Election or selection?

My view is that in an “Election” you get to elect or place the morally and professionally competent people in public office. It presumes that you live in a well enough educated society not just through schools and universities but educated by society, churches, as well as established institutions both civil and government alike. “Election” for me is motivated by the desire to have the best and brightest in government to promote, enhance and protect the interest of all, not just some and not based on class, and certainly not to perpetuate one’s self through dynasties and economic interests. So as far as today’s event or voting is concerned that does not exist, so there is no such thing as an election but simply a “Selection.”

What makes the whole process tragic is the fact that after much prayers, soul searching and viewing all the available interviews and materials on the candidates very few of us will go to the polls having an intimate or valid idea of the character of the characters we will be selecting from. I had my cold dose of reality when I discovered not so long ago that a senator I voted for in the past was someone who “smokes and drinks worse than a sailor.” Another turned out to be the crowd favorite of lobbyists and power tripping businessmen. Sadly their true character, or character weakness, comes out once they are in office tempted with offers, or become collegially compromised as in the case with the House of Representatives. Sometimes, even the saints we thought we knew turn out to be the devil we didn’t know. At the very least, if we can only select and not properly elect, then at least draw up a sensible basis for choice and just this once, not on “What’s in it for me?”.

My selection is first based on actual competency and experience with legislation and the law as it relates to legislation. That is what the job is all about. Yes, its good to be knowledgeable in many fields and subject matters but if all you can do is rely on a platoon of lawyers and researchers to think up of laws to pass, that is not what the job description is all about. Of course you have to represent the majority but that is not done by being the nominated author of a bill given to you by an interest group or lobbyists.

Second to this I chose based on track record and character based on conduct and righteousness, not self-righteousness or a twisted sense of what is right or wrong, true or false. Then comes the “how much you want it factor.” Many candidates want to be senator for other reasons than to legislate: they were told to run, they want the protection of the office, they want the prominence and assumed respect given to senators or for self promotion and ambition. But there are a few who understand that with such great power comes great responsibility, they have witnessed in their lifetime the abuse or injustice brought about by the wrong agents and their wrong form of change. Select people who want to legislate and not “Lihislate” or people who will only push the agenda of the lobbyists or their masters.

People who run under instruction, delusion, or illusion of grandeur don’t want to be legislators. They simply want the power of the Senate. Spoiler Alert, with three years going into the next Presidential elections, the powers that be in the Senate are going to make sure that the institution continues with its independent status because from among its ranks there are at least three veterans who will be eyeing a serious run to become the next President of the Philippines. Either the Senate earns all the stars it can earn in the court of public opinion until 2022 or it will turn into a verbally and politically bloody arena like the Roman Senate that was not exempt from assassins.

So I won’t say “Vote Wisely” because that sucker has never won an election. Instead vote strategically. I don’t know if it will show in today’s “Selection” but in the past, when voters were neither here nor there among the choices, what many did was to divide the outcome. I suspect that, that is why the “administration” split up their candidates under two umbrellas. First to accommodate as many and then spread the votes/margins thin anticipating an opposition comeback. So if you can’t vote wisely, spread your choice around. That way, we’ll have a complete cast of characters and not just clowns!

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No less than the President has given notice to “his people” that today he may be popular, but none of it will matter when his presidency comes to a close in three years. In fact the mid-term elections of 2019 will surely give all of us the true picture of how Filipinos feel about their leaders and the current state of governance and politics all over the country. Will there be a recognizable sign of a revenge vote? Will a Catholic Vote reflect in the tabulation? Will President Duterte’s popularity convert to votes for his candidates and how many of them will actually make it to the Senate particularly among the newbies or never-rans? Then there is the matter of who has control over the incoming Congress?

The worst thing that can happen to President Duterte is if he loses sway or grip on Congress like he did when he let Gloria Macapagal Arroyo become Speaker and ended up with a lot of stuff hanging on the “sampayan” like the Federalism Agenda, the Death Penalty law, and worst of all tampering with the approved 2019 budget of government that led to reduced growth of the economy. Between three Senators gunning for the Presidency and losing sway over the next Congress, my worry is that the President’s men may have overlooked this and it will be what makes President Duterte a lame duck in the next three years.

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