Let’s have peaceful and orderly elections

Metro police chief Director Ricardo de Leon said that the current objective of his office is to achieve a zero election-related violent incidents. We hope that this can be achieved not only in the metropolis, but in the rest of the country.

So far, the election has been not only peaceful, but orderly, meaning there has been no name-calling among the candidates for office. The latest most significant news is that presidential aspirant Raul Roco left for the United States Tuesday night to seek treatment for a back ailment. People, of course, are speculating: If he is not healthy enough to campaign, is he healthy enough to serve as president? Health is the first freedom. We hope Roco follows the advice of his doctors. The other interesting item is Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s statement that he would resign as senator and retire from politics if he gets less than three million votes. His election as senator is totally independent from his candidacy as president. The people elected him to the senate for a fixed term and he should finish that term if he is not elected president.

As we said, the important thing is to have a peaceful and orderly elections. By peace, we mean liberty in tranquility, order based on law and justice. The real problem is not the elections; it is the local and foreign terrorists who may use the elections to maximize the damage caused by their nefarious acts. Terrorism is totally senseless. We hear of busses and places being bombed and the perpetrators never even acknowledge their act or even say why they are harming innocent people and destroying public and private property. They don’t make any demands. It’s evil for evil’s own sake.

Peace has been defined as the absence of war. But now there is no world war, but terrorism is a global problem. War is between two countries. Terrorism is against any individual. The war to end all wars did not materialize. You cannot even conceive of terror to end all terrorism. What we can eliminate are the terrorists. They should be identified, apprehended and tried in court; in short, be given the justice they denied their victims.

Our national concern should be this coming election. The public should insist that candidates present their programs of government. The election should be about issues – not personalities. What is important is not only what the individual candidate stands for, but his qualifications to serve in the office he seeks. And we mean, first and foremost is academic qualifications; next, experience. There is no substitute for those two. Certainly not media exposure.

It is true that most voters are swayed by feeling rather than reason. So what we call public opinion is generally public sentiment. How they feel about their favorite movie star cannot be applied to a presidential election. They are just two entirely different offices as a reward. It is not a reward. Going from private to public office is an increased responsibility. There are two things that truly determine the worth of an election – the quality of the candidates and the capacity of the voters.