Saturday, March 10, 2007

NUISANCE AT THE COMELEC!

The COMELEC commissioners once bragged that they will be holding an en banc session that will listen to the pleas of the so-called nuisance candidates and, then, allow such candidates to file their position-papers before finally determining if they really deserved to become official candidates or just nuisance-ones for the coming senatorial race. The outcome for such a judgment would be “democratic”. The hearing was scheduled on March 6, 2007. But only a handful of such so-called “nuisance candidates” appeared before the en banc committee. The thing is that the majority of such nuisance candidates were not able to make it on such a forum. About 13 of such candidates appeared on such date. The other 33 or so were absent during the hearing. So, the COMELEC wasn't able to notify successfully all of such candidates. How could that hearing be called democratic if the majority of such candidates were not properly-notified by the COMELEC? All of such candidates have written their landline and cellular phone numbers in their resumes. How come they were not phoned-in by the COMELEC? The COMELEC said that it made a press release for such a meeting. But most of the candidates were not notified through phones. Letters? Yes, letters were sent, but not on appropriate dates. You know that the snail-mail system in the Philippines is really slow as a snail. The notification-letters had been sent in exactly one week before such a hearing. Most of such letters arrived exactly on March 6, 2007. Newspapers? Many Filipinos nowadays don't read newspapers due to the presence of high-tech means of gaining news like from the internet, from TV and even from cellular phones. What if there are really some serious aspirants among them? Some of them may have the financial means to establish a nation-wide campaign for the senatorial election. As I've said, the commissioners of the COMELEC act more as fans of well-known people rather than real commissioners.


And what about the enforcement of disqualifying “official candidates” based on “electioneering complaints”? I don’t know if the current batch of COMELEC commissioners have the guts to investigate such complaints. Cesar Montano- with many of his famous advertising billboards still intact all over the Philippines- is still not being investigated properly by the COMELEC. Chavit Singson- with his giving away of cash prizes in a certain raffle show as shown by video footages- is still not being properly investigated by the COMELEC. What about certain electoral reforms that the current batch of COMELEC commissioners have advocated within their current terms? Have there been such things? I hope that there are such things. There are really some “nuisance-conditions” at the COMELEC.

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