Going in circles

The appointment of Iligan City judge Moslemen Macarambon to the Commission on Elections, and the swift condemnation of the appointment by critics of the appointing power, reflect the state of affairs in a country torn apart by too much politicking.

While Macarambon is clearly qualified for the job, his appointment still smacks of an attempt to appease and please certain sectors, as clearly there are a lot of other potential appointees just as qualified but who are decidedly more neutral, at least in appearance.

On the other hand, the swift condemnation of his appointment by the political opposition clearly smacks of the bias it has against the administration. The opposition is unwilling to give Macarambon a chance. It is just opposing for the sake of opposing.

In such a situation, this country will never move forward. We have been reduced to two men on a boat, each paddling in a different direction. If we move at all, we can only go around in circles.

Of course the politicians who are responsible for this state of affairs could not care less. Whichever way the boat turns, it always turns in their direction. That is because they are only paddling for their own.

Actually, if only the affairs of state in this country had not been overly politicized, and the Comelec had not been tampered with by the politicians to suit their own interests, any appointee to the poll body would have sufficed on the basic standards required.

But now, because every move and countermove is suspect, not even an angel from heaven will be good enough to sit in the Comelec, or any other government agency suspected of being prone to manipulation, for that matter.

What make the situation doubly sad is that, while the Comelec as an institution has been tarnished, the many men and women who make up the bulk of its manpower are doing their jobs creditably well.

The ordinary men and women who man the many offices of the poll body nationwide are by and large insulated by the perceived manipulation by influential politicians. They just do their jobs the way the public expects them to do.

But their sacrifices often go in vain because they are lumped together with the whole body because of the suspicious nature with which some of its highly-placed officials carry on their relationships with politicians.

The bad impression generated by this perception rubs off on the rest of the workforce, unduly, unnecessarily and unfairly tarnishing everyone. In turn, this make for low morale and disgruntlement.

On a larger scale, there is almost no one anymore who can be appointed to the upper echelons of the Comelec who will not be immediately suspected of any variety of things, almost all of which have something to do with politics.

It may take a very long while for the Comelec to recover, if it can, the image it used to have before politicians started to soil it with their dirtiness. Consequently, with a Comelec so tarnished, all electoral results will also be necessarily suspect.

In the end, this is not good for everybody - the ordinary folk, the ordinary Comelec employees and lower-ranked officials, the whole nation. The case of Macarambon is an example. He has not even warmed his seat but his seat is already soiled, and not of his own making.