Bets told: No posters please

CEBU, Philippines - With the May 2013 campaign period fast approaching, candidates, both local and national, are requested to use other campaign paraphernalia aside from posters.

This was according to Cebu City’s Anti-Vandalism Czar Clarence Paul Oaminal, who stated that posters that have been pasted on walls from the last elections continue to be a problem at present.

Oaminal, along with some other volunteers from different sectors including fraternities in Cebu, went around the city to paint walls that have been vandalized. This is in line with the Brigada Hapsay Sugbo, which is an advocacy to clear city roadside walls and buildings from graffiti as well as educating the youth of the rich heritage of Cebu.

He explained that one of their concerns in cleaning the roadside walls in the city are the campaign posters from the last elections that are remained pasted on walls. He said these posters, mostly made of paper, are very hard to take out, and with the campaign period fast approaching, they fear that their earlier efforts to have a “cleaner Cebu” will be wasted.

“Please think before you post and paste,” said Oaminal.

He explained that there are supposedly laws and prohibitions on the posting of campaign paraphernalia but it is never followed.

“There are laws but in the end it all boils down whether the person would be decent enough to follow the law. In the first place, we do not need laws for people to do what is right.”

He said that the politicians who make the excuse that their supporters are the ones who paste the posters anywhere and that they do not make the orders are those that are not real leaders. “If they could not take charge of their supporters how much more the people of the city or town or province they are trying to serve.”

He said candidates can have their campaign stickers or posters on their vehicles, walls of their homes and of their supporters, but should not be on sports complex, school gates and fences, market buildings and utility posts. —/FPL (FREEMAN)