IT'S POLITICAL season with the filing of candidacy from Oct. 1 to 8 over and done with and candidates from national to local, from presidential aspirants to councilor wannabes all over the country have hotfooted it to the various offices of the Commission on Elections to get listed and be included in the official ballot for the May 9, 2022 general elections.
We all know already the national candidates, it’s all over the internet, the social and mainstream media about the presidential candidates which included Manny Pacquiao, Panfilo Lacson, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Isko Moreno, Leni Robredo and Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa, along with their running mates Lito Atienza, Tito Sotto, Willy Ong, Kiko Pangilinan, except Marcos and Dela Rosa who have not picked yet their VP bets.
For senators, I can only mention offhand familiar names like Salvador Panelo, Mark Villar, Greco Belgica, Rodante Marcoleta and even actor Robin Padilla for the PDP-Laban administration, while those from the Robredo opposition camp included the usual suspects Chel Diokno, Trillanes, Leila de Lima, Rissa Hontiveros and maybe Neil Colmenares, etc.
Let’s go local and zoom in on our own backyard, Quezon province and what do you know? For the gubernatorial fight, I thought it would only be one-on-one for the incumbent Quezon Gov. Danilo Suarez and main challenger 4th District Rep. Angelina ‘Helen’ Tan, but look what we have got – 7 other gubernatorial candidates, namely, Salvador Dungaran, Warren Anthony Sio, Jeson Tan, Romeo Suarez, Sonny Suarez, Angelita Tan and a certain Frumencio Danilo Pulgar.
Yes, that’s correct: 3 gubernatorial bets with the same surnames of Suarez – Danilo, Romeo, Sonny – and 3 bets surnamed Tan – Angelina, Angelita and Jeson. I don’t know why do they do it, most probably to confuse the voting public, to hoodwink, to dupe, to underestimate the intelligence of the public, that’s what. But what can we do, everybody can run, it’s the way of the democratic polity, and anyway, it’s up to the Comelec to weed out the nuisance candidates for what they are.
Anyway, let me digress, excuse me, for an, um, important aside related to the last day of the filing of Certificate of Candidacy (COC) last Oct. 8. Had I not returned to the Comelec provincial office on the last day, in the afternoon of Oct. 8, I would not have been able to know the other governor wannabes. But due to my usual journo’s instinctive nose for news, after attending a brief news conference with some local political bets, I went back to the provincial Comelec office, arrived there past 4pm already, and except for this certain Comelec staff, probably a senior employee at the provincial Comelec office, named Roberto Lozano, who probably has an instinctive dislike for my kind of face, he who every filing of COC every 3 years, (I bet he is already familiar with my kind of face as I always introduce myself to him I am, ehem, a media man, but no, he always cast a sideward glance at me and speedily brush off my presence, ganern siya ka-busy) every time I get to ask him for the log book of political candidates who have filed COCs, he always denies my simple request, always replying they are still busy accepting COC filers when that log book I see is just lying there at his side on the table and he can easily give it to me to have it snapped by my mobile phone camera in just less than 2-3 minutes.
Every three years, every time I go to the Comelec provincial office he has always manifested his reluctance, even outright refusal for my simple request for that log book of list of candidates, I am puzzled, confused, found it mystifying, irritating, disgusting. Imagine, you are a public employee, supposedly out to serve the public - is not the local media included in your mandate to be given courtesy, even priority, especially that the media dispenses much needed information particularly during this election season?
Last Oct. 8 that’s just what happened again but when he suddenly left, perhaps to go to the john, (pastilan, bes) I immediately asked his assistants to ask for the log book and pronto, with my vivo smart phone, I readily took photo of the list of candidates on that day and when he returned I simply retreated and left. Bye, thank you.
Haisst, tsk, anyways, so much for that Comelec guy, who would have been a friend, a conspirator and coffee buddy even, but in as much as some space of my column has been used up, wasted for him, let me continue next issue for the political virus that has virtually and literally contaminated Pinoylandia every election season.