Caucuses and campaign rallies

Before a voter lifts his pen to list down his choices for the vacant positions, namely twelve senators, a governor, a member of the House of Representatives, a mayor, a vice mayor and councilors, he will have to see or hear the funniest and conversely most thought-provoking campaign speeches in the miting de avance. News video footages and voice clips will not hide the truthful and the feigned in the candidates. The ordinary citizens are the best news sources and they make news worth the wait. They may give the plus or minus in the candidates’ chance of winning the battle. But the cabal of detractors, paid or not, is what candidates should be wary of because they may sound truthful and unfeigned although they are acting not for the people’s welfare and common good but to advance their candidates’ interest.

Campaign rallies are not hard to find these days because they definitely abound and the filing of certificates of candidacy is set next week. They are exciting places to past the time in, except of course certain security threats. These are the fora that electors with good intentions should attend if only they are not restrained and prejudiced by the so-called political leaders. In campaign rallies, the candidates revealed their souls – they dance, they sing even if they have none of these talents. This is the time they allow their selves to be the clown on the stage, the laughing stock, the people’s butt of joke. This is the only time that the taxpayers could truly feel that the candidates are at par with their economic and intellectual level.

Caucuses are major events as well, especially for the media to feast on, in this election season. Here is where the minutiae of the campaign strategies unfold and the colorful turns gray and the pale blooms sky bright. Here is where the included is not excluded and the excluded is not included. Here is where the battle begins where only the toughest and the fittest survive. The fund kitty, of course, is another factor to bolster who’s in and who’s out. Political caucuses settle what principles and ideologies could not reconcile. Well, to say the least, this is what marks the Philippine politics.