Theres The Rub
Nuisance

By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:09:00 12/20/2009
Filed Under: Politics, Elections

I’VE NEVER CEASED TO WONDER AT THE astonishing concept that the Comelec has the power to disqualify candidates for their inability to mount a “winnable” campaign. It has exercised this power before, but only against relatively more obscure candidates. That batty concept really revolves around two things only—money and party. You’ve got neither, you’re out.

Seemingly a reasonable proposition, it is in fact an insane one—and nowhere more so than in the context of Philippine elections. In fact the very concept of “nuisance candidates”—quite apart from the Comelec’s qualifications to glimpse it—is already insane. I’ve always said the so-called “nuisance candidates” were a trick mirror reflecting the madness of our elections.

Which is more insane: An impoverished candidate saying that if he wins as president, he will use the public coffers to give each Filipino a million bucks, or a candidate who has invested billions of pesos in his campaign promising to give to the poor after he becomes president? And yet the one is deemed nuisance and the other respectable. Nowhere however has the insanity reached mind-boggling proportions than today. Today, three candidates are being prevented from running for president and senator. They are Nicky Perlas (president) and Danilo Lim and Danton Remoto (senators).

The Comelec of course has been careful not to refer to them as “nuisance,” though I wouldn’t be surprised if that is its private opinion of them. Its ground for disqualifying them is precisely that they have no money and party. A judgment that can only blow back at the faces of the judges. Except for JC de los Reyes, who has a party there? Only De los Reyes belongs to a party that can be called that in any serious sense. All the others belong only to halfway houses that traveling politicians take temporary shelter, or refuge, in before going their not very merry way.

That brings us to money, which Nicky has every right and reason to protest in the most violent terms. It’s not just that it discriminates capriciously, it’s that it discriminates against a virtue. Not having money may not entirely guarantee that if one wins, one will not steal. But it sure as hell is a better guarantee than spending billions to do so. Candidates do not normally spend billions to become president just so they can have the privilege of serving the people.

More than that, who, in God’s or Beelzebub’s name, are the Comelec commissioners to say a candidate has no chance to win? It’s not just that miracles have been known to happen, it’s that one has already happened, which is these candidates are running so despite the odds. Their running in fact gives an object lesson in electoral wisdom. They’re a reminder that as a voter you do not win by voting for the “winnable” candidate, you win only when you vote for the candidate you believe deserves to win—whether he does win or not. The only real victories are internal, not external; moral, not physical.

The Comelec says in the case of Lim that he was depriving the electorate “a full range of choices.” No judgment could be more stupid. In fact all three—Perlas, Lim and Remoto—singly and collectively offer the electorate the fullest range of choices they’ve ever had. Perlas’ credentials are unassailable. He is easily the most brilliant mind to have joined the presidential race. I know what you’re thinking: “If he’s brilliant, why did he join the race?” Precisely because he is—in ways that defy conventional wisdom. Whether he personally wins or not, he gives this country a chance to win. Not least by listening to his views on the environment, a thing that holds life-and-death consequences for us today.

The same thing is true of Lim. He may not run because he may not serve his term anyway even if he wins? Well, that only calls attention to why he—as indeed Antonio Trillanes—may not do so. While at that, however, Lim, unlike Trillanes, did what he did not before but after 2004, when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was proven by the “Hello Garci” tape to have mounted a coup regime, a seizure of power by ballot if not by bullet. There is no fuller range of choices than including a candidate that bears directly on GMA’s illegitimacy.

As to Danton, what’s the Comelec’s beef with him? They worry that if a gay wins as senator he is going to try to turn the Senate into a beauty parlor? Jinggoy and the other entertainers are more likely to do that. Or at least turn the Senate into a movie set, composed of bad actors. Poet, essayist, educator, politician, gay: Danton has worn all these with pride. We no longer think in terms of men and women when looking at candidates—we’ve had two women presidents (GMA from January 2001 to May 2004)—why should we think in terms of gay and straight when looking at them? Forget the Bible-spouting types; they’re trapped in the Old Testament. And you don’t know for sure whether they fear God’s wrath or their own sexuality.

But in the end, as with martial law in Maguindanao, it’s not the objective situation, it’s the subjective judge. It’s not whether the candidates ought to be weeded off or not; it’s whether the Comelec has any right to weed them off or not. Frankly, I do not see why we have to be at the mercy of an institution that has shown itself only to be the problem rather than the solution to elections. An institution that has been known to cheat in the past (the “Hello Garci” scandal), in the present (the second division’s attempt to unseat Ed Panlilio, Grace Padaca and Jesse Robredo, the last two are Magsaysay awardees for public service), and in the future (its brand of automation).

Remove Perlas, Lim and Remoto from the list of candidates? Remove the Comelec from the face of the earth! Nothing more richly deserves to be called:

Nuisance.

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