No respect for Comelec

“We don't need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful.”

—Taylor Swift

By Alex P. Vidal

IT’S not only Bongbong Marcos Jr. who has showed an apparent attitude of disrespect for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) by ignoring the scheduled debates sponsored by the poll body in April.

Bongbong’s rivals appeared to have followed suit.

Like the former senator and son of the late strongman Ferdinand Sr., other presidential candidates also “boycotted” the Comelec panel interview on May 1.

Of course they offered different excuses to justify their absence, but we all know they probably wanted to send this curt message: when Bongbong wasn’t around in the past debates, nothing bad happened to his survey numbers, so why do we have to belabor ourselves?

For lack of a punitive measure, the Comelec couldn’t compel any candidate to attend the debates, panel interview, and whatever remaining public forum before May 9.

Everything was on voluntary basis in as far as activities hosted by the Comelec related to the presidential election was concerned. 

No coercion. No threat of disqualification. No penalty. Not even a reprimand.

Comelec is the most powerful government office during the election, but it has no teeth to compel candidates to join their election-related activities. 

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If Bongbong, who claimed he had prior schedules ahead of the debates and panel interview, didn’t display a haughty attitude towards the Comelec debates form the beginning, Vice President Leni Robredo, Mayor Isko Moreno, and Senator Ping Lacson wouldn’t have ignored the remaining programs arranged by the Comelec prior to Election Day.

In their thinking, if Bongbong could “get away with the snub” what and who will prevent us from doing the same?

Thus it became a case of “follow the leader” when they, too, dodged the panel interview, which was supposed to be the last leg of the scheduled Comelec debates before the cancelation of the other scheduled debate last month.

All the hullabaloo boiled down to one thing: they have no respect for the Comelec. 

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IT’S not only Iloilo City Vice Mayor Jeffrey Ganzon who has chosen a different candidate for president other than the one being campaigned for by Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Trenas and Senator Franklin Drilon.

There are others in the slate, those running for city councilor—reelectionists and newcomers—who have picked other presidential candidates and would silently vote for their respective bets. 

For instance, a reelectionist city councilor who had expressed admiration for Pacquiao both as a boxer and as a politician, until today still considers the former world boxing champion as his “idol.”

“I can’t openly say it because we are committed to support (Vice President) Leni Robredo, but my vote goes to Pacquiao,” the reelectionist city councilor told a former colleague in the industry that made him famous before he entered politics.  

A neophyte candidate, a mestizo Chinese, who got lucky to be included in the slate of Trenas also confided to a former classmate, a balikbayan, that he will vote for Senator Ping Lacson.

“He (the neophyte candidate) admires Lacson even when the senator was still a PNP chief. The Chinese community likes Lacson because he helped rescue many victims of kidnapping-for-ransom in Manila and managed to return the ransom intact,” the balikbayan former classmate informed this writer.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

No more excitement

“We're all going to change. Otherwise, it's boring.”

—Alicia Keys

By Alex P. Vidal

ALTHOUGH they won’t complain, most of the presidential and vice presidential candidates are now probably suffering from physical, emotional, and mental burnout after a series of lung-busting campaign sorties nationwide for several months now. 

Thus, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) made a wise decision to scrap the remaining town hall debates and will instead air pre-taped interviews of poll candidates.

Although the debates were initially set on April 23 and 24, some of the candidates appeared to be not anymore enthusiastic as they’re now brimming with excitement and suspense for the Election Day on May 9.

Even the public must’ve been bored already by the prolonged debates, which had been repeatedly snubbed by survey frontrunner Bongbong Marcos Jr.

Everyone now seems to be hellbent to expedite the clock if only to satisfy their suspended animation.

Some people are mainly excited to cast their votes with less than two weeks to go, and another debate among the contenders doesn’t excite them anymore; they have heard the same wrangling and showboating in the previous debates.

They have seen and heard some panelists grandstand; they have heard the same questions and monotonous answers; and whatever will transpire in the debates might not matter anymore as most voters have already decided.

The PiliPinas Debates 2022 Series’ concluding event was supposedly scheduled on April 30 and May 1 after it was postponed over payment issues involving private firm Impact Hub Manila, which organized the previous debates. 

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Like in the Philippines, the top protagonists in the recent presidential election in France were a man and a woman.

In France, it was a man who beat a woman in a tension-filled runoff.

In the Philippines two weeks from now, will Marcos duplicate the victory? Or will Vice President Leni Robredo reverse the situation?

Days ago, it looked like reelectionist President Emmanuel Macron would be toppled by firebrand populist Marine Le Pen before the runoff, holding the woman challenger at bay by slim margin. 

On April 24, 44-year-old Macron, a centrist, comfortably secured a second five-year term, triggering relief among allies that the nuclear-armed power won’t abruptly shift course in the midst of the war in Ukraine from European Union and NATO efforts to punish and contain Russia’s military expansionism.

Macron spared France and Europe from the seismic upheaval of having Le Pen at the helm, who quickly conceded defeat but still scored her best-ever electoral showing.

Acknowledging that “numerous” voters cast ballots for him simply to keep out the fiercely nationalist far-right Le Pen, Macron pledged to reunite the country that is “filled with so many doubts, so many divisions” and work to assuage the anger of French voters that fed Le Pen’s campaign.

“No one will be left by the side of the road,” Macron said in a victory speech against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower and a projection of the blue-white-and-red tricolor French flag as quoted by Reuters.

He was cheered by several hundred supporters who happily waved French and EU flags.

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WE ARE STILL SUPERIOR. Human brains are smarter than creatures whose brains are larger than ours in absolute terms, such as the killer whales, as well as those animals whose brains are larger than ours in relative terms, such as shrews. 

Thus, the size alone does not explain the uniqueness of the human mind.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)