Media put to a test in May 10 elections

Dirty Tricks:

Who is making sure that the dirty tricks being employed in the ongoing election campaign do not spin out of control and make it difficult for the winner to bind the wounds and pull back the nation to sanity after May 10?

There must be a way to ensure that despite the unrelenting black propaganda and the low blows now being thrown with abandon, the pain and bitterness of the loser do not linger after the winner is proclaimed.

The Commission on Elections should take control and referee this fight with competence and authority. But judging from its performance as a damaged institution, it may not be able to perform the crucial role assigned to it by the Constitution.

Where do we turn to?

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Mind-Conditioning: There is the Church. We also have people’s organizations and citizens watchdogs. Then there are media all over the place.

How do we goad these disparate sectors to move in concert to ensure that the May 10 elections — and the aftermath — will do justice to our being the region’s leading Christian nation and display-window of democracy?

Already, the public is being conditioned to think that dark elements are setting the stage for (1) massive cheating or (2) a failure of elections, allegedly to enable some politicians to stay in power beyond their legitimate terms.

But while suspicion is rife, there is no conclusive proof yet that such sinister plots exist or are being carried out.

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People Power: It is right to blow the whistle upon seeing signs of preparations for systematic cheating or the laying of the basis for a failure of election.

But there is a chance that if we gallop in the night to warn the populace even in the absence of proof, we may be unwittingly damaging beyond repair the electoral process and some institutions operating in good faith.

In the case of an alleged plot to cheat, planting suspicion in the public mind is fraught with danger. A poor loser may refuse to concede defeat and use this pre-sown notion of massive cheating to whip up some kind of people power to install himself in office.

This battered nation has grown so fragile that it could just break into pieces if after every major election, a sore loser and his followers take to the streets to claim a dubious victory.

In short, candidates should be careful about making reckless accusations that a massive electoral fraud is in the offing.

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Black Prop: On the matter of black propaganda, while repeated exposure to such a virus may have given the population a measure of immunity, the rising level of the virulence of the mudslinging may just exceed tolerance levels.

Knowing their politicians, people are ready to believe the worst said of them. This gullibility is exploited by master marketers of black propaganda, who just dish it out and gleefully watch it sink.

Who will say when black propaganda is just right or excessive? In this free-for-all, nobody tells anybody.

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Media Test: If it sets its collective mind to, mainstream media may be able to tamp down the mudslinging — instead of being a willing participant in the melee.

Every time accusations are hurled by one camp, it may be prudent for media to ask for proof — and then ask the other party for counter-proof. The process is slower, but it makes for cooler heads and more trustworthy news reports.

But suppose media men, some of them in conspiracy, are the ones peddling the black propaganda? That leads us to one dire conclusion: That if media do not watch out, they themselves may become victims of this dirty fight by dirty politicians.

After May 10, will media be still around with their credibility intact? If media will still be there, will they be covering another EDSA revolt and a series of failed governments? Are media part of the problem?

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What, 15% VAT?: It says here that Finance Secretary Margarito Teves plans to advise the next administration to raise the 12-percent Value-Added Tax to 15 percent, to help government meet obligations.

To ease the burden, Teves said the increase in VAT — which is a consumption tax — should come with a corresponding decrease in income tax.

This is good in theory: People’s income should not be taxed exorbitantly, but consumption which grows with the rise in a person’s purchasing power should be taxed correspondingly higher.

In practice, however, while VAT collection has gone up, it has not grown as high and as fast as desired because of many loopholes in the system.

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Drain Holes: The main drains in VAT collection revolve around people’s lack of trust in government because of the rampant corruption draining public coffers. Everybody knows that taxes are pocketed by thieves in the bureaucracy, so why pay?

Many consumers readily agree with merchants who do not bother to issue receipts and who pass on the savings to the buyers to generate more sales.

Another problem is that the merchants themselves are made agent-collectors of VAT. In case they collect it, many of them do not remit the tax to the treasury promptly, if they do at all.

Some P121.14 billion was raised from the VAT in 2008. In 2007, the collection was P88.93 billion.

But the leakages in collection have been estimated to run into billions. No serious effort has been exerted to plug the holes.

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