By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL
PLATFORMS over personalities.
Four months before the elections, a poll watchdog has urged candidates, voters and key stakeholders in the 2016 presidential elections to raise the level of discourse from personality-driven politics to an issue-based exercise.
“The electoral players seem to be forgetting a basic fact: that the elections are about the people, and not just about candidates,” Task Force Eleksyon (TFE) 2016, the largest nationwide coalition of electoral reform advocates, said in a statement Thursday.
This was prompted by how electoral discourse has so far centered on pedigrees, private histories, personal attacks, fluctuations of survey results and shifting alliances at the cost of discussing pressing national issues, policies and plans of action.
“Nakakalungkot ngayon na ilang linggo na, ang pinag-uusapan, sampalan, personality. Hindi kung ano ba ‘iyong isyu niyo, ‘iyong plano niyo, ‘iyon ang mga hindi sikat sa media eh. (Sadly, for a couple of weeks now, discussions only revolve on conflicts between personalities. Actual platforms are not brought up in the media),” lawyer and Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) executive director Rona Ann Caritos said.
TFE 2016 challenged candidates to declare the specific policies they will put into place if ever elected, their programs for the poor and the marginalized, and their stances on the following issues:
- corruption
- peace in Mindanao and the Bangsamoro Basic Law
- Lumad killings
- disputes in the West Philippine Sea
- extrajudicial killings
- human rights violations
- freedom of the press
- disaster preparedness
- climate change
“Boring nga naman pakinggan (ang mga plataporma at isyu) pero siyempre kailangan natin piltin dikdikin sa mga tao na ito dapat ang kanilang pagmatiyagan sa darating na eleksyon. (Platforms and issues may be boring to some, but we must exert an effort to emphasize to voters that these are what they must look out for in the elections),” Caritos pointed out.
With recent news reports focusing on arguments between poll officials and disqualification cases of certain presidential candidates, preparations for the coming elections have also been set aside, the lawyer said.
“How about the voting machines? We’re so concerned with other issues that we forget to talk about important matters such as the availability of voting machines and the source code review,” Caritos said.
Last week, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) indefinitely postponed the roadshow of voting machines intended for members of the media in the National Capital Region originally scheduled on January 13.
Prior to the event, top Comelec officials had a very public disagreement over the disqualification case of presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the poll body decided to wait for the mock elections in February before displaying the voting machines in public. He assured that there have been no glitches in the acquisition of the voting machines so far.
Meanwhile, TFE 2016 will hold Kwentuhang Bayan, a series of debates aimed at encouraging electoral participation and providing an avenue for people from diverse backgrounds to air out their concerns. The senatorial forum will start on March 21 but no dates have been set yet for the local debates.
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