A Right and a Responsibility

With only about three months left to voting day, election fever is on the rise. There is no escaping it. Telltale signs are everywhere.

Television ads by official candidates and posturing wannabes, feigning as advocacy drives, are filling up the airwaves. Campaign posters-cum-calendar have started to mushroom on electric posts and open walls. Everyone is scrambling for exposure. Politicians and machineries are definitely hard at work.

But in the midst of all these, streamers have also been hoisted in Catholic churches all over the country, including here in vote-rich Pangasinan, with the message: “Walang hihingi. Walang tatanggap.”

Now that is a very welcome sight because it signals an involvement and it summons an awakening to responsibility.

As the banners indicate, it is an initiative of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), a national movement headed by the Catholic laity. The PPCRV is undeniably political, but it does aim to be non-partisan. And that is an example that will serve all other churches and religions well. Let’s maintain the separation of church and state; we must keep that boundary sacred. But church members, who are first and foremost citizens of this nation, do not have to be politically apathetic.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, one of the most outspoken and vigorous church leaders in the country, has himself repeatedly warned against the use of jueteng money to buy as well as sell votes.

A couple of weeks ago, an alliance was formed among the PPCRV, VOTECARE, the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP). Their intent is gargantuan but simple: Ensure an honest and free election in May. There must be, there should be strength in numbers – we have to put our faith in that. It is a force we intensely and urgently need considering the “Hello Garci” scam in the 2004 elections.

In a democratic country like ours, merely saying sorry, as what President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did, can never come close to  amending  such a colossal sin as messing with the people’s right to make their choice for their leader. And we don’t have to forgive her, much less forget – even if the mechanisms of our political system have allowed her to get away with it.

And so beyond putting our faith in the PPCRV-VOTECARE-Namfrel-IBP alliance, we need to act by throwing in our support and heeding their calls.

Voting is both a right and a responsibility. That right can only be meaningful if tied with the responsibility to choose well — not based on who can buy our vote with the highest price — and make sure that that choice is counted and respected.

As the PPCRV slogan goes: “Boto ko, dangal ko. Ipagtatanggol ko.”

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