Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Politics Again...

.:Chiz Facts!:.

According to Chiz Escudero facts, si Chiz lang ang tinantanan ni Mike Enriquez.

Find out about these and more facts on their site. As most red Magic players would say, “Chiz is the answer”.

You know, I was tempted to be shameless, but I decided that it’s in poor form to throw around a Challenge Of The Super-Duper Friends link just because I can.

.:When I Think About It…:.

Well, Victor Wood may still not be getting my vote this coming elections, but he made a valid point that I hope would be a springboard for people to follow up on.

During last Sunday’s episode of Isang Tanong, it was clear that Victor Wood was unaware about a lot of issues plaguing the country. He was working under a very simplistic but practical platform of reforming the electoral system, and I must say that he had a valid point.

Currently, we have mid-term elections, the presidential elections, and the Barangay elections. I’m not fully aware if the SK elections are a different part of the equation, but every single election is costly and daunting as an undertaking. Billions of pesos are being spent for logistics, and it would make the most sense if these expenses are minimized to a once-every-six-years event, as Victor Wood has been harping on.

Let’s face it. The biggest winners in these coming elections are the TV networks where we see television ads like the infamous GaGO Ang Oposisyon ad, among other stellar examples of advertising.

With Over a hundred million being spent by Pichay alone in his campaigns, wouldn’t it make sense if a mere fraction of that instead went to some cause? A mere 1% of 100 million bucks is a million bucks. Imagine if that went to some charity instead of for more political ads.

It’s ridiculous how this campaign turned into a money game, where the biggest amount of money is now being spent on advertisement, and it’s not even merely for pushing for awareness about a candidate. A good chunk of these advertisements are for bringing down other candidates, in fact. It’s tacky, especially since the attacks have been mainly ad hominem, and issues only come second.

Victor Wood made a valid point. Over a hundred million from Pichay alone. Split that between the television networks, and they just made a killing. Meanwhile, other candidates who may or may not be good but are lesser known like the guys from Ang Kapatiran are heavily underrepresented and unable to gain a foothold in the public consciousness simply because they can’t afford it.

One must ask, then… with this kind of money being thrown around, why is there such a big deal over a job that only pays a so-so amount of money? Regardless if the campaign funds are donations, isn’t this huge amount of money being collected clearly worth funneling elsewhere instead? Shouldn’t the government networks simply give free air time to all candidates instead of virtually killing the chances of people whose pockets aren’t nearly as deep?

Victor Wood will probably never win as senator. Heck, he won’t even win my vote. But he speaks the truth. There’s too much money being spent in elections. Money that could go to better use.

1 comment:

lateralus said...

Red mages represent! BOLT! INCINERATE! SHOCK! KINDLE! hehe

Yeah, I did watch that part and boy, did Victor Wood have a stroke of genius! [term used loosely]