Ano ang karapatan ni Carmina para sabihan si Ruffa na huwag na nitong balikan pa si Yilmaz?

The problem with media today, we have become a party to the confusion done to our readers by giving conflicting reports about the last elections. First, we read and heard all those reports of armed goons roaming around, not just in the North of Cebu or in Cordova, but throughout the country as well. What about the news that seven soldiers was ambushed by the NPA who were guarding the polling place or that blank certificates of canvass (CoC) were stolen from a Comelec storage warehouse in Manila?

What about the news that poll watcher and teach Leticia Ramos (not the sister of former President Fidel V. Ramos) that her poll precinct in Tayasan, Batangas was burned by still unidentified men with bonnets, that caused her untimely death? There are many more similar reports of election fraud, thus we ask, how can media report that the May 14th elections was a peaceful or an orderly one?

We're not even referring to the numerous crimes done before the Election Day especially from candidates who violated election rules. Yet everyday we're getting new reports about election irregularities happening big time! Why don't we get into the brass tacks and call a spade a spade? This wasn't really a clean and honest election, with the exception of places like Cebu City and many other areas like the 1st or 2nd District of Cebu Province.

I read a newspaper report that foreign observers are gathering vote-buying claims in the 3rd district, even a public confession by Toledo City Mayor Dydee Zambo who admitted that all sides of the political fence bought votes. Let me just say that I salute Mayor Zambo for her courage in at admitting to something that Cebuanos already know, that many of us still sell our votes.

Yesterday noon I was driving along A.S. Fortuna St. and passed by the Norkis Trading compound. You can read the huge signs they have placed on their walls declaring to the voters not to sell their votes. That is quite a noble gesture by the Quisumbing Family to declare this as their commitment and have them plastered along their company walls. Alas, the reality is that, saying is one thing, but doing it is another.

While I was still stuck in traffic at the intersection and while I was reading those great slogans, I was also listening to radio DyAB and Bob Malazarte was interviewing a very passionate Mandaue City Mayoralty candidate, former Labor Arbiter Judge Vito Minoria who was obviously raging mad over his defeat, saying that all the candidates for Mandaue City Mayor from Jonas Cortes to Jonkie Ouano bought their votes. Minoria further said that there really was no election at all. It was like a bidding to the highest bidder! He said it was a "Bought" elections and the Comelec should declare the Mandaue City Mayoralty race as a total failure.

Minoria cried over the radio asking questions like, "How can the Quisumbings recover the hundreds of millions they must have spend to buy votes?" Here I was sitting in my car reading those slogans of "No Vote Buying" emblazoned on the walls along Norkis Trading while at the same time I'm hearing all these accusations alleged by Vito Minoria.

Wait-a-minute! Isn't vote buying the game of traditional politicians (Tradpol)? I find it hard to believe that Luigi Quisumbing who is a newcomer in Cebu politics would have allegedly resorted to tradpol tactics so early in the game. If I remember right, Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson once quipped about a man also new in politics (he was once a Senator of the land and has since lost his senatorial bid) that run or Councilor in Manila and Mayor Lacson said about this fellow, "he's so young and so corrupt!"

What is even sadder is the fact that no less than our dear friend,  Msgr. Roberto Alesna, spokesman of the Cebu Citizen's Involvement and Maturation in People Empowerment and Liberation (C-CIMPEL) admitted that they haven't gotten any such reports of alleged vote buying in the Archdiocese of Cebu. Surely C-Cimpel officials cannot close its eyes and ears to all the cries of fraud that we hear over the radio and gets reported on tv and newspapers? C-Cimpel ought to issue a statement on this problem!

*  *  *

I should be in Bantayan Island tomorrow upon the invitation of our dear friend, Environmental Activist Atty. Antonio Oposa who is opening the very unique School of the Seas. Unfortunately, things are still too "hot" there in Northern Cebu thanks to these very hotly contested elections, where even our closes friends, Mayor Geraline Escario of One Cebu Party fought a close fight with Mrs. Susan Pacheco with the Martinez Group. They're my wife Jessica's former schoolmates in Bantayan Island decades ago. So let me congratulate Tony Oposa for his advocacy in saving the Visayan Sea Triangle and preserve it for our future generation… for our children's children.

*  *  *

For email responses to this article, write to [email protected].