Punchline
The common lawbreakers
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
NOW that all the trees, electric posts, walls, fences and bridges in the province have been vandalized and defaced by irresponsible ‘posterers’ of local candidates, people are waiting to see what Comelec and the candidates themselves are going to do about the situation.
Will Comelec continue to turn a blind eye and pretend nobody is violating its rules? Will the candidates who promise good governance today, allow their pictures and names to serve as daily reminders to the electorate that they will break the law when it’s convenient for them? Will our barangay kapitans appear as a bunch of ignoramus who never heard of the law on postering and vandalism?
The candidates cannot disavow knowledge of their ‘posterers’ irresponsible activities because it is they who provide the posters and pay the latter in return for a guaranteed “high visibility”.
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Nobody can argue the good intent of making candidates sign a peace covenant. But sadly, I note that most if not all the covenants signed by candidates in towns and cities do not call attention to the flagrant violation of the provision defining the rules on postering and propaganda when it is this activity that is rampantly violated by all candidates daily from day 1!
By implicitly tolerating candidates to violate the most basic and foremost law on propaganda and political campaign, who can blame the candidates for their perception that the covenant signing is mere ‘palabas’ to score some brownie points? Until the organizers themselves immediately take the erring candidates to task for flouting the rules and the law on campaigning, the signed covenant only gives a false sense of security and assurance that all candidates will observe legal means to win an election.
The election registrars, local police, the religious and the civic groups in the communities who initiated the covenant signing would do well to send the signal that they mean business by seeing to the strict enforcement of the rules on postering themselves.
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Someone ought to tell our gullible candidates that having their names and faces plastered on every electric pole and tree never translates to votes. One poster installed in one supporter’s house within a 50-meter radius is enough to remind voters or be remembered that he or she is a candidate. The common poster areas far and between are meant to serve that purpose.
What translates to votes is not the poster, or the photo-shopped pictures of candidates but the voter’s perception of the character of the candidate. A candidate gets votes because he/she is “mabait”, “magaling”, “nakikisama”, “madaling lapitan” certainly not by thousands of posters.
What ‘campaign postering’ has achieved mainly over the years is its notoriety as a nuisance activity that has become a big business for those who dare violate the law and get away with it. It is they who make candidates believe that they cannot get elected if they don’t have “high visibility”, yet believe it or not, the candidates take the bait!
For the chance to win through “high visibility”, the gullible candidates spend hundreds of thousands for posters not realizing they are being taken for a ride. I say they would have better chances of getting elected by following the example of Dagupan’s GAB team on its launch day – serving hot breakfast to a community. Imagine how many hot breakfasts can be served by a budget intended for a thousand tarpaulins. (But sadly, the GAB team’s postering in the city by its hired-hands is also definitely an overkill).
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As I’m sure there are candidates who’d like to be known as truly law-abiding and environmentally sensitive, our electorate would like to see them rise to the occasion this time and lead the movement to spare our beautiful trees and public infrastructures from further despoliation and defacement for the duration of the campaign period…and if elected, to strictly enforce ordinances against vandalism.
Those who would personally direct the removal of their own posters and their other illegally installed propaganda materials from our damaged trees, defaced walls, posts and bridges will be genuinely applauded by a tired and frustrated public.
It is they who would have the moral ascendancy to make political vandalism a major campaign issue labeling those who persist in violating the law as no different from other common lawbreakers who ought to be in jail.
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IMPENDING FISH KILL. Reports of fish kill around the country are increasing. If the trend continues, the likelihood of a fish kill in rivers blotted with fish pens and cages like those that traverse Dagupan to Bolinao is high.
Officials of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources have already warned that the fish kill will happen when the oxygen in the water is depleted due to rising temperature and little rainfall.
At the rate fish pen operators in the province have been stocking their fish pens, and the aggressive feeding they are employing, we can expect oxygen to deplete faster than the arrival of the first sign of rain to fall to replenish the oxygen. If the fisheries officials in central and western towns don’t act with dispatch, millions will again be lost, and fish prices will escalate after the dumping of the lost stock on account of fish kill.
When will we ever learn?
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