The circus is back!
PHILIPPINE elections have always been pejoratively compared to circuses. With the pomp and glamor that candidates bring with them when they file their certificates of candidacy, it is hardly expected they would turn their festive celebration into violent bitter confrontations and vicious mudslinging just weeks later.
More alarming yet is the way observers, view electoral exercises, especially in social media. Millennials who comprise a third of the registered voters, view serious issues as inconsequential ones and joke about them in text messages, often injecting hatred, distortion, and misinformation which become unconscious tools in misleading others from the true essence of a democratic exercise.
It does not take a college dude to realize that Philippine elections are rashly being pushed to the cliff. Instead of supporting and choosing people who possess the competence, commitments, brilliance, and leadership to bring us out of the abyss, we are fed with familiar faces whose claims to fame include their links to issues that deviate from the norms of ethics and morality.
What is more appalling is how many of the candidates are heralded as saviors and performers despite public knowledge that they have participated in violations that have downgraded or watered down the value of our
elections. Some are not just labeled plunderers but have also used revolting arguments to justify their dynastic alliances.
The circus is back but in disarray. Politicians have become more creative in using tools that deceive the electorate; some have become more arrogant and even blaspheme the Constitution. Save for a few who are running for really noble causes, the electoral circus may likely degenerate into distortion of issues, divisiveness, violence, and prostitution of our democracy.
The last Congress we had that hosted brilliant legislative minds was over 30 years ago. Today, we dwell on colors as if being identified with hues makes candidates so special. We even frolic at the thought that political dynasties are sources of silver bullets that provide the panacea to all the socio-economic deficiencies our country has been mired for so long.
Tragically, politicians have made ‘walang pakialam’ as a new normal in circumventing electoral laws. Not only is this easy to do given the dillydallying of the Commission on Elections; public insolence towards the electoral processes also creates stumbling blocks in choosing the kind of public servants we really need.