Election anarchy

One of the worst illustrations of institutional failure in this country is the conduct of elections.

We can start with the visible manifestations of the failure: campaign materials. The display is sheer anarchy, with wealthy candidates enjoying an unfair edge over rivals with shallow war chests.

Yesterday, the start of the official campaign period, TV 5 / One News footage showed the Alyansa administration slate leading the violators, with their campaign materials covering electric posts, utility wires and the exterior walls all the way to the upper floors of a public school building several blocks away from the venue of their campaign kickoff rally in Laoag.

The administration candidates have been given three days by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to dismantle the campaign materials or face possible disqualification.

Thanks to a ruling of the Supreme Court, which in turn pointed to legislation passed by self-absorbed lawmakers, the sky’s the limit in the size and display areas of campaign materials.

Local government units, which charge hefty fees for outdoor advertising, should be regulating the display of such campaign materials. LGUs and local police should be enforcing ordinances (nearly all local governments surely have them) against littering, which is how campaign materials should be classified when plastered on government structures or strung from utility cables, trees and lampposts.

But who will enforce the ordinances when the incumbent LGU officials themselves, from governor to mayor and councilors, lead the pack of polluters?

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Comelec Chairman George Garcia personally launched yesterday “Oplan Baklas” targeting such materials, but only for candidates for the Senate and the party list.

So we will continue being assaulted by materials featuring ugly congressmen and candidates for local government posts, until the official start of the local campaign period.

By ugly, I’m not referring to heavily botoxed faces or photoshopped images, but the ugly abuse of power and mishandling of people’s money – our money, juggled through creative accounting and used for election campaigns.

The Comelec cannot take down materials displayed on private property including giant billboards. But Garcia has said such materials must be classified either as donations of a supporter or paid advertisement. Both must be included in the candidate’s post-election statement of contributions and expenditures (SOCE), win or lose.

Obviously, the Comelec cannot monitor all such private donations or paid ads. But it can conduct random checks or act on public alerts, and impose penalties where warranted.

Garcia told “Storycon” on One News yesterday that the Comelec will upload all SOCEs for public scrutiny. Rival candidates can then check each other’s SOCE for misdeclarations. Since the SOCE is a sworn statement, misdeclarations can be classified as perjury, which can warrant criminal prosecution, Garcia told us.

He said the Comelec is also coordinating with advertising organizations for the rates for billboard displays, to see if candidates will declare accurate expenditures. Garcia said the Bureau of Internal Revenue may also be tapped to promote transparency in campaign finance.

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The Comelec can be lauded for exploring other ways to skin a cat. Still, the poll body is seen to be defanged, and an example of regulatory failure in our weak republic.

Over the years, Comelec efforts to bring sanity and decency to elections have been thwarted by congressional resistance and a compromised legal system.

Instead of sanity and decency, Philippine elections have spiraled into insane ways of skirting laws and rules, and stealing public funds to finance personal election campaigns.

The 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) will go down in history as the institutionalization of congressional thievery to finance unprogrammed appropriations or the pork barrel, and the entrenchment of the ayuda economy.

It’s disappointing that even senators who were seen to have some sense of decency went along with the thievery.

At least two former finance secretaries have disclosed an attempt to get their signatures in support of the impounding of reserves or supposed savings or unused funds of government-owned and controlled corporations. The move appears to be in line with an intensifying systematic raid of GOCC funds for personal and partisan purposes of those in power and their cronies.

The former finance secretaries have described as “financial vandalism” the impounding of GOCC funds, including those for Maharlika from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank of the Philippines for purposes outside their mandate.

It may also constitute a form of malversation, a criminal offense that should put the culprits behind bars for at least several years.

There lies another weakness in our republic: the legal system. A low-ranking employee who pockets a five- or six-figure amount in public funds is sent to prison for years. Those who misuse P124.5 million become senators. Those who evade billions in estate taxes become… never mind.

There’s talk that as a result of the continuing uproar over the scandalous reworking of the GAA, the “Looter King” might be jettisoned. But this sounds more like wishful thinking at this point.

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You know an economy is headed for collapse when it’s consumption-driven and the consumption is heavily powered by tax-funded ayuda.

There is only token political will for the urgent reforms needed to eliminate the need for state dole-outs. Dependence on patronage (courtesy of taxpayers) and ayuda is instead systematically reinforced to ensure the perpetuation of political dynasties.

Shame and delicadeza have gone out the window in dynasty building. Garcia said Gen Zs (born between 1996 and 2010) account for about a third of registered voters or about 20 million. I don’t know if this age group will ever see a Philippine society where people consider two dozen members of the same clan simultaneously running for nearly every available elective post in their turf as disgraceful rather than a matter of family pride.

Some of these family members are even running against each other. The short-circuiting of checks and balances due to dynastic control of governance is one of the reasons for the awful state of public services.

And yet look at those who are topping the surveys for the Senate. The results of the midterm elections will likely further entrench the institutional failure.

We give democracy a bad name.