“Politics is addition” adage corrupts

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

AFTER all the dizzying posturing in the past weeks by all political wannabes in the local front, the first wave of political dust will finally settle down.

We will soon know who are in and who are out but in all likelihood, thanks to the misplaced multi-party system in the country, all of them will file their certificates of candidacies. Between the NP, LP, Lakas-Kampi, PMP and NPC, there are just too many slots to fill!

The tragedy of the whole political exercise is that in determining political affiliation, no political ideologies matter. It all simply boils down to the political parties needing to fill in the blanks.

This reality was dramatized by former senator Serge Osmeña who at presstime withdrew his inclusion in the LP senatorial ticket to protest the surprise inclusion of former Sen. Ralph Recto in the ticket.

He maintained that Recto’s inclusion was in violation of the party’s pledged reform program. Recto was a GMA loyalist until he resigned his post as NEDA director, Osmena averred. Of course, Osmena’s position shocked the trapos in his party who found absolutely nothing wrong with Recto’s inclusion. Why shouldn’t they be? Trapos’ political mantra is: Politics is addition, no matter what motives or principles are involved.

It’d be interesting to see who among the GMA hard core loyalists in Pangasinan will also jump ship for a “reform” repackaged image or over their failure to be named official candidates of Lakas-Kampi.

Will a “Serge Osmeña” in our midst rise to the occasion?

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EMPOWERED COMMUNITIES VS. GIMMICKRY. Before the political circus (campaign period) starts, there is a great opportunity for civic, religious and media groups to make a difference in their own communities.

The period between the filing of candidacies and the official start of the campaign prevents candidates from campaigning using forums and media. Hence, for candidates, it’s time to complete their campaign organization and prepare campaign materials but for voters, it will be a long lull. The campaign ban creates a void in the air while suspense on the outcome of the campaign permeates throughout because there’s largely nothing to do.

But there is, nobody simply wants to take the initiative.

The reason why discussion of platforms of candidates during the campaign period was never taken seriously by both candidates and voters was because voters never really understood the underlying issues and ramifications of governance. Both simply went through the motion of paying lip service to everything about the campaign, as people would regard entertainment.

The long lull, therefore, presents a window of opportunity to educate and sensitize voters on critical campaign issues, minus the voices of the candidates themselves. The civic, religious and media groups can use the period to organize forums in the communities to debate and discuss issues like the reproduction health bill, local peace and order, health environment and corruption issues, illegal gambling, etc. using members of the academe and non-government groups as resource persons. What such forums cannot do is to invite the candidates and their spokesmen as participants.

An empowered community that understands the campaign issues is one giant step towards genuine reforms in the country.

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PIA IN TOWN. The long overdue interaction between the local media, the womenfolk and Senator Pia Cayetano finally took place last Thursday.

What apparently grabbed her audience’s attention was her advocacy to make people understand laws to defend themselves against exploitation and arrogance of those in power.

In the ensuing interaction, she cited the faulty decision of Comelec in denying Ang Ladlad’s application for accreditation as a partylist, and the provisions of the law on anti-violence against women and children. Her grasp of the laws pertinent to her advocacies, namely, health, environment and women issues demonstrated her level of commitment to these, an outlook in life that she said was an influence from her father, the late Sen. Rene Cayetano.

Unknown to many, she was principal and co-author of the cheaper medicines law, hospital detention law, renewable energy act, the anti-violence against women and children act, magna carta of women, among others

Then, the active involvement of Councilor Farah Decano in women issues was not lost to the senator and quickly indicated her wish to involve the former in her advocacy activities. I agree, Farah will be a great asset to her programs.

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BATTLING THE ILLEGAL FISH PEN OPERATORS. First, Wonder of all wonders, the Dagupan City Council in 2003 passed an ordinance requiring compliance but omitted a penalty clause for violators. Duh?

Then, there’s the revelation that a number of the fish pen operators (legal and illegal) are armed! Paging Smiley PD Barba and Dagupan Chief Sonny Verzosa! You don’t have to look elsewhere for the illegal firearms, just check out the fish pens in the city.

Then somebody ought to tell Liga ng mga Barangay president Lino Fernandez to keep his mouth shut and stop defending suspected illegal activities of his peers. The more he denies and defends them, the more credible the suspicions of them become.

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