Lessons Filipinos learned from US poll campaign

SACRAMENTO, California — The US presidential campaign enthralled Filipinos for two reasons. It showed them what peaks of democracy they can aim for and pitfalls to avoid. America is the best teacher. Filipinos took from her the system of directly choosing the highest official of the land.

Enviable were the debates between Barack Obama and John McCain, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. The showdowns highlighted party platforms by which voters judged the contenders for President and Vice President. Rival propagandists may have used the events for character assassination. But it didn’t overshadow the fact that candidates bared their souls. Debates are better than candidates singing, dancing and hamming onstage, as in the Philippines.

The Democratic and Republican primaries were eye openers. Filipinos learned how parties cull weak contenders. American voters themselves picked which ones should slug it out to the end. Of course, the process works only in a two-party system. But that’s the lesson. You can’t have a presidential and multiparty setup at the same time, as RP does, and expect sanity. Multiparty, suited for parliamentary, opens the door to presidential elections with six to 12 un-sifted contenders, as in 1992, 1998 and 2004 RP.

The Electoral College system further taught Filipinos that Americans in the end do not directly vote their President. The select electors do, per state. It disputes the myth that directly electing a President is a must; if at all, the Electoral College shows that parliamentary works. (This is not a plug for Charter Change at this time; any constitutional amending being pushed by elective officials can only be to prolong their terms.)

Research was deep. The press dug up everything they could about the candidates. McCain’s fondness for craps, meaning a reliance on pure throw of the dice, was compared with Obama’s adeptness in poker, which requires deliberate actions. Psychologists guested in TV shows to analyze Palin’s winks and Biden’s tics. No candidate could hide campaign spending, as laws require public disclosure, real time. Reporters did not depend on press releases alone, as many media outlets do in RP.

In most states the presidential campaign was accompanied by pushes for constitutional amendments and passage of laws. California, for one, was set at press time to vote on three amendments, including gay marriage, and nine new laws, like railway bonds and crime victims’ rights against hurried paroles. States involve voters directly in the legislative process, and make it easy for them to vote on crucial issues. In RP legislators couldn’t care less what constituents think. Imagine them saying impeachment is all a political game of numbers, then quashing the case against the President-party mate whom voters have rated negative 36 in performance.

Now for the downsides. Americans need to learn a lot from Filipinos to anticipate election fraud. For instance, in eight states, including California with the largest population, unknown but obviously partisan NDOs caused the registration of voters without authentication of identities or residences. They opened the floodgate to what Filipinos have long called “flying” voters.

Americans are only now realizing the tendency of pollsters to affect the vote. Mainland US has four time zones; media hype of exit polls that Candidate A already took the ballots in the East Coast can make followers in the West Coast complacent and not vote anymore.

Black propaganda, according to CNN, was particularly prevalent in this campaign. E-mails kept coming to spread rumors about candidates having withdrawn or divorcing spouses or suffering nervous breakdowns. TV news showed a youngster running away after defacing “Palin” posters to read “Biden”. There were phone brigades, aimed at minority, first-time or ignorant voters, announcing that Democrats could avoid the rush and cast their ballots day after Election Day.

Dumbing down American voters was the name of the game. Religious sects in California were particularly worried about the approval of same-sex marriages in the traditionally liberal state. They took out ads saying voting against its scrapping would force schools to teach gay partnerships in Fifth Grade. Too, candidates like Obama made use of the trimedia to transform themselves into celebrities with mythical accomplishments.

The clincher is that 31 states have automated counting machines that have no paper trails, thus subject to fraud. The flaw was discovered in July, but politicians raised a howl only on the weekend before balloting. Nothing new for RP, where the likes of massive cheaters like Virgilio Garcillano get to retire in luxury in condos like The Loft in Subic Bay.

(Submitted Nov. 4, 12:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, 4:30 p.m. in Manila, as Americans had yet to wake up and vote.)

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Over at San Francisco two hours away by land, ex-Speaker Joe de Venecia Jr. walked into the Philippine consulate Monday afternoon for legal services. He wished to endorse the impeachment complaint filed by, among others, his son Joey III against Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and so needed a diplomat to witness his signing. Consulate officials were at first hesitant to administer the oath, apparently worried about career repercussions. But Consul Antonio Morales bravely performed his ministerial functions.

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