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Bacolod City, Philippines Monday, October 15, 2012
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TIGHT ROPE
WITH MODESTO P. SA-ONOY

Nuisance

TIGHT ROPE
WITH MODESTO P. SA-ONOY

Another word for “nuisance” is pain, so that nuisance candidates are considered as a pain in the ass for serious politicians who are challenged by another with a similar surname with only one purpose – to harass and to cause the straying of votes cast for the serious candidate.

I have yet to know of an election time for public office when there is no nuisance candidate, sometimes not with the same surname, but just with the same nickname.

Some serious candidates are also faced with another authentic candidate with the same surname but this is hardly a battle of two nuisance contenders, but of families as this Julius Sayson claims.

Sometimes someone with the same middle name becomes a nuisance by using the middle rather than the family name. The recent case of Rep. Alejandro Yulo Mirasol and Dindo Yulo is a matter of using the “Yulo” name that confuses some people. Hardly can we say one is a nuisance candidate.

In fact after the election, I was asked by GMA in Manila for clarification about this situation. GMA considered this as a rivalry of families or the perpetuation of a Yulo dynasty. 

Nuisance candidates are therefore part of the political exercise and since Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson has plenty of relatives, including, I think, the Saison I found in canonical books, the possibility of another Sayson running for office is not remote.

Nevertheless, VM Sayson has the right to complain of a “nuisance” with an unknown relative who claims he studied in Muntinglupa (ugh!).

Julius is challenging the vice mayor because he has many friends and he believes he can administer the city better.

In fact, many crackpots believe they can administer the city, the province or the Philippines better than any other.

Well, under the Constitution any qualified voter can be a candidate. That is our system and oftentimes those who claim they can be better turn out to be scalawags and scoundrels. We have seen this many times and we will see their kind again and again.

This Julius Sayson, now confirmed by his parents and siblings to be without means to run for public office, will surely not pass the test that the Commission on Elections had prescribed to determine whether a candidate is a nuisance or not.

Nonetheless, VM Sayson has already gained so much publicity from this case as Julius has gained publicity, or notoriety, from this funny situation, though VM Sayson hardly considers this a funny incident but a serious attempt to sabotage his candidacy.

 For whatever it is worth, VM Sayson gets not only publicity but also sympathy. People humors Julius but they are angry at Julius’ mastermind, no matter how their suspect cleanses his hands of it because nobody else is to gain by stray votes for VM Sayson than his opponent.

VM Sayson’s opponent is not known for being an honest and clean election operator, so that, naturally, his opponent becomes the prime suspect, whether he admits it (never) or not.

Need we go farther?

As expected VM Sayson is filing, or by the time this column comes out, has filed a complaint, the natural thing to do. We had our zarzuela but I believe that VM Sayson gained from this and in fact, give the impression that his opponent, whether he admits (never) or not will go to any length to get elected.

If it is shown later that there is truth to the claim that Julius Sayson used the vehicle of vice mayoralty candidate Vladimir Gonzales after he left the Commission on Election, then Vladimir will be tainted this early. That will damage his reputation as a clean and honest candidate and lessens his chance for election.

I hope that this is not true because this can stain the entire MKK ticket after they have already been tainted by aligning with the MKK top man.

It would be difficult to remove from people’s mind that MKK or at least its leadership, is engaged in dirty tricks and that we can expect more of them.

Candidates who resort to underhanded methods are actually projecting their weakness because a strong candidate can stand on his or her own merits and needs no dirty operations to win.

Of course, dirty operations have become part of our electoral campaigning but history shows that dirty operations backfire. They are counterproductive.

When the Comelec declares Julius as a nuisance candidate, the odor of this attempt will not wash away easily.

Julius claims he is sincere but that is not how the public sees it. They always consider this kind of action as that of a crackpot, a pity, indeed.

We are forewarned, however of the extent to which the opponents of VM Sayson will go to win.*

           

 

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