Candidates urged to shun "negative campaigning"

CEBU, Philippines - The Dilaab Foundation Inc. appeals to candidates to avoid the practice of mudslinging when holding campaigns and proclamation rallies.

“If there are issues that need to be answered, negative campaigning is not necessary,” said Fr. Carmelo Diola, overall coordinating steward of Dilaab Foundation Inc. specifically referring to candidates and political parties whose strategy is maligning rival candidates to woo people to vote them.

This is the same call of the Malacañang to all candidates for a clean campaigning, said Press Undersecretary Gary Olivar.

Olivar has requested candidates to stop defaming the current administration especially President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo since she is no longer running for president.

Instead, Diola said, candidates should focus on following the correct and righteous way of campaigning like presenting to the people with all honesty what they can do for the betterment of the country and live as true Christians.

The church explained that patronage politics during elections here has always been the original sin of “graft and corruption” which is manifested in two different perspectives, the candidate’s perspective and the voter’s perspective.

Under the candidate’s perspective, Diola explained the principles of candidates are to win at all cost, and that election is a business or an investment.

He added that under voter’s perspective and where voters have gone wrong, is the mentality of choosing only the “lesser evil” which does not show any effort to discern before casting their precious votes.

“Ang practice diri sa atoa, ang mga kandidato, modagan para makaserbisyo. Unya, para makalingkod, daghang pahalipay that’s why it is considered an investment and once they are elected, they need to acquire their capital back also by all means,” Diola stressed.

He said that even if this has been part of the culture, he insisted that these are just values that people learned once upon a time and what they can unlearn or change into the better.

“There is still hope. In various surveys that we have examined, one question indicated that 79 percent of the respondents still have conscience. Pero nganong di man nato ma-translate into reality?” 

He said the missing link in translating people’s good thoughts is only to develop a correct mechanism on how they could best exercise their conscience in choosing the right candidate to run the government.

The Dilaab Foundation, through the Circles of Discernment for Elections (CIDE), is trying to help people make up their mind and guide them through the process of discerning the characteristics of a leadership they are looking for.

“The challenge of faith-impelled nation building is to come up with answers to the questions, ingun-ani na lang ba ta? Makadamgo pa ba ta? Unsa’y angay na buhaton aron makab-ot nato ang atong damgo? What kind of citizens should we be and what qualities of leadership are we looking for?” Diola said, adding that candidates are the ones who need to adjust in the characteristics that people want. “We must not only accept what they are trying to offer us.”

During the previous CIDE that they have held in various dioceses across the country, the participants said they would likely vote for bets who have characteristics such as God-fearing candidate, with proven integrity, service-oriented, competent and must be pro-life.

“Remember that these characteristics did not come from us. This is the voice of the people,” Diola said.

The Dilaab Foundation, as part of their CIDE, has already conducted two recollections for local candidates in Cebu. The first recollection was attended by 11 candidates while the second was attended by 12.

There will be another recollection in April where Dilaab will again invite all parties and candidates. “We will continue to reach out to them. If they come, we will be very happy,” Diola said.

Dilaab also conducted a seminar for the members of the media yesterday and it aims to repeat the same activity sometime this month or in April as part of its campaign to educate and explain the objectives of the group. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/WAB (THE FREEMAN)