‘Sen. Manny Pacquiao would have done this country an enduring and great service if he had given up his presidential run and instead organized a collective watchdog movement against vote-buying nationwide for a genuinely free and honest election.’
THE real tragic thing about the recent local and national elections was that the government or any authority has again failed its lawful mandate to enforce the law against vote-buying.
Vote-buying has been so widespread that practically no one cares about reporting it to the police or the Commission of Elections, much less resisting it. Local candidates, most especially, outdo their rivals by providing larger sums to voters selling their votes.
After the elections, no one is inclined to determine the candidates who have engaged in vote-buying, and indeed, voters benefiting from vote-buying candidates would not turn out to be whistle-blowers. Voters have been richer twice over — from the opposing camps who freely give out bribe money.
The poll body and the PNP are supposed to go after and arrest vote-buyers, but they have been generally silent about the mounting reports of vote-buying. Worse, Malacanang seems to condone or encourage vote-buying.
It was disturbing that national candidates, including the presidential and vice-presidential aspirants, chose not to speak against it at a crucial time when open vote-buying fatally hindered and demeaned the democratic exercise of choosing the right people to run this nation.
Many residents in three barangays in Quezon City said that not even the president of the country can stop the already customary vote-buying, which seems to have kicked-off the rampant and endemic corruption in the government and private sector.
Sen. Manny Pacquiao would have done this country an enduring and great service if he had given up his presidential run and instead organized a collective watchdog movement against vote-buying nationwide for a genuinely free and honest election.
He was regarded with rare moral scruples to apply his own abundant resources and strong Christian convictions to bravely commence and sustain this noble purpose. He would have been greater than any president.
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Incoming press secretary Trixie Angeles probably does not know the unwieldy and essentially ignorant sector she will force her new boss to face. From the esteemed veteran newsman Vergel Santos: “Further to the discussion provoked by incoming press secretary Trixie Angeles’ announcement that she will accredit bloggers to cover BBM’s presidency.
The idea is dangerous. It tends to legitimize the false impression that bloggers are journalists, and as such, part of the institution that the democratic constitution assigns as people’s watchdog on government – the press. Blogging is not journalism, not even in the loosest sense. It’s a cheap, individualistic, free-wheeling operation. One need not train for it, and anyone can go into it. It’s not unlike getting on a soap box and shooting one’s mouth off.
“Journalism, on the other hand, is both a profession and a trade, governed by ethical and moral standards and rules of practice. Journalists are trained in certain disciplines and skills, and their works go through layer upon layer of specialist vetting — for truthfulness and fairness, not to mention technicalities of craft and law – before being put out there for all the public to see.
“For a graphic description: Journalism is a piloted train, blogging is a runaway one.”
