The continued canvass of the election returns for presidential and vice presidential candidates by a joint committee of Congress has given the Philippines the dubious distinction of possibly having the slowest election results ever of any country in the world. The marred 2000 election in the United States, with widespread fraud in Florida stealing the election from Al Gore, springs to mind as coming close too.
Many Arroyo administration supporters are using this alleged “shame” factor as a reason to clamor for the canvassing committee to quickly wrap up its counting of the certificates of canvass (CoCs). But there is no shame in going over the election returns, especially when many voting precincts were scenes of massive vote fraud in favor of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The problem here is that administration politicians control both houses of Congress and are using their numerical strength to squash any opposition attempt to dig deeper into CoCs that are dubious.
Although there have been some tense moments in Congress during the canvass, both sides have been admirably restrained perhaps because they know that the voting public has little patience for shenanigans from either camp. In any event, the arrogance of administration hacks Sen. Franklin Drilon and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan is clearly visible and their objections to digging deeper into suspect CoCs are not convincing at all. If the administration is so sure that President Arroyo won the election hands down, why are K4 politicians so reluctant to allow the canvassing committee to dig deeper into problem areas? Their explanation that election return protests should have been made earlier or sent to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal doesn’t hold much weight. The canvassing committee has the right and duty to dig into suspect CoCs, and not doing so is the real crime here.
In any event, even opposition senators have said that the canvassing is scheduled to be finished before June 30, when the winners of the presidential and vice presidential races are to be sworn into office. The constant talk of the opposition staging a walk-out of the canvass; of a coup d’etat being plotted, and the deployment of massive amounts of riot police to confront small pro-Fernando Poe Jr. rallies, are all tactics of a desperate Arroyo who wants to cling onto power no matter what.
The Nastiness of the Public
I was watching vice presidential candidate Sen. Loren Legarda being interviewed by Gene Orejana on ANC’s “Online” program Wednesday night when I was shocked at how nasty many of the viewers’ comments were.
An interview program where viewers are encouraged to send in their comments and questions via e-mail (hence the “Online” name), the topic was the May 10 election and the ongoing canvass. Legarda did a good job of defending the opposition’s repeated requests to look into suspect CoCs. Unfortunately, Orejana’s editorial discretion left much to be desired.
Instead of using his common sense and better judgment, Orejana just kept reading out loud the nastiest comments imaginable to Legarda, who showed admirable restraint in not replying in kind. In fact she looked downright embarrassed by the foul language used by viewers. One viewer called opposition senators “dogs”; another viewer told Legarda she should return to broadcasting, while another viewer called FPJ an idiot!
Thank goodness Legarda had the class not to descend to the very low level of those viewers. Politics in the Philippines under the Arroyo administration has become so polarized, partisan and bitter that many Filipinos have sunk to hurling insults at anyone who disagrees with them. What nonsense and madness is this? What happened to civilized debate and friendly disagreement?
Orejana should have used his brain and skipped over the nastiest comments. Indeed, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board should send a strong warning to Orejana and ABS-CBN Broadcasting over that show’s content, noting how such libelous comments should never have been aired.
I agree that everyone has the right to their own opinion, but when it is nasty and libelous, I don’t think it should be broadcast to the whole world. E-mail and text messaging have allowed people to blast off nasty comments in the heat of the moment, without allowing them time to seriously reconsider their words. Many times I myself have received extremely vile emails attacking me for something I have written in this column. When I have bothered to reply, the sender usually responds in a much calmer manner, often apologizing for having sent such a nasty message to begin with. I just think that the public would do well to ponder their words carefully before firing off vicious emails. Sticking to the problem in question, without resorting to personal attacks, would certainly raise the level of political debate in the Philippines. And God knows, the Philippines really needs it!
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