EDITORIAL - Political suspensions like cooking contests

It is difficult to consider it political harassment because the fact of the matter is, they are indeed facing charges, one of the consequences of which is that they may have to face suspension. It is much easier to just to call the Sandiganbayan suspensions of Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza and Cebu provincial board member Celestino Martinez III so close to the election in which they are running as coincidental.

But even coincidences can get tacky sometimes, especially when they begin to exhibit a certain pattern. Coincidences and patterns are like oil and water. They simply do not go together. So when coincidences begin to follow a certain regularity, it is not going out on a limb to suspect that some coincidences may not be real coincidences at all.

If Radaza and Martinez truly deserve to be suspended, then it should not be the skin off anybody's back that they do. But there is a sense of discomfort that cannot be avoided when political personalities get suspended right about elections time. Remember that elections come around only once every three years. When nobody gets suspended for two and a half years then suddenly a whole ship arrives close to election time to start unloading suspendees, credulity can really get stretched.

Radaza and Martinez are not the only Cebuano political figures who have been suspended close to an election in which they are supposed to be running. Cebuanos remember quite well how then Governor Gwen Garcia very nearly had to be physically removed from the Capitol owing to the uproar caused by the suspicious timing of her suspension.

Only Very recently, in Metro Manila, Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay was finally removed successfully from office after trying to stave of suspension. So many more lesser known personalities have suffered the same fate -- of being removed from office so close to an election. Again, these personalities do have cases against them and that suspensions are a prospect that they all face as a consequence. The public has no problem accepting that.

What taxes the public's intelligence is when the suspensions come almost all together at a most inordinate time. It is like watching those reality cooking contests on television when all the contestants just cannot help but finish all in the nick of time at the same time -- "time's up, hands up" and all the hands would rise simultaneously to beat the clock. Is there no one among the contestants who can finish 10 minutes earlier, or five, or two? Must they all finish together?

The same with wrestling matches -- it is always just before the count of three that a wrestler manages to break free, never at one, or at two. When such things happen, people do not have to smell something fishy. The fish leaps right at you like the invasive Asian carp. If an official has to be suspended for 90 days, why does the suspension never come 150 days before an election, or even 120 days? Why must it always come so that the 90 days can neatly cover the election period?