Reason and Concern

BY RONQUILLO TOLENTINO

Hopefully, peaceful elections

Don’t look now but the days are really getting shorter as the May 13, 2013 elections draw near.

With the thick and busy schedules of political candidates, inclusive of sleepless nights and stress thinking on the probable results, certain bets may now have asked themselves why they have entered  the game of politics and the aspiration to be elected.

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Gauged from the March 30, 2013 time that the campaign period for local candidates started, I had keenly observed what's going on in the provinces through print and broadcast media accounts. This I did knowing well that in past local elections, it is where police authorities would give account of certain political violence happening, well-aware as they do that there are some provinces where political violence would suddenly occur.

Good that as I write this, the areas of concern earlier identified by the Philippine National Police have not reported politics-related violence. This augurs well for a peaceful May 13, 2013 elections. `Hopefully, it shall be the way it is even after the elections are over.

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On the importance of elections, it is worth to remember  the case of  Perez vs Suller, 40 Off. Gaz., Third Supp., 266, thus:

“As long as popular government is an end to be achieved and safeguarded, suffrage, whatever the modality and form devised, must continue to be the means by which the great reservoir of power must be emptied into the receptacular agencies wrought by the people through their Constitution in the interest of good government and the common weal. Republicanism, in so far as it implies the adoption of a representative type of government, necessarily points to the enfranchised citizen as a particle of popular sovereignty and as the ultimate source of the established authority. He has a voice in the government and whenever possible, it is the solemn duty of the judiciary, when called upon to act in justiciable cases, to give efficacy and not to stifle or frustrate it.”

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President Benigno Aquino III is really bent in making his senatorial Team PNoy achieve total victory.

Any political observer would probably agree with the observation that no past presidents have done what President Aquino is doing or continues to do.

The President's seriousness is evident.  Each senatorial candidate has each a brief endorsement from the President in televisions advertisements.

In one television advertisement, he stresses the importance of never returning to the corruption of the past, indirectly hinting that his senatorial ticket are immaculate and thus should be supported.

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The Supreme Court turned down the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) airtime limits by issuing a status quo ante order. It is a return to the state prior to Comelec Resolution No. 9615 and on the amendments stated in Comelec Resolution No 9631 which limited television and radio campaign commercials.