He's got me excited

If you were a candidate to an elective office, you would probably not want to spend millions of pesos during the campaign, just to get elected. Given a choice, many a trapo politician would not want to either. Think of all the hassles such a campaign process entails.

First off is where to get those millions. Even if he were extremely wealthy, a candidate will not wish to squander off ten, twenty, fifty or a hundred million of his own money, just to get into a public office that will pay him less than Three Million in salary during his entire term. If he can avoid it, he will not borrow the funds from a bank, either, because he will still have to pay it back, with interest and charges to boot. The candidate can of course solicit the funds from third parties.

The problem with that, however, is that no donor is so philanthropic that he will give Mr. Candidate millions of pesos gratis et amore. The ones who will give expect to get something in return; and the size of the amount solicited becomes commensurate to the politician's obligation to pay it back, in cash or in kind. By the time he gets the millions needed to win under a trapo-type campaign, Mr. Candidate's independence as a public officer no longer exists. He becomes a slave to the financiers that helped him win.

The trapo system also recommends that the candidate enters into some kind of deal with organized voters' groups, such as the association of sidewalk vendors, public utilities, squatters, etc. He may get their votes then, but the trade-off is that he protects them during his term of office. The result, as expected, is a breakdown in law and order. And all of us suffer because of it.

Very clearly, the enemy during the election period is not the politician or the candidate - it is the system that forces both the incumbent and the candidate to be trapo (translate that into "political incompetents"). If we are ever going to have clean and honest elections, and get leaders with vision and independence, we will have to break that system down. Here is where we go into a "Catch 22" situation. Who will initiate the demolition job? The politicians? Or the voters?

During his program "Crossline" on Channel 14 last Thursday, Atty. Joel Dojillo offered a simple but definitely intriguing proposal. He suggested that the best person who can break the system down is a candidate, an erstwhile non-politician, who must be so well-known by all segments of society that he will not need to indulge in huge campaign spending in order to get people to vote for him. He must also be so influential that he can muster a campaign organization of volunteers large enough and possessed with more than enough muscle to place him into office without his having to deal with interest groups that will demand less than good governance from him.

If this candidate can be made to win, Joel believes he will not be beholden to anyone but the general electorate, owe no one but his conscience and carry out his public duties as it should be carried out - for the good of the majority. He will also have broken the myth of the trapo system of election campaign and forever change the election landscape.

Is there such a man in our city and our province. Yes, suggested Joel Dojillo. Mr. Ricardo Yanson Sr. That got me excited!*

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