I got a call from a friend and reader, Atty. A, who like most of us, has also been annoyed by the swarm of illegal, if not simply ugly sight of campaign posters that have been plastered all over our towns and cities in recent weeks.
I’m not sure if he had just read the article where I wondered if the Commission on Elections and LGUs can deputize homeowners to allow them to remove campaign materials within the vicinity of our homes, but he was discussing the same proposition, but with a clever twist. He said that the Comelec, if it is serious about its “Operation Baklas” that politicos are blatantly mocking and ignoring, should deputize the trash collectors and scavengers of the country to address the scourge of the campaign poster, and even give them preferential rates for the campaign trash that they take down and surrender to the authorities.
If you come to think of it, if our government really wants to take this problem seriously, it could easily tap all those TUPAD street sweepers who just wander around aimlessly, pretending to work, in order to collect their dole outs that come from our taxes but politicos love to take credit for. Wouldn’t that be a lovely sight? To see our taxes being spent on something that benefits our communities directly, instead of making politicians smell good?
Looking at the state of our country these days, the ubiquity of the campaign poster is a sad reflection of our government’s inability to impose order, along with the kind of crooked morals that the typical Filipino candidate or politician needs in order to run a successful campaign. You know just how messed up this country is when the people who are supposed to legislate or enforce the laws if they win their bid for public office are the most blatant violators of what should be a proper gentlemen’s agreement to campaign fairly and cleanly.
Despite the obvious violations of election laws, common decency, and protecting the environment, Comelec and our government has been unable to do anything much when it comes to illegal campaign posters. Comelec has its token “Operation Baklas” that politicos “volunteers” run rings around, putting up their trash faster than any of the poll body’s agents can take them down. And since nobody is getting penalized or disqualified for these blatant violations, the hits can’t help but keep on coming.
When it comes to illegal campaign posters, the ruling should be simple: if it quacks like a duck, it is a duck.
There should be no difference between local and national candidates and their respective official campaign periods. When it is an election year, anything that looks like a campaign poster that is not at a designated common poster area should be illegal and subject to the appropriate penalty. Regular Filipinos should be deputized with the power of removing or defacing those posters, maybe even given a reward for surrendering those pieces of trash to the nearest Comelec processing center, where the collected trash will be sorted and used as evidence for the filing of cases against the names and faces on the posters.
It could be so simple but our government has made it so difficult, even for the Comelec, a constitutional body that is supposed to be all-powerful during an election cycle. Our towns and cities should be free of all these illegal campaign materials, candidates shouldn’t have to spend so much on their campaigns which could level the playing field, and our communities and planet shouldn’t have to deal with so much of their literal and figurative trash. But it seems that the problem is not getting any better, but is instead getting worse with every election year.
A people-powered, (nowadays called crowdsourced) effort against campaign trash looks like the only way, because if you come to think of it, aside from the politicos who prioritize only their own interests, nobody likes seeing their communities inundated with unsightly and illegal campaign posters. Just between you and me, it gives me great joy to see any such posters being struck down, either by nature, poor installation, or righteous vandals, and I’m pretty sure that if the Comelec and our LGUs would affirm that it is our right and duty to take down any poster with a name, face, number, and a desired elected position on it, because it is inherently illegal, we would be glad to lend 100 million helping hands, which should be more than enough against their army of “volunteers”.
Why the government officials responsible are not willing to actually do anything about this persistent campaign season problem, your guess is as good as mine.*
