Wasted

The printing of ballots, already on a tight schedule, has ground to a halt. The ballots already printed will have to be destroyed. About P130 million worth of security paper goes to waste.

Suddenly, it becomes possible that we could fail to deliver election paraphernalia to all the precincts by the time the May elections roll around. Our electoral process is extraordinarily tedious, both because of the system of representation we opted for and the electronic counting system we adopted. Holding elections is a logistical monstrosity in this country where system failure lurks at every stage.

Any effort to simplify the elections process requires both constitutional reform and the reversal of the electronic counting process installed by law. The present counting system was recently procured at a staggering cost of P18 billion.

The tragedy of it all is that this complex electoral process does not install the best and the brightest in power. What it does is to undermine the political party system and build a “kakistocracy” – a government by the least suitable and least competent citizens.

It is bad enough that dynastic politics proliferates unchecked and that state resources are diverted to fund vote-buying. In this electoral cycle the least qualified are poised to dominate.

A restraining order was issued by the Supreme Court to give way to the petitions filed by five candidates for various posts. The petitions are not entirely without merit – although they happen late in the day and disrupt poll preparations. This gives new meaning to the to the Latin maxim about letting justice prevail even if the heavens fall.

Unless the petitions are resolved quickly, the heavens could fall.

Someone from the poll body estimates the petitions could take up to six weeks to resolve. That is too long. Given that we have to print ballots unique to every locality, the printing process could be overtaken by elections.

This is not the first time that printing of ballots was delayed by a restraining order from the courts. But the Comelec insists on its tired old method of treating every candidacy as unique unto itself.

Every electoral cycle, the Comelec weeds out the list of candidates. There is no other purpose for this exercise except to ensure that the list of candidates fit the prescribed ballot. Back to when voters had to write down the names of their preferred candidates, the number of candidates was hardly a problem.

What Comelec could have done was to come up with a detailed formulary to identify which candidate will be declared a nuisance. That will at least limit the number of petitions for judicial intervention that may be considered viable. But that will diminish the ability of the Comelec to play the role of final arbiter.

Upsets

Much as the format of our electoral politics heavily favors incumbents and, thus, dynasties, there is still space for voters to register their disgust for leaders who fail them and for incumbents facing renegade newcomers.

Over the last few electoral cycles, we have seen mighty dynasties fall. Among the most notable casualties of voter rebellions are the 40-year del Rosario family rule over Davao del Norte. Notable, too, is the upset pulled by Vico Sotto over Bobby Eusebio who ruled Pasig for 27 years.

In this electoral cycle, there are wide variances in electoral prospects between incumbent political leaders who performed well and those who did not. The sitting mayors of Pasig and Quezon City are largely uncontested. In contrast, the sitting mayor of Manila is trailing her rival by some distance, according to the surveys.

The same wide divergence in electoral prospects happens in the congressional districts as well. Many of the non-performers are facing voter revolts, according to local voter preference surveys recently conducted.

In Parañaque, for instance, the well-entrenched Tambunting dynasty is facing strong challenge of rising new players. According to the latest SWS voter preference survey (November 2024), challenger Brian Raymund Yamsuan holds a substantial 51 percent lead over incumbent Gus Tambunting’s 38 percent. This is a large leap from the September survey where the incumbent enjoyed 44 percent voter preference to the challenger’s 38 percent.

Gus Tambunting dominated the city’s politics for over three decades. He began as city councilor and then served as vice mayor. He was elected representative of the city’s 2nd district in 2016, to be replaced by his wife in 2019. In 2022, he won the district again – although with a diminished lead over a poorly funded challenger.

Yamsuan is not exactly a political novice. He sits in the current Congress as Bicol Saro representative. In the 90s, he worked for then Senate president Edgardo Angara. After that, he served as chief of staff to former press secretary Dong Puno. In 2001, he served as chief of staff for senator Tessie Oreta. He then served as DILG assistant secretary to Ronnie Puno in 2006. In 2019, he served as deputy secretary general of the House of Representatives.

A resident of BF Homes the past 25 years, Yamsuan has initiated numerous civic projects for the people of Parañaque. His many conversations with ordinary folk in the city convinced him to challenge the well-entrenched incumbent.

From the relative safety of his party-list seat, he ventures to become a full-fledged district representative for a constituency he feels want change.