Wallowing in abject comedy
By Al S. Mendoza
OK, class, listen up.
Why do some people run for public office?
Sometimes too many hopefuls are brave—crazy?—enough to make the plunge.
Have I not said here a while back that 97 souls are running for president in the May 2022 election?
What drives one to tackle the uncountable problems of 110 million Filipinos?
One presidential dreamer wishing to file his certificate of candidacy (CoC) was clad in army fatigue, a patch on his left chest read: “CPP-NPA.”
I wonder why he wasn’t accosted, arrested, by the slew of cops assigned to man the entrance leading to the Comelec registration hall at Hotel Sofitel in Pasay City.
He wasn’t red-tagged? Not a commie, but rather, a comedian?
Another wannabe, after submitting his CoC, climbed the rostrum to say that if he gets elected president, he will eliminate hunger by forcing the wealthy to make the poor rich.
Yet another, a lady surnamed Marcos, took the microphone to say, “Kung gusto rin niyang tumakbo, problema niya iyan.” (If he [obviously referring to Marcos Jr.] also wants to run, that’s his problem.)
As we all know, Marcos Jr., the son of the late Ferdinand the dictator-author of martial law from 1972-1986, did file his CoC without the benefit of having a vice presidential bet.
That added to the circus atmosphere ushering in the presidential election fever happening once every six years.
Finally at Sofitel still, Bato dela Rosa, obviously piqued by a reporter’s query implying that the senator’s presidential bid smacked of mockery, shot back: “Do I look like a mockery to you? I finished fifth (among 12 senators) in 2016, garnering 19 million-plus votes! Is that mockery to you?”
Not to me. He looks more like a clown than anything. He is clean-shaven, to begin with.
Never in the history of Philippine politics has our electoral season been so funnily weird than today.
And, in case you have overlooked, all this brouhaha is a result of rules that allow candidates to wallow in abject comedy.
Like, an incumbent can always run for a higher position. When he loses, he serves the remaining years of his original position.
One has a party and yet, he runs as an independent.
Top officials under the same party bicker over leadership, some getting expelled in the process after running under a different party.
The dictator’s son said he was running to “restore the legacy of my father.”
And yet, he dumps the party founded by his dictator-father to run in another party that is as unknown as the unknown soldier.
And who are those two ladies forming a tandem to run for president and vice president—only to be declared by their party president as mere “place-holders?”
Meaning, they are just holding places reserved for others who may wish to finally run and take their places come the November 15 deadline for filing of CoC.
Now, isn’t that real mockery to you?
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