Sneaky campaign tactics

There certainly is no campaigning today, Maundy Thursday  and tomorrow, Good Friday  even if Friday, March 29,   is the official start of the national and local campaign period.

Cebu candidates have ways of skirting around the regulations as shown in recent days. Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, for one, said that he didn’t want to make the rounds of  barangay centers where senior citizens’ cash  assistance was being distributed by City Hall staff.

But lo and behold, several staff of the mayor’s office were there wearing Team Rama T-shirts. We wouldn’t be  surprised if the shirts bear the mayor’s slogan  “Together We Can Make Things Happen.”

When barangay officials allied with the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) pointed this out and reporters asked  Rama, the mayor merely shrugged and said he doesn’t control anyone who wants to wear the Team Rama campaign T-shirt.

This kind of denial is  part  of the political game. Not that we  blame him. His  predecessor, former political patron and rival Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district had been distributing hopia with the BO-PK and Type O brand.

All over the city, campaign posters clutter public walls. Political ads are aired on TV and radio. Voter courtship happens in the province in different disguises.

Rep. Pablo John Garcia twitted his rival, Liberal Party-Cebu gubernatorial candidate Hilario Davide III, for using his father’s image and title on banners as former chief justice to raise his profile among the Cebuanos.

Look who’s talking, Davide retorted, when Pablo John and his sister  Gwen  are visiting the whole province in tandem to promote each other’s candidacies—Pablo John for the Capitol, suspended Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia for the third congressional district.

With a battery of lawyers at their disposal, it’s not unusual to see usually upstanding candidates resort to every trick in the book to prematurely  campaign for votes knowing that their rivals are doing the same.

The  Commission on Elections (Comelec) will have a tough time enforcing  rules on campaign period and finances with  candidates using  every loophole to maximize  facetime with the voting public.

Still it won’t be a surprise if no candidates will campaign today and the next two days. Even politicians need to take a  break during the holiest of weeks.

But expect  politicians to be visible on Easter Sunday when the official campaign season begins. For now, let’s  reflect on Holy Week and decide, among other things, who deserves our votes in May 13.