Money for nothing

GOVERNMENT officials who are eyeing elective posts have already spent at least P117 million in taxpayers’ money on their so-called infomercials, according to the Commission on Audit (COA), and that is not even the grand total because not all the disbursements and contracts for these infomercials have been submitted to the COA auditors.

The amount of P117 million only reflects what has been reported so far, and mind you, we are still a couple of months away from the official deadline for filing certificates of candidacy for elective posts. How much more of taxpayers’ money could these government officials spend to promote themselves? And why should they be allowed to brag about their departments’ accomplishments when they should be doing their jobs in the first place. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) should really put a stop to this sham.

The public should be wary of these infomercials. Indeed, there should be a public backlash against such crass campaigning, where candidates with huge war chests, owing to the budgets their departments can allocate for “public information” already have a huge advantage in elections. In short, voters should not vote for these government officials who advertise themselves on popular media using taxpayers’ money.

Obviously, this backlash is the only thing that could work, because the Comelec, whether for lack of personnel and resources or political will, seems to have given up on the job. There should be a ban on political advertisements until the official campaign period, but the Comelec is allowing these offenders to do their thing. The Comelec has given us the impression that there is nothing that could be done against early campaigning and this further emboldens the offenders.

It is the Comelec’s job to ensure an honest and fair election. Part of this job is leveling the playing field when it comes to campaigning. Even as the Comelec prepares for the 2010 election, its people should be watching out for election misconduct, glaring as these are as evidenced by these infomercials.

If they need more people to monitor violations and ensure punishment, then they should ask for it in their budget. If they need more teeth in election laws then they should make the appropriate measures (as a quasi-judicial body they can do so) or ask Congress to make remedial legislation. But certainly we cannot allow this thing to happen again. Sayang ang pera ng taumbayan. Napupunta lang sa walang katuturan.–Ernesto F. Herrera, Manila Times