The negative list

With candidates and parties opting for negative campaigning, there are now people who are also dwelling on the negative, swapping notes on who they will NOT vote for in May.

The items on such “negative lists” aren’t the usual turnoffs – the corrupt, untrustworthy liars, buffoons and human rights violators – which could eliminate a large chunk of election aspirants.

Also not included are the undereducated, since there is no educational requirement for the highest public offices in the land, and idiocy has become relative.

Instead the list of voter turnoffs contains less generalized stuff.

A common item on the list: no votes for the most brazen violators of rules (when they still existed) on the display of campaign materials, who post their posters on lampposts, trees, walls and fences of government facilities and hang the materials from utility wires.

Instead of exchanging notes on the latest binge-worthy K-dramas, photos of these illegally displayed materials are being swapped online, like the memes at the height of the onion crisis in 2022.

Any candidate who takes credit for state-funded ayuda programs is also high on the negative list.

Then there are the candidates or parties that release survey results showing them leading, but with no details on whether the survey was commissioned or not, who commissioned it, and the methodology used.

Also on the negative list are those who have figured in “wang-wang” cases – meaning not just the literal unauthorized use of sirens, blinkers and police motorcycle escorts to part traffic, but any incident wherein the candidate or his/her relatives tried jumping the line, so to speak, such as entering the EDSA busway, or using vehicles without license plates.

Politicians who tool around with a convoy of back-up vehicles full of bodyguards also raise alarm bells. Is the country so unsafe that they need a battalion of security escorts? Or do they want a wall of goons to keep out the hoi polloi? Are those security escorts on the public payroll?

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These turnoffs are on top of politicians’ abuses that keep plumbing new depths with each electoral exercise, such as the shameless dynasty-building.

On the negative list are those who want their entire clan to sit in the Senate and the party-list, and to occupy every available position in their turfs.

Borrowing an admonition from the scandal-plagued Arroyo presidency, “moderate your greed” should be a battle cry of voters in the upcoming elections. But moderate greed is an oxymoron.

Then there is the institutionalized misappropriation of public funds for personal purposes through the crafting of the national budget.

The 2025 General Appropriations Act is a watershed in congressional misuse of people’s money for personal, dynastic and partisan priorities. Obviously, those behind this mangling of the GAA believe they can get away with it. The scariest part? They might.

It says a lot about the nature of politics in this country that certain candidates who are vowing to put an end to this budget butchery by the super majority in Congress – and who might actually be able to deliver on their campaign promise – are in the administration slate.

Their mindset I guess is that in running for elective office, the end justifies the means.

This sorry situation has triggered serious discussions in various sectors about what can be done, from the mildest to the most drastic measures, to save the country from becoming Asia’s basket case.

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Among the indispensable measures is to stop sending the greedy, venal and incompetent to high public office. But these folks have tightened their stranglehold on power by ensuring the perpetuation of poverty, undereducation and dependence on state dole-outs.

Ordinary Filipinos should wonder why it’s so tough to move up in the income ladder within one lifetime in this country, while people who enter government see their wealth surge in the blink of an eye. Voters should ask such candidates: why are you so rich while we’re so poor?

And with all sorts of taxes and fees being collected for nearly all commodities and services, why is the delivery of so many basic services being turned over to the private sector? Private businessmen of course need a return on investment – the bigger the ROI and the quicker to collect, the better, before a new administration comes in and scraps or rewrites the contract.

How does the government utilize the VAT that we all pay on everything from water to medicine and food, plus the income and corporate taxes, fuel excise taxes, tariffs and a wide range of fees?

Surely the country has more urgent needs than brand-new five-star accommodations for 25 senators, or billions in additional maintenance and operating expenses for senators and congressmen.

Where do our taxes go? Partly to the upkeep of public officials’ armies of gofers and bodyguards, and partly to the election campaigns of politicians, including those posters stuck on electric poles and hanging from utility cables.

The way an election campaign is waged reflects the type of service we can expect from a candidate in case of victory. Abusive campaigners become abusive government officials.

It is said that we get the government we deserve.

Maybe we deserve the mess the country is in, for all the wrong choices that we keep making. But do your children, and your children’s children, deserve it?