Politicians, like job applicants, must be healthy

This much ado about the state of health of two prominent candidates in Cebu is both proper and necessary, but the manner it is being handled is becoming nasty, and, if you will, obnoxious. In a sense, these politicians are applying for a job. And the voters do constitute a body of jurors who are screening them, trying to know their true selves physically, intellectually emotionally, and mentally. Now that their health has been put forth as an election issue, let them, all of these candidates, for that matter, submit their medical certificates to be seen and assessed by the people. It is only just and reasonable that they submit indubitable evidence that they are in a state of good health. Any form of misrepresentation should be considered a serious election offense that could disqualify them from running.

Whether running for Senator, Congressman, Governor or Mayor, or even Barangay Chairman, any Filipino who wants to be voted upon should complete his credentials before being considered an official candidate. There is no such thing as right to privacy whenever one runs for public office. The right to privacy is deemed waived when one aspires to occupy a government elective post. To put it more bluntly, the people ought to know the candidates’ blood pressure, cholesterol levels, their sugar and salt, their uric acid and diabetes, because all these can directly affect the quality of their services and the quality of their judgment and leadership style. These will determine whether these guys, if elected, can serve the people on a 24/7 basis.

The health of a candidate also includes mental health. When you apply for a job in PAL, or San Miguel Corporation, you will be asked to go to the basement of the Makati Med Center where experts in psychiatry and psychology shall require you to undergo a battery of tests, in order to determine whether you can be trusted to make important management decisions that involve millions of financial resources and impact on hundreds of thousands of personnel and customers. I should know. I passed all those tests. If that is necessary in the business world, it should be more essential in public service. These people who assume that they are competent to make vital decisions on public funds and public service must not only be physically fit but mentally sound.

In fact, the HR experts are now more interested in EQ or Emotional Quotient, rather than Intelligence Quotient. Candidates, whether they are incumbents or challengers, must be seen as emotionally stable. They must not be affected by trivial and petty things, much less bicker in public on inconsequential matters because these do not affect public interests. Those who seek public office must behave properly and beyond reproach, because they are paid and trusted by the people to focus on critical issues and not be distracted by childish and useless things. The epitome of propriety and rectitude, with due respect, were three great Cebuanos: Don Sergio Osmeña, Sr, Don Vicente Rama and, if I may add, that late Governor Emilio Francisco F. Remotigue.

Going back to the issue of health, if the government would demand of a job applicant for clerk or janitor, to submit a genuine medical certificate, why not require the same thing of a candidate for Mayor, Governor, Congressman and Senator. The best evidence, any freshman Law student would tell you, to prove the state of health of anybody is a simple medical certificate. In order to lay to rest all these useless murmurings and rumor about the health of some honorable men, let their doctors testify. Let their physicians issue such certificates under oath. The people have the right to know. And the sooner this issue is settled, the better for all the people, so that we can move on, and talk about real issues that concern the people.

One funny thing about our country is that we demand from the small guys many documents to qualify for lowly jobs as messengers and office assistants. We require clerks to have Civil Service eligibility and for Division Chiefs and Bureau Directors that they should be CESOs, or Career Executive Service Officers. But for the Presidency, we only ask that the candidates know how to read and write. An Undersecretary must be a career officers but the Cabinet Secretary can even be a college drop-out. And so, back to the health issue, we should demand from the candidates, all of them, an authentic medical certificate in order to assure the electorate that they will be choosing a healthy body with a healthy mind.

And then, when the health issue is laid to rest, we can move on to grapple the jugular matters of how to serve the needs and interest of the province, the city. or the district, how to address the health and reproductive health problems, the education, housing, jobs and social welfare needs,  the sanitation and the traffic, the pollution and the environmental concerns, the livelihood and the poverty of our constituents. Unless we grapple with this pretty nagging question, we shall be going around in circles, and get nowhere. Let the truth be told once and for all, so that the people can choose well and correctly.