Change Comelec to Coselec

By Al S. Mendoza

THERE is this new Comelec ruling riling one senatorial candidate no end.

The rule, really, is as crazy as a rule preventing Steph Curry to stop firing threes because it is so easy for him to bury those shots.

Of course, that rule does not exist in the NBA.

And Curry can go on doing the thing that he does best: Fire three-pointers that usually make his team, the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors, a winner.

Why, indeed, punish someone so good at performing his chosen craft?

Only a fool would do such an idiotic act.  

Now, what is this latest ruling by the Comelec that has gotten the goat of Romy “MacaRomy” Macalintal, the no-nonsense candidate for senator whose love for our senior citizens is beyond compare?

Now don’t collapse, please?

It’s this:  The Comelec wants all our barangay chairmen nationwide to stop campaigning in the run-up to the May elections.

Is there any crazier policy than that?

Said Macalintal, himself an expert election lawyer for the longest time:  “If the President of the Philippines can campaign for his chosen bets, why can’t our barangay chairmen do the same?”

What makes the President different from your barangay chairman, anyway?

Weren’t they both elected by the people?

By that very fact alone, they had campaigned before they got elected.

Why can’t your barangay chairman not campaign for his candidates while the President can?

Where is the logic there?

If there is a provision for that in the Constitution, then I submit.

But there is none.  And that makes the Comelec’s case more sickening than the sight of Enrile returning to the Senate.

Eerie, to say the least. 

Or Eerie Enrile?  Kadiri?

Anyway, the Comelec has done us so much harm already that nothing surprises me anymore.

For the longest time, it’s been inflicting on us toothless rules.

Like prohibiting posters/tarps to be hung/pasted/nailed on trees or electric posts.

Does the Comelec own the trees and Meralco posts in the first place?

Next, the Comelec loves to order its men to remove the posters/tarps.

Do Comelec personnel also double as carpenters?

If there’s a government agency that wastes a lot of money during every election, it’s the Comelec.

It allots a lot of money dismantling posters/tarps.

That’s our money being spent there.

On this, does the COA (Commission on Audit) ever audit the Comelec at all?

The Comelec has penalties and fines for violations of its rules, including a candidate’s overspending.

Have you ever seen even a single candidate getting penalized, fined, before, during and after the elections?

Will Comelec never get tired of doing absurdities?

I think it’s about time Congress imposed penalties against Comelec itself for creating crazy rules.

Better yet abolish Comelec and in its place the Coselec (Commission on Selections).

By its very name, the Coselec will have a select platoon of learned men and women tasked to select sensible solutions on how to conduct peaceful, orderly and a hitch-free election process.

Out with long queues on election day.

Out with the gobbledygook gigs like tearing up “illegal” posters/tarps, penalizing/fining candidates that overspend.

They are nothing but an exercise in futility, a waste of people’s money.

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