Do not vote for the incompetent!

In our college days, we learned that the word democracy comes from two Greek words namely “demos” meaning people and “kratos” which in English is power. Democracy, therefore, refers to the power of the people. In its purest socio-political essence, democracy is a form of government where power is vested in the people, either directly or through elected representatives. So, it is boldly written in our Constitution that “sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them.”

When our fundamental law speaks of people, it refers to the entire Filipino citizenry. It is theoretically correct to say that the political leadership of this country, (and I am specifically talking of elective positions), is open to everybody. It is our democratic philosophy that all elective government positions are not reserved just to the intelligent ones with collegiate degrees to show. Anyone can aspire to be an elected national or local official as long as he can, on minimum number of years, a Philippine resident and able to read and write. In addition to the basic constitutional Filipino citizenship requirement, there is no educational qualification to comply. Even someone who has not passed elementary grades can be elected town a mayor. Also in our democratic system, elective positions should not be the domain of the economically elite. Property not being a recognized qualification to run for government office, even the homeless, to use an American reference to a poor man not owning any house, can be a candidate for an elective office.

It is because of the principle that our government is of the people, for the people and by the people we have the funny (to say the least) situation that some of our lawmakers may not really know the work of being legislators. They are grossly incompetent. Without meaning to disrespect or dishonor them, I can name these senators from known sources of information - Senators Lito Lapid and Bong Revilla. They are famous action stars. In the movies, they portray the roles of courage and heroism. They probably think that playing the role of a toughie standing up against oppressive landlords makes them a social justice champion. It must be because of their popularity that we voted them to the upper chamber of our legislature.

Lapid and Revilla are, reportedly, high school graduates. At least they know how to read and write. But do they understand legal principles? I truly doubt if they really know that definition of law as a “reasonable rule of action promulgated by men of competent authority which must be followed because disobedience entails penalty” by heart. As senators, they are supposed to be part of that body of competent authority that promulgate our laws. If, sadly they do not even know the meaning of law, how can they be knowledgeable lawmakers? Without batting an eye lash, I am unafraid to say that both are incompetent to draft meaningful legislative measures.

In the list of candidates for senator in the coming May elections, Lapid and Revilla are joined by other incompetent senatoriables. I can rattle off the names of Manny Pacquiao, Willie Revillame and Philip Salvador. Unfortunately for me, they figure high in the poll surveys suggesting that they are likely to win! At the pain of sounding redundant I must say it again. Without an understanding of legal principles, they are not competent to write bills.

If, God forbid, Lapid, Revilla, Pacquiao, Revillame and Salvador are elected senators in May, we cannot expect them to contribute anything worth their salaries in passing the kind of statutes needed to promote public interest. In the first place, they may not really know the philosophy of public interest. If ever there are such bills pounded on the anvil of legislation, they can only warm their seats in total silence and in such process contribute nothing.

We have a little more than a month to go before election. Time is against us. I suggest that we ordinary citizens must use our power to campaign every day for voters to reject these candidates. I, for one, target a quota of convincing ten electors, each day, not to vote for them and plead with those I shall have campaigned for them to replicate my efforts. Our battle cry is and must be DO NOT VOTE FOR THE INCOMPETENT!