Disenfranchising half the voting population

VICE President Jojo Binay is way ahead of the other presidential aspirants, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

If the trend continues, we could have a President who won not because he presented a platform better than that of his rivals, but because voters no longer care about the virtues of honesty and integrity in candidates.

My friend probably expressed the general sentiment when he said all political candidates were of the same mold: “Pare-pareho lang sila, Mon (They’re all the same).”

The general thinking is that even if a candidate was honest when he was running for a political position, he would turn to corruption once elected.

So even an honest candidate is suspect because he is aspiring for an office that would make one corrupt.

This is the thinking of small minds which, unfortunately, many Filipino voters are.

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Why does a candidate—a mayor, for example—whose motive was to serve honestly, rob his constituents blind when he’s in power?

Because the voters forced him to cough up his hard-earned money during the campaign.

He would have to steal from the people to get back the same amount or more they extorted from him.

And even when he’s already elected, people flock to his office or house to ask money for food, medicines, transportation, tuition for their children, house rent and even “pangsugal” (gambling).

I asked a colleague in broadcast, who was elected congressman in his district in the Visayas, why he would give in to their demands.

Once, I was visiting this colleague, who is also my “compadre,” and I saw a long line of people outside the gate to his house.

“That woman over there,” he pointed to a woman in a queue outside the gate of his house, “always comes to me before the end of the month to ask money to pay her rent.”

“If I don’t give her any, she tells all the constituents in her barangay about it and I will lose votes in that barangay when I run for reelection,” my fellow journalist-turned-politician said.

He pointed out to me some of the people in the crowd of favor-seekers: a man who always asked for fare money; a young woman who came with her child and a prescription for medicines she had to buy; another man who always begged for bet money for “sabong” (cockfight).

Being forced to give dole-outs was probably the reason why he didn’t run for reelection.

He’s now back in broadcasting and happy to be out of politics.

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Why don’t we go back to the old days when illiterates—the so-called “no read, no write”—were not allowed to vote?

Disenfranchising illiterates would save the government a lot of time and effort since these people are escorted inside the polling booth by persons who can read and write.

Many of them are not aware of issues and choose candidates who buy their votes.

But then that would mean disenfranchising probably half of the voting population.