ng mga reelectionists…Sige na, kunin nyo na kasi nanakawin din nila yan… Dapat tanggapin ang pera pero huwag sila iboto.”
Are these sentiments supposed to make us feel better about ourselves and our failing system? We ought to be ashamed knowing that we, as a people, cannot stop and, or worse, don’t want the vote-buying to end.
I know the affluent candidates don’t really want the practice to end because it gives the illusion that they can beat the system and have a chance at winning. The voters, on the other hand, want it to continue because its Christmas season in May.
Yet, when the better vote-buyer (who’s obviously not the better candidate), wins, we quickly blame others, not ourselves, for having allowed it to happen.
***
CONGRESS AS PORK BARREL. World boxing champ Manny Paquiao said he wants to become a congressman because he wants to help the poor.
I am certain he is sincere in his motive because he looks the type who truly wants to do something to uplift the lives of his poor constituents. But unfortunately for him, it looks like he is not going to win if we go by the surveys in his district. The people in that district want him to remain simply a famous world champion in their eyes because they are afraid he would be the brunt of jokes once he attempts to look and act like a lawmaker.
It would appear then that Manny’s constituents have a better understanding of the role of a congressman -to be a legislator, a lawmaker – than he does. Sadly, they think that the champ has no inkling of what congress, as a legislative arm of government, is all about. The congress is about making laws, at least that’s what many of us know it to be when we were taught what congress was all about 30 years ago.
***
But wait, Manny the Champ is not exactly off-tangent in his plan to help the poor. He was and is politically correct when he thinks he can help by being in Congress. After all, he has seen and been told that Congress is about having pork barrel dole-outs granted only to favored congressmen, particularly those who toe the line of Malacanang Palace. As such, lawmaking is just an incidental part of the job, a chore that he can leave to his trainers.
Manny Pacquiao is no different from Senators Lito Lapid, Ramon Revilla and his son Bong Revilla or even Joseph Estrada (before he rejoined the executive arm as vice president and president) the day they decided congressional work is suited for them. Congress has been popularized principally as the “Pork Barrel Central”.
And for this, I fault our Speaker Joe de Venecia and President Arroyo.
***
People in General Santos City were unanimous in believing that Manny the Champ would have been a good mayor (his first choice) because as the chief executive, he can very well channel the city’s resources effectively for the poor.
But he changed his mind. No. Some people changed his mind would be more accurate.
Mayor Manny became Congressman Manny all because the administration saw in him a potential ally in Congress, one who will mindlessly follow the orders of Malacanang to protect President Arroyo from another impeachment attempt.
Hence, it’s not surprising at all that Manny the Champ has been taught that Congress is about pork barrel that he can help the poor with.
***
FAILED WISH. There is no doubt in many people’s minds that the Speaker is still the best legislator the district can ever have today, given his acquired status in the world of lawmakers, in much the same way that Mayor Benjie Lim was then believed to be the best mayor that the city of Dagupan could have had.
Personally, I would have wished for my favorite mayor to have remained as city mayor of Dagupan, but this time to govern with only a good legacy in mind. In the same vein, I would have wished that Speaker Joe de V was left unopposed with the prayer that a unanimous vote would have inspired him to restore Congress into what it originally is all about – a respectable place exclusively for legislation, minus the pork barrel.
But all that wish is now water under the bridge. However, the prayer that whoever wins as city mayor of Dagupan and representative of the 4th district, will have legacy as the only moving spirit behind their tenure, still has possibility.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/)
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