EDITORIAL - Raising the bar

The filing of certificate of candidacy for the May 2010 national elections kicked off last Friday without a bang. No political heavyweights went to the Commission on Elections to file their candidacy.

There were indeed a couple of early birds. On the local front, only controversial businessman Crisologo Saavedra wasted no time in going to the city Comelec office to file his candidacy.    

In the national level, at least four persons filed their certificate of candidacies for president. However, these early birds are running for some weird reasons.

One said his candidacy is anchored on his environmental advocacies. He explained he is not expecting the people to vote for him but that the nature will help him win the presidency.

Another one, seemingly acting as modern-day messiah, stressed that God has sent him to be the next president. Another one said he would surely win the presidency and once his terms ends, he has another urgent thing to do, which is to replace Barack Obama as United States president.

These are the kinds of personalities that would normally swarm the Comelec in early days of the filing period. Unfortunately, the poll body cannot bar them from filing their candidacies. They have their constitutional rights to run.

The problem, however, is that they are not capable of waging a nationwide campaign. That is why the Comelec would eventually cancel their candidacies on grounds of their being nuisance bets.

Since the Philippines is a free country, anyone is free to run for president as long he or she could read and write, and must be at least 40 years old. However, these two prime requirements have been abused for decades.

That any scavenger can run for president as long as he or she completes those two requirements only tells the world that there must be something wrong with the way the country holds its electoral exercises.

 Elections are supposed to be sacred in a democratic country such as the Philippines. Given their sacredness, only quality candidates for the highest post in the land should be allowed to file their candidacies.