Thursday, June 14, 2007

STILL ON REFORMING THE ELITIST AND SEMI-FEUDAL ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES!


I really believe that the current batch of COMELEC officials in the Philippines are able administrators. Such officials are effective managers of an important aspect of democracy- the supervision of a political election. But the current batch of COMELEC officials under Benjamin Abalos are being pressured by the various sectors of the Philippine society to make way for reforms in the current electoral system in the country. Reforming the electoral system in this country is really a hard task to do. First, the public must understand that the current batch of COMELEC officials are humans just like us. We can not expect Mr. Abalos and his batch-mates at the COMELEC officialdom to make sweeping reforms without the assistance of all the sectors of our society. If the current batch of COMELEC officials will reform the electoral system in the country on its own, such can be termed as a little bit despotic due to the fact that such group is not a representative coalition nor expression of all the sectors of the Philippine society. Besides, the COMELEC is not a "super-power group" that can easily overcome all the hindrances that may come along the way of reforming the electoral system in the Philippines. COMELEC has limited functions and powers when it comes to supervising elections in the country. Therefore, all the sectors of the Philippine society should assist and aid the COMELEC in reforming the electoral system of this country.. Another thing is that the legislative branch of the Philippine government must be at the forefront of such reformation. Why? It's because the reforms that will be introduced in the electoral system of this country have to become binding, so that such changes will really be effective in the future. In other words, the would-be reforms in our electoral system have to be passed as laws and decrees by our legislators, so that such changes will be functioning and become binding in the near future. We should hope that before the year 2010 presidential election comes around, all the sectors of the Philippine society would have already reformed the Philippine electoral system as a true expression and representative will of the Filipino people. I hope that before the 2010 presidential election comes in, elitism and political warlord-ism in Philippine politics would have been curtailed, if not completely eliminated, already.

I don't believe that the current batch of actual administrators of the COMELEC had been involved in any form of election-cheating mobilization. As I've said, I truly believe that Mr. Abalos and his batch-mates are all effective administrators of the COMELEC. The problem is that Mr. Abalos and his batch-mates have not seriously made efforts to make a full investigation of the Hello-Garci scandal. I do praise Abalos and his batch-mates for fully investigating the serious cheating allegations and poll irregularities in the recently-held mid-year elections in the country. But, still, in order to counter the public perception that the current COMELEC officialdom has been too lazy in properly investigating the Hello-Garci Controversy, Mr. Abalos and his batch-mates should make a full-scale investigation and recommendation for resolving such electoral controversy. Doing such a thing would make Mr. Abalos and his batch-mates at the COMELEC officialdom become truly-heroic in the historic efforts to reform the elitist and political-warlords’ dominated politics in our country.

The current COMELEC officialdom has to be praised for standing firm on its position to hold a special election at Magindanao province. That is the only way to clean the obvious poll irregularities that took place at Maguindanao during the May 14, 2007 elections in the Philippines. Mr. Koko Pimentel should just allow the people of Magindanao to make their general will become known to our nation. What if Koko Pimentel gets defeated at Maguindanao? So what? The important thing is to cleanse the province of Magindanao from the poll irregularities that took place there during the mid-year elections in this country. The important thing is to know what was the "true expression" of the people of Maguindanao during the May 14, 2007 elections in the Philippines. Besides, if a special election will push through in Maguindanao this month, Koko Pimentel has still a chance to make a "last-day election campaign" at Magindanao if he will request it at the COMELEC. The peaceful and lawful struggle to reform the elitist and semi-feudal electoral system in the Philippines should go on.

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