Our politics of hate

After years of being told that the number 13 is an unlucky number, one cannot help but have a sense of foreboding that today, we are voting the Magic 12 on Monday the 13th. The more superstitious might even say that this year’s election will be unlucky and I might break tradition and agree with them for totally different reasons.

To begin with I already have problems using the words “choose” or “elect” since those words connote choice. But after months of arguments about “Political Dynasties” and “Sub-standard” candidates, and “the ignorant masses voting as a majority”, do we really get to choose? Many voters say: “Do we actually have a choice? ” By coincidence, this situation is affirmed by a wise old friend of my dad, in the person of Mr. Jess Paredes who sent this SMS/text:

“When shopping for 12 senators, quite a few voters are bound to find out that most of exactly the right kind they are looking for are out of stock”.

That the word “shopping” is now commonly used in the context of elections is undeniable proof of how our choice of leaders as well as their reasons for running for public office has taken a commercial nature. This in fact is one of the driving motives why many politicians in local positions such as Governors and Mayors run for office. It’s no longer about political power and backyard corruption. Public office has become so profitable that it is worth killing people to stay in power.

Jueteng brings in millions of pesos annually, pay-offs from informal and underground businesses such as tricycles, jeepneys, vendors deliver millions annually, profits from government contracts bid and delivered through third party associates, and inter-city trading of projects to avoid conflict of interest deliver millions of pesos. On top of these, so many local officials have multiplied their multi-million assets through “indirect” ownership of condominiums and townhouses paid in exchange for permits and ease to construct, ownership of mini malls and rural banks, cockpits, gas stations, etc.

How can we even vote wisely in places where officials or candidates run “unopposed”? Is it “wise” to have to vote for people who are so old or infirmed that they might not actually finish their term? Should we even vote for people under investigation and could be suspended from office after the elections? Many friends and readers can’t complete the Magic 12 senators, most don’t know the Congressman of their district or Governor of their province and many are fed up with their current Mayors. What choice is there if our vote is between the competently corrupt versus the formerly corrupt but presently incompetent?

Several friends have been suggesting that we should simply exclude those who have held office or belong to a political dynasty and take a risk with the fresh, politically unrelated and inexperienced candidates. I say this with love: isn’t that like letting the dumb lead the blind or is it vice versa?

I know that this article makes me sound like I’m venting. Yes I am.

After enduring weeks and months of certifiably the worst, if not the lousiest campaign jingles ever produced and played in the history of Philippine elections, after weeks upon weeks of listening to fake interviews being peddled as legitimate “news and current affairs ”, after months of being lied to with organized, manipulated and false popularity surveys, and after having a President and key cabinet members “in absentia” because of the campaign, we all have a right and a reason to vent!

Going full circle, the worst thing in all of this is after billions of pesos spent in government logistics and campaign expenses, we are no better off than when we started and a new set of officials promises to be more of the same. If PNoy actually gets his team PNoy through the election intact, will it really be “his” team? Or will he discover that a third of them are nothing more than astute, political free-loaders who will eventually hold his plans hostage for even more concessions?  Sadly the same will be true for the opposition where the “Tatlong Hari” are being accused of spending more money on their offspring candidates than the entire team. That to me would be the worst stroke of luck ever: To imagine finding true love only to wake up in bed with a prostitute.

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Anyone who has a Facebook account in the Philippines must have at some point during the campaign viewed several posts dedicated to the bashing of Nancy Binay. To a lesser degree, there have been similar bashings even via SMS of other Senatoriables and local candidates.

All that may come with the territory but the repeated and rabid bashing of Nancy Binay has caught my attention and presents a good explanation of why we are perennially stuck with mud in our face and hate in our hearts.

A careful study of the expose’s on Nancy Binay in relation to other former and present candidates reveal such malice and injustice regardless of who’s side you are on. Critics attack Nancy Binay for being over ambitious as to want to become Senator right away. But why was the same not said against a young newbie in Team PNoy?

Critics criticize her for lack of experience or qualification, what about the movie stars in the Senate who have survived coming from the same starting point?  A faithful measure applies to all, not just one.

We could go on and on but I would be belaboring the injustice and sheer cruelty thrown at Nancy Binay simply because those critics can no longer attack her father the Vice President Jejomar Binay. Yes it is a surprise that Nancy Binay is doing far better in the polls, but so are other newbies. Question the pollster instead. Lest we forget, were we not all surprised how VP Binay beat all others unexpectedly?

Why do we have to post the ugliest photos of people to shame them, get extremely personal, persist in doing injury, and then wonder why we have a never-ending culture of political and personal vendettas. After being subjected to such hate, can anyone blame Nancy Binay for fighting back or getting even if she wins a senate slot?

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.  James 3: 9-10

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