ABOUT MY CANDIDACY!

Hi! My name is Rummel Pinera. I’ve recently filed my certificate of candidacy as a “would-be candidate for the senate” at the Comelec. I did it not because I’m really serious in aspiring for such a position. I did it because I would like to experience the “feeling of being a political candidate” in a country where political election is really a bastion of elitism. Though I already know that political election in the Philippines is a bastion of elitism, I would like to feel how elite-dominated really is the holding of political election in our country. The basic process itself of filing a certificate of candidacy is already something that non-elitists would find so cumbersome. Comelec officers usually don’t give clear rules on how to file a certificate of candidacy for both local and national positions. Comelec officers usually won’t give out details to the public on how to properly file a certificate of candidacy. It seems that all elective posts are reserved to those who have the fame, money, glory, dynasty and even goons to show to the public. Another thing is that all political parties in the Philippines, whether pro-administration or opposition, are filled with elitist concepts of governance and party membership. How can sectoral representation in our government be possible in the near future if elitism is still the main perspective of being a politician in this country? Even party-list accreditation is a hard thing to decide upon by Comelec officers. I have my own small political group called the League of Political Abrogationists or L.P.A.. Our group wants to join the party-list election under an umbrella name called as Communities’ Alliance for Real Democracy or C.A.R.D.. But, again, party-list accreditation at the Comelec is filled with processes that seem to limit the number of sectoral groups which can join the party-list election. If that’s the rule in every party-list election, then all the party-list representatives at the congress will just come from certain groups that already have stable finances to back up election bids. Note that party-list election seems so limited only to the well-financed and well-known party list groups. Hence, party-list election had also become “traditional politics” itself. Party-list election should have lead the way towards a non-elitist form of democracy in our country. Party-list election should have had democratized both the national and local election-processes. But now it seems that party-list election itself has fallen into the “mud of elitist politics” that has dominated all the national and local elections that had been held in our country since the Philippines became an independent nation in the 1940s.
I’m not sure if my own group called the League of Political Abrogationists will be accredited as a party-list group by the Comelec this election period. But what can I do, such is the reality of elitist politics in the Philippines.

I would now have to withdraw my candidacy for the senate, because after all I’m not really serious about it in the first place. I would be happier sticking it out as a “blogger for socio-political reforms”. And, because I’m not sure if my own League of Political Abrogationists will be accredited as a party-list group, I would have to promote to the readers of this message the ideals of political abrogationism and social harmonicalism trough our web page. The readers of this message can know more about my advocacies by just clicking this web page: http://www.geocities.com/esabon/POLITICAL_ABROGATIONERS.html .
I hope that other party-list groups can embrace the ideals of political abrogationism and social harmonicalism. Please also read the article that has been attached at this e-mailed letter. Such article
has a suggestion to the CBCP on safeguarding the elections in the Philippines. The LORD GOD blesses you. Thanks.


THIS LETTER WAS SUBMITTED DIRECTLY AT THE CENTRAL OFFICE OF THE CBCP

IN MANILA ON JAN. 30, 2007. THE LETTER IS AS FOLLOWS:



Dear CBCP,


Gusto kong ipabatid sa inyo ang aking panukala na bumuo ang inyong grupo
at ang iba pang mga “civil society groups” ng isang “multi-sectoral task force” na talagang
pangangalagaan ang mga magiging tunay na resulta ng darating na eleksiyon. Ang gayung “task force” ay dapat na gumamit ng lahat ng mga “latest technologies” tulad ng mga “celphone-cameras”, “digi-cams”,” laptop pc’s”, etc., para maipakita kung mayroong nagaganap na mga pandaraya sa eleksiyon. Dapat ding magpanukala ng mga “safety measures” sa Comelec para maging mas madali ang pagbubukas ng mga kunukwestiyong mga “ballot boxes”. At dapat maging madali ang pag-resolba ng Comelec sa isyu ng mga “disenfranchised voters” sa ating lipunan. Dapat din na ipanukala ng CBCP ang pag-hingi ng tulong sa U.N. Org o sa anumang “multi-national election observers’ team” para madokyumento ng husto at mabantayang maigi ang darating na eleksiyon sa ating bansa. Ang mga paratang ukol sa mga naganap na iregularidad noong “year 2004 elections” sa ating bansa ay dapat magsilbing gabay sa maayos na pagdaraos ng “year 2007 elections” sa Pilipinas.


Sincerely,


RUMMEL PIÑERA