“Will the May elections truly reflect the people’s will?”
What does the 1987 Constitution say about the ideal conduct of our elections? It enumerates five key elements: it should be free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible.
For elections to be free, it should be inclusive, for both candidates and voters. The qualifications for both are clearly laid out in the fundamental law. But the ideal of free elections would be compromised if there are candidates who are allowed to run for national and local positions even if they are not qualified; for instance, if they have pending criminal cases. By the same token, those who claim to be Filipino citizens but in fact have become citizens of another country are disqualified from exercising their right of suffrage.
For elections to be orderly, decisions and rulings of the Commission on Elections on various aspects of the electoral process should be clearly explained to the public. Confusion reigns, for instance, when voters cannot find their names in voting centers on Election Day. For elections to be honest, the Comelec should investigate reports of vote-buying and other election offenses, such as misrepresentation by candidates in their certificates of candidacy, or when voters claim to be residents of the place where they will vote when in fact they reside elsewhere.
For elections to be peaceful, authorities, particularly the Philippine National Police, should dismantle private armies in the employ of corrupt and power-hungry politicians who seek to win in the polls at all costs. The PNP has already identified a number of election hotspots where intense political rivalry could erupt in intimidation and violence before, during and after the elections. They should now crack down on private armed groups that seek to subvert the electoral process through the barrel of the gun on behalf of greedy politicians.
And for elections to be credible, the Comelec leadership should consist of people of unsullied integrity and chosen on the basis of track record and proven competence. The Comelec as presently constituted is composed of Duterte appointees. Observers challenge its impartiality precisely because the poll body’s commissioners appear to have been chosen by the Chief Executive hardly on the basis of competence and integrity but on other considerations.
Given all this, do you think the May 2022 elections will truly reflect the people’s will and be truly free and fair?
Or will it be another political exercise marked by the dominance of guns, goons and gold, not to mention an army of trolls paid to spread misinformation and falsehoods in both mainstream and social media?
In other words, an election that will be a free-for-all where personalities rather than platforms rule, where political dynasties will seek to maintain their hold on political and economic power through means more foul than fair, and where our cherished democratic system sinks to its lowest depths than ever before.
Criminal negligence
Whose fault is it that 27 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines remain unused even as they are due to expire in July this year?
Is it the Department of Health (DOH) or the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF)?
Or both?
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon raised this question last week and chastised both the DOH and the IATF for “criminal neglect” for allowing the COVID-19 vaccines, worth no less than P13 billion, to go to waste if they remain unused.
“More than two years into the pandemic, the IATF still manages to mismanage the government’s response to the pandemic. It is unconscionable that the vaccines that were purchased through loans could end up in the garbage,” Drilon said.
“It is criminal neglect if they let that happen. I’d like to remind the DOH and the IATF that it is Juan dela Cruz who will pay for these vaccines,” the lawmaker said.
According to the last-term senator , at P500 per dose, the government would be throwing away P13.5 billion if the 27 million doses would not be administered within the next three months.
Worse, the purchase of millions of COVID-19 vaccines from abroad has raised the country’s debt from P9 trillion pre-pandemic to P12 trillion as of February this year. That’s not peanuts.
The money spent for the unused vaccines could have been used instead to augment the assistance for public utility vehicle drivers and operators affected by the runaway increase in fuel prices, or those living on the margins of society.
While COVID-19 pandemic has yet to be brought under control—a new Omicron sub-variant has been discovered by scientists—the national government cannot let its guard down and instead step up vaccination efforts despite the election fever now sweeping the country.
The IATF and the DOH should do their jobs in the next three months or else they would send P13.5 billion down the drain.
(Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)