Useless poll threats

Just last week, Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon named the 40-plus senatorial candidates out of 62 bets who had committed the electoral offense of placing their oversized posters, streamers and tarpaulins beyond the Commission on Elections-approved sizes and outside Comelec-directed sites where election-related materials may be posted.

There was a broad hint from the poll body that this offense can cause the disqualification of senatorial candidates.

Frankly, I don’t know why after decades of elections in the country and Comelec threats of disqualifying candidates for oversized posters and the like, not one Senate bet who even overspends is disqualified. Even if oversized posters are there for all to see, the poll body can hardly prove its case against bets with oversized posters in non-designated areas.

The truth of the matter is any foe of any candidate could have come up with such oversized posters in non-designated areas to get the candidates they want disqualified. Or, supporters of the senatorial candidate could very well have ordered such tarpaulins, streamers and posters for his bet, not knowing that this practice is considered an election offense.

But if the Comelec could do what it threatens to do and disqualifies all these candidates, why, all those who have no chance of winning would be replacing the disqualified bets.

But what it all boils down to is that, despite all these threats and warnings from the Comelec to disqualify the bet for such an electoral offense, such is pretty stupid, as the idea in any election is to make candidates known and recognized by the voters before the polls.

Even the case of candidates overspending for their campaign cannot be checked by the poll body.

Comelec yesterday finally admitted that the body cannot check if poll candidates are spending beyond their means on campaign advertisements, especially those made before the start of the campaign period, using the justification that the poll body has no access to their Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, which has nothing to do with spending or overspending of a candidate, local or national.

During the election season, it is well-known that there are many who contribute to the campaign kitty of senatorial candidates — especially those who are seen as likely election winners.

Senatorial candidates get much less than presidential candidates by way of contributions from donors — going into a billion pesos or more, plus the use of private planes if the presidential candidate is seen as the sure winner of the presidential race – of course, with some reward for the donor/contributor once the candidate he/she backs wins.

This practice has been going on for years on end. Yet when these candidates, especially presidential bets, submit their campaign expenses, they never go beyond what the total price per voter is stated in the law. They are not stupid.

Can one really believe that very popular presidential bets only spend some half a million pesos for their presidential campaign?

In much the same way, senatorial bets who seem likely to be winners tend to come up with hard-to-believe campaign expenses — and there is absolutely nothing that the Comelec can do to disqualify these national candidates — presidential or senatorial candidates.

Those caught must have been so stupid to submit to the Comelec his/her statement of election expenses higher than what the law states.

Not even Comelec can check on the candidates’ expenses by way of television political advertisements because there are times when TV networks, favoring a presidential or senatorial bet, provide not just big discounted rates for their political bet, but also free airtime, thus ensuring that their bet does not get disqualified.

It is very easy for the poll body to check on spending limits of candidates based on airtime or seek the official TV logs, but then again, the TV networks – at least some known ones – cover up for their and their bets’ violations.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, in a TV interview, said that rules and regulations about election campaigning, including the rules on spending limit, are outdated and must be updated.

But even if updated, one can still overspend and there is nothing the Comelec can do about it.

What is difficult to understand is why the Comelec insists on the ban on streamers, posters and tarpaulins and for them to put up such tiny posters in the designated poster areas where the board is filled with too many candidates’ posters that passers-by don’t even bother to stop and look at them.

It is time the Comelec stops threatening senatorial bets with disqualification for such a petty offense.

What the Comelec should have done is to ensure that there would be no electoral fraud committed by Smartmatic, which is still going to operate the fraudulent machines, with the help of the Comelec cheating syndicate operating right under the noses of the poll body commissioners.