Can super heroes power them up?

With tarpaulins showing his likeness gripping a sword and poised to attack, barangay councilman Joel Garganera appears to be ready for war.

With the barangay elections less than three weeks away, Garganera’s tarpaulins patterned after a fictional action hero now proliferate barangay Tinago in Cebu City.

Garganera is using “Panday,” the fictional character popularized by the late action king Fernando Poe Jr., to introduce himself to Tinago’s voters.

The cutline “Ang Pagbabalik ng Panday” splashed on the tarpaulins serves as a reminder that Garganera used to head the village for 18 years before his term ended in 2007.

“It’s more of a gimmick to get attention and somehow I succeeded,” he told Cebu Daily News.

The tarpaulins are backed online by a social networking site page, also titled “Ang Pagbabalik ng Panday,” which has so far generated 183 likes as of yesterday afternoon.

Garganera’s “Panday” tarpaulin is just one of the super hero-inspired pre-election political tarpaulins that now proliferate various city streets and even the interior of barangays to get voters’ attention.

No violation

Cebu City north district election officer Marchel Sarno said that the display of these tarpaulins do not violate any election laws because the filing of Certificates of Candidacies (COCs) has not even started yet.

“Wala may violation kay wa pa pa man tay kandidato. Would-be candidates pa lang na sila. They have to first file their COCs to become official candidates,” Sarno told CDN.

The amended Comelec resolution has scheduled the filing of COCs from October 11 to 17 while the campaign period is from October 18 to 26.

“Wala gyud tay mabuhat ana nila. Ang ato na lang nga ilhon sa mga botante ug kinsa nang mga baga ug nawng nag kandidato unya dili nila botaran inig abot sa election,” he said.

(We can’t do anything about that. We’ll just hope that the voters would discern who among them are shameless and therefore not worth voting for.)

However, Sarno said, the Cebu City government can take cognizance of the display of these huge tarpaulins and have these removed and its owners sanctioned for violation of city ordinances.

“Useless ra. Mao ra man gihapon. Ato lang unya na ipa tangtang inig ka human sa barangay election,” Mayor Michael Rama said when CDN sought for his comment.

(It’s just useless. It will just be the same. We’ll just have the tarps removed after the elections are over.)

While Rama had ordered the removal of campaign materials posted ahead of the prescribed campaign period in the May elections, he now wants to be lenient on barangay election candidates.

“Lahi to last time kay 90 days ang campaign period. Karon mubo ra kaayo ang campaign period,” he said.

(It’s different the last time as the campaign period lasted 90 days. Now, we have a shorter campaign period.)

Second look

Garganera said his “Panday”-themed campaign was conceptualized with the help of his classmates from the University of the Philippines (UP) high school batch of ‘79.

“They asked me how I plan to re-integrate after six years of being away as barangay captain. They told me to think of something catchy that will give me a second look,” he said.

His friend Rene Bacolod worked on his “Panday” tarpaulin design which was patterned from the new generation “Panday” television series of actor Jerico Rosales which was aired in ABS-CBN in 2005.

Garganera said he had 20 tarpaulins measuring 6 x 8 feet printed at P10 per sq. feet placed on display in roads surrounding barangay Tinago and in open spaces located in the barangay’s interior.

A sister who is now based in New Zealand paid for his tarpaulins.

Well-aware that the campaign period has not even started yet, Garganera said they incorporated the names of other candidates under his slate as the movie director, producer, musical arranger and cinematographer among others.

To make it look like a real movie poster, they also added an October 28 showing date on the tarpaulin and their Tinago tour scheduled from October 18 to 27.

Not wanting to be left behind, re-electionist Tinago barangay captain Domingo Lopez also plastered posters bearing his mug shot and the imprints “Being a barangay captains is a 100% full time job”.

Lopez’ group also placed on display about two weeks ago an “Avengers” themed tarpaulin which included other members of his slate.

Their tarpaulins are posted in various parts of their barangay and in most instances, beside Garganera’s “Ang Panday” tarpaulins.

Along McArthur Road, Garganera has placed on display three “Ang Panday” tarpaulins as compared to the lone “Avenger” tarpaulin of Lopez group.

In barangay Sambag 1, the group of Aileen Guardo, wife of three-term barangay captain Jerry Guardo is using the Justice League characters in their tarpaulin. But they refer to themselves as the “Performance League”.

Guardo’s group is seeking election against the group of incumbent councilor Lemar Alcover. Both are allied with the Team Rama group of Mayor Rama.

Former Guadalupe barangay captain Eugenio “JingJing” Faelnar is also using a “Return of the Jedi” themed tarpaulin to introduce his plans of again seeking election for barangay captain against re-electionist barangay captain Michael Gacasan.

Creativity

Passersby would normally stop and stare at the tarpaulins to look at the faces wearing the super hero costumes.

“Makalingaw siya kay colorful kaayo unya nindut pagkabuhat ang layout,” said 18-year old student Roy Buenaventura who saw Garganera’s “Ang Panday” tarpaulin.

Rama said the proliferation of super hero tarpaulins is a display of Cebuano creativity.

“This is a good sign. Mag hatag ni ug idea sa atong mga kabatan-onan to use their imagination,” he said.

Rama said that since the electoral process in the country has become a “showbiz competition” the use of visuals in the campaign cannot be avoided.

“Pero ang ako lang hangyo sa tanan nga managan, ayaw lang mo pangutang. Ug mangutang gani aron modagan, maayo pa mo-undang. Inig daug ana, mamawi na ug mangawat,” he said.

(I’m appealing to those who are running in the elections that they should not borrow money to fund their candidacies. If you’ll just incur debts then it’s better to stop. They will just steal from the barangay coffers should they win in the elections.)

Childish gimmick

Gacasan said that the use of super hero tarpaulins as a political gimmick is so childish. “I don’t know ug mo-paak ang mga tawo ana kay mura man ug gibinataan nila ang barangay,” said Gacasan referring to Faelnar’s “Return of the Jedi” tarpaulins. /with a report from Correspondent Edison A. delos Angeles