They’ve made their bed

Well, consumatum est. It is finished. The American people have voted, and they have chosen to recycle their president. So they will have him for another four years, and if he disappoints them – as he had done earlier in his term, but made them forget later – that’s their worry. As the saying goes, “They made their bed, let them lie in it”.

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Whichever channel you turned to yesterday, you will see the faces of a triumphant Barack Obama and a trying-hard-to-look-happy Mitt Romney. One thing we have to admit about the Americans, they are good sports. Okay lang, that’s the will of the people. We didn’t hear anybody sourgraping or threatening to file a protest, or making snide remarks about having been cheated. Oh no, from their speeches, one would think they belong to the same mutual admiration club.

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When can our own politicians come to behave like that? Perhaps when our election results come out as quickly and as convincingly as theirs did. In just about 24 hours after the balloting, the Obama camp was already prancing around in glee, while the Romney team was trying to put on their best faces and smiles. Oh, both the winner and the loser gave beautiful speeches all about I love America stuff, to the thunderous applause of their supporters. I don’t know if the Republicans also had parties, but, for sure, the Democrats were rejoicing all night.

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In the meantime, back here in our own country, the to-do is all about the party list people who are about to storm the Supreme Court with their petitions against the decisions of the Commission on Election to cancel the accreditations and bar them from the coming election. So far, more than 60 have already fallen by the wayside, and more are being dropped among the way. The latest had 16 casualties, chopped off by the Comelec board sitting en banc. Bully for Chairman Sixto Brilliantes and his fellow commissioners. That’s real political will for you!

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Actually, just hearing the names and seeing the faces of the people who have gotten into the House of Representatives as members via the party list channel could really make one wonder what really was meant by those who introduced that concept in our constitution. And how previous Comelec officials interpreted it to mean that any millionaire or business tycoon or frustrated candidate can make it to the House through it. Just to think of the P70 million per annum gifted to those who truly did not deserve to be lawmakers could make one shiver in disgust.

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I was elated to see a news report yesterday saying that some people from the academe have slammed the obnoxious “Right to Reply” bill filed by some reprehensible characters years ago. I recall how the Philippine Press Institute, during one of its annual conferences, had taken that proposed bill apart. Well, it seems nobody of worth has taken pains to push it, and now, even some senators are saying that it deserves to go to the back burner. Everybody, even those not involved with media could see the intentions of those who sponsored that bill, you see.

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Another move now is for the decriminalization of libel, about which I have heard a long time ago, but which had not taken off since. Now it looks as if some solons are taking it seriously. I hope people do not interpret it to mean that the crime of libel will be cancelled forever. I understand this only means that conviction for it will not entail imprisonment, only fines. Of course that will be more painful for journalists, I mean, hitting them in the breadbasket. Media people who can afford any amount imposed on them as fines for libeling some characters, are as rare as the proverbial hen’s teeth. So, maybe they will be even more careful about libeling people with this.

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Meanwhile, I saw a very interesting report from the wire services in Jerusalem recently. It said that more journalists in Israel are getting into politics. News reporters, TV personalities, columnists are crowding into the political arena, edging out some of the military officials who have been holding fort there for some time now. And they are likely to get elected, too, what with their long exposures and familiarity to voters. Some have even formed their own political parties.

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Now, where did they get such ideas? Could they have been hearing about the Philippines where politics is now turning out to be the sidelines of media personalities and movie stars? The way things are going now, there may be hundreds of movie and other media people moving into both national and local government offices here. In fact, you can no longer count on the fingers of both hands, and even on the toes of both feet, the number of those who have filed their certificates of candidacy, some even trying to bluff their way in, faking residences in their supposedly ancestral places. Were they the ones who motivated the Israelis?*

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