VOTER education: Does it teach you everything but how to choose your candidate wisely?
Then again, wisdom is subjective. Surely, if I am to be wise I would have to be nice to myself first.
Remember what Cardinal Sin told voters who were torn between being wise and nice? He said, “Accept their money but vote according to your conscience.”
How many of us can vote wisely when we don’t understand how those machines work? Or how to choose from among candidates who are just now presenting themselves to us?
For the moment, it’s famous candidates Lito Lapid, Mark Lapid, and Edu Manzano who are giving ABS-CBN a headache: how to write them out of the script of the TV series “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano” in accordance with the law that doesn’t favor extra mileage on the screen for memorable faces.
Old faces and new, there’s also such a thing as familiar and similar names. One of these days, those handling voter education classes might ask Comelec to institute a new rule: Only candidates with rare surnames should be allowed to run, because if their names are not exotic enough, they could be declared nuisances for simply owning a similar family name as another candidate.
Which was what happened to a first-time senatorial candidate. Lemy Roxas, Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino, has just found to his dismay that he was disqualified for owning the same family name as our one and only Mar Roxas, 2019 senatorial candidate, 2016 presidential candidate, former investment banker, senator, and cabinet secretary. Lemy Roxas has his own credentials, though certainly not as impressive or well-known as Mar’s, but he is head of the MIT Alumni Association and president of the Philippine Society of Engineers, owns two big buildings in Quezon City and big farms in Pampanga. In other words, he wasn’t plucked out of the kangkong swamp, with neither money nor resources to fund his campaign.
Campaign should be spelled campaign; such a pain. You’re a nuisance ‘cause you’re poor, you’re a nuisance ‘cause you may be rich but didn’t apply for a legal change of name before you faced the almighty Comelec.
