THE political tarpaulins that have been sprouting since last year may prompt the voter to ask, Are we there yet? Referring to the official campaign season, that is.
No, we are not there yet. But political candidates are already there. Advance mag-isip.
And politicians are always there, putting their portraits on tarpaulins to announce their future projects, current projects, and completed projects. Since the funds for those projects come from taxes, the madlang pehpohl’s class picture should be featured on the tarps instead. Considering that Pinas’s population is now 6.326 trillion, that’s gonna be the largest class picture ever.
Wait, 6.326 trillion is Pinas’s 2025 budget. Its population is much lower, estimated to reach 114.12 million, 113.86 million, or 113.63 million this year, depending on the total-fertility-rate scenario that the country will be in (source: Philippine Statistics Authority website).
6.326 trillion divided by 114.12 million, that’s P55,500 for each Pinoy? But my calculator refuses to calculate shady figures. If my senior moment can have mental block, and a writer can have writer’s block, my calculator can also have calculator’s block, unable to calculate numbers that only a veteran politician can fathom.
There’s this Pinoy belief that Pinas’s political candidates will do anything to win, even squeezing through the eye of a needle, as they look forward to the multi-trillion perks as the prize for their victory.
The losers, on the other hand, may be appointed to government positions by the winning team, if the winning team will like them to be part of the team. If not, the losers can look forward to a retreat in a place far, far away to contemplate on why the team doesn’t like them anymore after all the campaign-season bonding that made them thought they were now friends.
There was this candidate who always looked like the dakilang singit in his team’s photos because he always managed to insert himself in between the team’s major players each time photojournalists were around. Those photos ended up on the local newspapers’ front pages, above the fold, but his name never appeared in the captions. No wonder he lost.
The strategy now is not to be the dakilang singit but to make sure you’re the major player by making your presence felt through gigantic tarpaulins that are posted here, there, and everywhere. If your name is already coming out of the ears of Cagayan de Oro’s voters, congratulations. There’s a huge possibility you’ll win, thanks to name recall. But if the voters’ reaction is, Drugs man na siya, hmmm, if the Duterte era of tokhang is so over, you can still win.
Getting to know the history of political candidates may make voters rethink their choices. Who has the time, though, to research each candidate’s history? For example, there’s the user, misuser, and abuser. Will that story ever come out? Oh, only if the rival political team can convince the used, misused, and abused to testify, and will dare include that in their campaign soliloquy.
It’s rare for a candidate to have reached this point of no return by making pa-cute. There’s a long-term plan behind that candidacy, a plan that probably began more than ten years ago.
