The circus comes to town

Six early cuckoos trooped to the Comelec offices today to file their respective candidacies for the May 2007 elections and media was there to document the whole crazy spectacle.

I have no doubt that all the six aspiring senatoriables will eventually get disaqualified for the usual reason: They do not have the capacity to mount a national campaign. I am sure that is a perfectly valid reason. But it doesn't put a stop to the cycle.

One of the six candidates said he was running because God told him to. In fact, he said God assured him that he will emerge sixth in the senatorial elections. Perhaps he is truly a virtuous man because I think a more logical question to ask God would be "what are the lucky numbers in the next Lotto draw?"

Another one announced his platform: to make the Philippines a state of the United States. This is actually not new as we've had a number of these loonies advocating the same thing before. And as if to prove that he is the right person to make the pitch, he spoke in what he thought was American English. Oh sure, he got the accent down pat. Too bad his grammar really sucked.

The others displayed similar symptoms of insanity. Either they were in speaking terms with God or they claimed to be direct descendants of this or that national hero.

I don't think it is fair to begrudge anyone the right to run for elective posts, particularly since it does seem that given the current crop of leaders in our country, the current standards are undoubtedly dismal. But having a crop of unqualified candidates is one thing, having a roost of certified cuckoos is another.

And these are the amateurs. Hang on for the professionals.

Comments

vic said…
We ‘invented’ the novel way of discouraging nuisance candidates for running for elected office. Since politicians are not required much of a qualification, except of voting age, a legal citizen, and not under court bankruptcy declaration, everyone can just run. So the firewalls was built to stop just everyone to see their names in the ballot and some of them is to require each to appoint a treasurer that can add numbers to record all contributions and expense of the campaign. And a deposit of specified amount to be forfeited if said candidate can not garner the minimum votes as per guidelines.
And of course since all the current members of Commons are represented by Parties, you got to be nominated or pick by the party to run. But just to prevent a lot of one issue, prophets, and descendants of Moses or even a smart aleck of a drunk to file for his candidacy, a “nuisance” deposit required up front just about the only measure needed..

There was a time when a party was established as a protest party aptly named Rhinoceros party of Canada, where voters who has no choice of any candidates can vote for the party candidate as means of protest. It was in existence for a while (not won a seat) and sometimes attracted a lot of votes. But was disbanded when election officials agreed to count and published all protest votes. The process is now simple. Cross out the ballot with one single X across and that would be tallied as a protest vote..
4:09 AM
Anonymous said…
Yep, the circus has indeed come to town, and I'm anxious to see who among the clowns from the entertainment industry will be stupid enough to file for candidacy. :-)
10:50 AM
Bong C. Austero said…
Vic,
What you cited actually makes sense since elections should not really be taken lightly - the way we do in the Philippines. Unfortunately the Philippines' pride in being a democratic country seems to outweigh all other considerations. In other words, the pervading attitude seems to be - di bale na magulo basta democratic. hayyy.

Migrate na din kaya ako sa canada?

Bong


Singleguy:

Vilma Santos is being persuaded to run for Governor of Batangas. Christopher de leon is running for Vice Governor somewhere else. So is Lani Mercado (Vice Gov of Cavite). The list goes on...

bong
5:12 PM
Anonymous said…
At least those cuckoos are honest in their intention.

All I see are recycled and to be recycled faces who have made politics their family livelihood.
And they will with their gold, guns and goon together with promises to our insane electorate, will be the blazing winner this election.

Anyway programs are not valid issues in this coming election, maybe its time we test the weather for those cuckoos.

Weather weather lang yan is the issue this election, let us give the cuckoos a slice of the cake.
5:31 PM
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