Early campaigning

Do you think it is still too early to campaign for 2010? Well, the candidates do not think so. Let us take note of the diverse ways and styles of these early campaigners.

It is easy to point out who would like to run for national positions. Their constituency may be in Metro Manila but their posters and their ads are all over the country.

You see their faces, you hear their voices. They may not be directly saying yet vote for me but come on, only those who choose to be blind and deaf cannot see and hear their obvious, urgent motive to be remembered come election time. Never mind if that is still two years away.

These candidates are banking on "familiarity and recall" on the part of the voters. The more you see them, the more you remember them. The more you remember them, the easier it will be to vote for them and to actually put their names on the ballots.

Over-eager candidates think familiarity and recall will work in their favor in 2010. Do Filipino voters think like these over-eager candidates? Or do you think the voters may react differently? Do you think voters will instead reject the over-exposed candidates and prematurely early campaigners? Why do you think infrastructural projects like bridges, buildings and roads are favorites of incumbent politicians? Well, everyone's talking about their cut for every project. Apart from that, however, the infrastructural projects bear their faces, their names.

Remember all those slogans that start as "This is a project ( priority in some cases) of….You can be sure that those who adopt or have adopted this practice do not intend to be in office only for a term.

In a country whose elections are known for vote-buying, traditional politicians and early campaigners know they need grease early enough to oil their smooth path to power, to buy loyalty and votes for 2010.

We are all witness to the ongoing exposés and warnings about congressional and senate budget insertions. We are told that if the politicians bloat the funds for 2009 this year, it will not be obvious that the extra budget insertions (millions of pesos, of course) are intended for the 2010 elections. We are told that the politicians just have to make sure that the 2009 funds can be released to extend till 2010. Any budget insertions done in 2009 will be obviously linked to the 2010 campaign. Bloat the budget a year before elections but release the funds only near elections, then those who will use this method can always rationalize, without shame, that these were the 2009 funds belatedly released!

Then, you have early campaigners who make sure they are in every major event that hits the headlines! If it is a calamity, they are there. If there is a war, they are there as well. If there are Filipinos in trouble, expect them there as well!

Oh, that they who pose for every major plague and trouble with the victims may be just as available after winning the 2010 elections!

The wise Filipino voter may wish to take note of all these early campaigners, check out their deeds and performance, not their photo-ops and other multi-media blitz. The wise Filipino voter may wish to check out those who are truly genuine public servants among the early campaigners by their lifestyles and programs of action, proposed and implemented. The wise voter may also wish to check out their budget performance and transparency. And yes, why not include their record related to the protection of the marginalized and the natural environment?

And if, among the early campaigners, the wise voters find no one who can meet the standard of a true, genuine, honest public servant, then the wise voters can still have the time to start scouting around, to start organizing to ensure only their real choices assume the posts of genuinely elected public servants in 2010. Not only the politicians need be the only early campaigners. The wise voters can be among those early campaigners who will ensure clean, honest elections of genuine, honest, public servants in 2010.

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