Despite pandemic paranoia, time to focus attention on 2022 election for all the marbles

NOT WITH STANDING the pandemic paranoia and confusion, I submit it is time for the nation to turn its undivided attention in preparation for the general election next year.

The English idiom, “for all the marbles,” expresses my point vividly. It means “all possible prizes or rewards; or all the winnings, spoils, or rewards.”

One year hence, on Monday, May 9, 2022, our nation will hold the 2022 general election for the executive and legislative branches of the government — national, provincial and local, except for the barangay officials at local government level.

At the top of the ballot will be the election of the successors to President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo.

The election will encompass the following offices:

– 12 seats to the Senate;

– All 308 seats to the House of Representatives, all 247 seats from congressional districts and all 61 seats elected via the party-list system;

– All 81 governors and vice governors, and 780 seats to provincial boards in all provinces;

– All 1,634 mayors and vice mayors, and 13,546 seats to all city councils and municipal councils in all cities and municipalities.

This day is also the expected date of the first bangsamoro parliamentary election, as the Bangsamoro Transition Authority’s term ends on June 30, 2022.

This will also be the first election in Davao de Oro under that name as it was renamed from “Compostela Valley” in December 2019 after a successful plebiscite.

Transition to a new government

Philippine elections do not get bigger or more consequential than this. When the ballots are tabulated and the winners are proclaimed, a new president will lead the nation; a new legislature, the 19th Congress, will take over, and there will be a new set of governors and local officials across the length and breadth of the archipelago.

Strangely, however, despite the transcendent significance, there is no sense of excitement and intensity of feeling in the land today. There seems to be a mood of resignation to the inevitability of President Duterte’s departure from office in June next year. There is a tolling of goodbye to his unorthodox, vituperative and populist presidential style.

Who will run for president?

The May 9 election next year will set the seal on this transition.

But very big questions remain unanswered.

1. Who are the personages or leaders who really want to contest the prize of the Philippine presidency and are prepared to undergo the rigors of a presidential campaign?

2. Which political parties or coalitions will strive to win a majority of the seats in both the houses of Congress? Which have the organizations nationwide to meet such a challenge?

3. Which parties or coalitions will strive to gain control of the majority of local government units (LGUs) across the land?

The answers to these questions are inchoate because our political leaders have been rendered mute AND PETRIfiED BY THE PANDEMIC.

The political parties have no organizations or membership to speak of. The Muslim rebels and CPP-NPA are better organized for grassroots campaigning.

Seriously, however, pandemic or no pandemic, the nation must address the challenge of holding meaningful, free and fair elections next year. It must deliver a mandate that will guide the new government in leading the nation.

The nation must in no way leave its fate to the paranoid and inexperienced hands of the IATF, which will predictably try to prolong the pandemic up to the election so it can continue to hold power and control over people’s lives.

Exit from the pandemic

Other countries are holding their elections this year in preparation for their full exit from the pandemic. Others have come up with their plans to exit Covid.

In the United Kingdom, which recently faced a massive Covid surge and Covid variant, Prime Minister Boris Johnson now talks about the end of the viral outbreak in the country as early as June or July.

Among us, our vaccine czar and chief implementor, Carlito Galvez Jr. is trying to scare our people by raising the specter of another Covid surge in June.

Backward thinking

It is this kind of backward thinking and wrongheaded leadership that the 2022 elections must weed out from government and replace with a nononsense plan for governance.

I doubt whether there will be one candidate or party, which will advocate the retention of Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and the IATF.

We should encourage our most worthy and able politicians to seek high office. If their ambition soars toward the presidency, fine, but let him or her prove to us that they have the vision and the skills to do the job.

We should urge the political parties to rebuild and strengthen themselves. They should campaign among our people to sign up members. We should even pass a law to provide funds to help parties organize and become more effective.

Stern limits of time

Much sooner than our politicians realize, the time frame for a serious election campaign will fly away.

There is little time for the winnowing and nomination process that ordinarily sets up a candidate for a serous run for the presidency.

The season of passionate appeal to the electorate will be short.

There are a number of things that must be done to conduct a presidential campaign in an archipelago like the Philippines. The essential stages are:

1. Organization and planning. The campaign must be organized and planned. It must have links to a serious political party.

2. Grand opening; launch of candidacy. A campaign must open with a bang and grab the limelight and stay there.

3. Campaign adjustments — tactical adjustment and strategic adjustment. A good campaign makes adjustments to developments in the political situation. Sometimes it means needed change in policy positions.

A strategic adjustment means changes in the campaign effort beCAUSE OF DIFfiCULTIES ENCOUNTERED.

4. Time’s up stage. The last stage of the campaign, the final drive, the climax.

No more time for change in the campaign plan.

Of all the major forms of politics, electoral politics has the shortest time span.

Editor’s note: The Manila Times believes that the Sinovac vaccine is safe based on an overwhelming body of evidence. The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not REflECT THE VIEWS OF THIS NEWSPAPER.