Ferdinand F. Fremista, Jr.

Reading and Writing

Grade 11- Rene Descartes Persuasive Essay

Loopholes of Early Politicking: Urge of the Rich and Famous

Early politicking has been popular among the citizens of the Philippines these

days- a sign that election season is about to come. As the name implies, it has been

defined as an act of campaigning for votes before the election period. The posters

and signages attached on the posts and walls, the advertisements we always saw on

commercials in the televisions and others merely indicating of candidates asking for

your precious vote.

It might be acceptable nevertheless, those politicians and candidates who

have the resources, especially “money”, are already spontaneously dominating the

televisions and radios with their expensively produced advertisements with their

faces glued on every screens and names we always hear every hour.

It will definitely be unfair among candidates lacking of financial resources and

they might be overshadowed by those big names. Starting off with the

advertisements, only rich people can afford such enormous screen times on

television, airtimes on radios, or in a form of newspaper and internet ads. Besides,

the lowly ones might be the right choice to vote but had not been given a chance to

prove themselves and were being crushed before they even step on the battlefield.

“Those aspiring politicians who do not have the same resources as the

traditional ‘rich’ political families may feel discouraged from entering the political

arena because they can’t keep up with their campaign expenses,” Atty Kenji Arman,

national secretariat of Legal Network for Truthful Election said.

 According to our Omnibus Election Code, “premature campaigning” means

electioneering before the official campaign period. This prohibition is intended to

raise the level of competition and gives an opportunity to the lowly candidates to

prove themselves. But it was all lost when the Congress amended the Republic Act

8346 with RA 9369, otherwise known as the Election Modernization Act, modifying

the definition of candidate. It states that “a person who files his/her certificate of

candidacy will only be considered a candidate at the start of the campaign period.”

Thus, early politicking is now legal in a sense and supported by law.

In addition, “The law is clear as daylight- any election offense that may be

committed by a candidate under any election law cannot be committed before the

start of the election period,” former associate justice Minita Chico-Nazario wrote in

her ponencia.

What’s worse, the budget to use before the campaign period was infinite.

Therefore, the rich candidates can now use their full resources on their early

campaigns, leaving their potential opponents behind. It gives an impact to the crowd

being convinced by some misleading propagandas of some rich but pretentious

candidates.

Furthermore, the presence of incumbent officials (officials that holds an office)

in early politicking makes the battlefield more unequal for those lowly,

disadvantaged, aspiring candidates.

“Those already in government positions have advantage of making

themselves known to people. They can use their posts, their influence and even their

offices’ resources to increase their popularity,” Atty. Aman said.

 Early politicking, especially for those who already holds a position, raises

questions in terms of transparency and accountability. We cannot monitor the money

they have spent outside of the campaign period for a reason that there’s no law that

was regulated to take action.

“COMELEC has no way of finding out or even penalizing candidates who

overspend or incumbent officials who use public funds for personal interests like

campaigns,” Atty. Aman added.

Imagine the huge loss of the country if there’s no public funds to use for the

people especially for the poor. Imagine that the funds intended for the needs of the

poor are being wasted for least important matters such as campaign funds. Is this

the true essence of election- campaigning in order to help the country yet spending

public funds to achieve it?

If all those advertisements shown in every screen are not considered early

politicking yet an exercise of freedom of speech and expression, them why it is still a

major concern for us today for just for a simple expression? I turned out that it was

all a show in order to gain popularity for the sake of their personal interests.

In the upcoming elections, we were usually asked for whom to vote and

basically seeks for the following criteria: the eagerness of the candidates to help the

country, their platforms (which we always see on their commercials these days), etc.

Then why not consider this question: Does this candidate whom this early, has

observed equality and fairness among those who were disadvantaged? How can we

possibly trust a candidate who was not fair on others and continuously crushes them

without letting them step in the arena.

 Let us not be easily convinced by some faulty promises and platforms of

some pretentious candidates. What would happen if such abusive power gets into

the authority? Open our eyes and mind to other faces that might change our county

for these are all set to happen within our hands.