Impulses
Cheats and chefs
It smells like something rotten is in the election dinner table anew.
Concerned voters fond with poster, jingle-laden elections are already on the lookout for the next Garci. Some even believe that votes will only stay fresh in the ballot but will eventually rot days after when the overreaching hands of the electoral scoundrels start to cook the election returns as ordered by those with guns, goons, gold, and government clout.
Everything is spiced up with the recent Pulse Asia Inc. survey that says four out of ten Filipino voters have little or no faith in Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos, a staunch appointee of President Arroyo. With the eyebrow-raising fire incident that ate the whole stock room of the old Comelec office and the controversial break-in of serial numbers of thousands of ballots in the new Comelec office, what more can the May 14 doomsday people ask for?
In the same survey, it also shows that the public also distrusts Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, the main course in the vote-shaving, vote-switching scandal that caused a tumultuous shake in the political potency of Malacañang three years ago. With the extrajudicial killings haunting the country';s political landscape and the harassments that thousands of full-battle-gear military men are doing in the suburbs, what more can the election lawyers ask for?
On the other hand, exit polls consistently reveal that opposition candidates, at least in the senatorial posts, appear tastier in the political tongues of the electorate. Not even the well-oiled electoral machinery of the sour tasting administration can turn the flavor up side down. This is a clear indication of the Filipinos'; apprehension, if not disgust, with those in power.
Nevertheless, it is not enough that the 2007 polls be turned into an attack against the unpunished cheats in government. It is of the essence that the elections be turned into an event to vote for the enemy of cheats.
At the very least, a bittersweet call for sanitary elections will let it be known that we are serious about doing something against deep-frying the voters. No, more than that, about the deceitfulness and lying that are cooking everywhere in this country faster than instant noodles.
In the end, none of the antioxidants against cheating will matter if there is no public vigilance against the threat to the meat of every Christian way of life.
This is a battle against lovers of democracy and cheaters of democracy. In this crusade, age is never an issue. Young or old, student or worker, one must decide which kitchen must he be a chef. So that, as a principled descendant of Andres Bonifacio and Benigno Aquino, Jr., he can use his knife well and cook the best meal possible for the country.
(Engr. Herman M. Lagon may be reached through h_lagon@yahoo.com or 0919-8304452.)