Moral scrupples? Stay clear of politics

If you think all those “Type O” posters sprouting like mushrooms all over Cebu City constitute early campaigning for Tomas Osmeña, you are absolutely right. It is early campaigning if there was one.

But what the heck. It is not as if the Filipino nation is oblivious to the fact that the very first day in office of an elected public official also marks the official start of his bid for reelection.

Almost every act of on elective official is a campaign for reelection. If there is one thing that can be said for those controversial “Type O” posters, they are at least out in the open. The attempt at subtlety is but a tease. Nothing is as out in the open as a goddam poster.

I agree with lawyer Frank Malilong. Instead of Mayor Michael Rama taking offense at the posters that are clearly meant to promote the bid of former mayor Tomas Osmeña to retake City Hall, he should do Osmeña one better by crafting his own. “Rated R” is what Malilong suggests.

There is no holding Rama back from campaigning on his own. Besides, as I said, it is a perfectly understood given that every politician almost always tries to promote himself. And since the goal of every politician is to get elected, then such acts are all acts of campaigning.

That is how politics is played in this country. And that is why I can almost puke at the self-righteousness and uncompromising stance of Senator Koko Pimentel, who claims his principles make it revolting for him to stand on the same platform with former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri.

In the 2007 elections, Pimentel and Zubiri fought tooth and nail for the final 12th slot for the Senate. Zubiri won by the skin of his teeth but Pimentel protested, claiming he was in fact cheated of victory.

Zubiri countered that while he may have benefitted from the alleged cheating, he was not a party to it. Hounded by the allegations, Zubiri eventually resigned and Pimentel took over what was left of his term.

Now, because of the vagaries of politics, a scenario emerged that would have Pimentel and Zubiri on the same slate of the newly-formed United Nationalist Alliance or UNA, a merger of the forces of Vice President Jejomar Binay and former president Erap Estrada.

 Pimentel balked. How can he stand beside the man he claims cheated him. Now, I have absolutely nothing against that principle. To me, it is admirable and inspiring to see it in a man and I will always respect anyone who remains committed to such an enlightened stance.

But Pimentel cannot talk selectively about principle, such as when the subject is Zubiri, and completely ignore the big picture in which he himself is so much a part of, having chosen as his profession the same politics that made cheating not only possible but practically universal.

In case you have not noticed, Pimentel has been very busy doing the rounds these days, making himself available for media interviews and criss-crossing the country in furtherance of advocacies that you and I can smell from far away as having the smell of politics.

I am bringing this up because this jibes perfectly with the original subject of this column, which is about early campaigning. Pimentel can deny his way to kingdom come, but the spike in his activities cannot but point to only one direction — reelection.

Early campaigning is not vote-cheating. But it is cheating nevertheless because it jumps the gun, not only on everyone else but on the system of campaigning itself, no matter how infirm and impractical that system might be.

So what principle is Pimentel talking about? And if I may hasten to add, Pimentel wore a yellow shirt under his jacket in a recent TV interview. Maybe it was just coincidence. But hey, this is politics where anything goes. Not the place for principles. Moral scrupples? Get out!