Green campaigns

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

After commending the Sangguniang Panlungsod of General Santos City for passing Resolution No. 515, making the use of recyclable and environment-friendly campaign materials mandatory in the 2016 elections, the Commission on Elections is looking into making the same green materials mandatory for all candidates in next year's polls.

This thrust of the poll body is not new as it also encouraged the use of recyclable and environment friendly campaign materials in 2013 with Resolution No. 9615. It also asked candidates to avoid materials containing hazardous materials in their campaign paraphernalia.

Advocates of the environment have long been pushing for a change in campaign rules because campaign materials consume a huge amount of natural resources and generate a lot of garbage and while the Comelec has been urging candidates to be more considerate of the demands of their campaigns on the environment, experience has shown us that resolutions simply requesting and urging the candidates to run greener campaigns have largely fallen on deaf ears.

It would most definitely be nice to see the candidates who will lead our towns, cities, provinces, and country show that their commitment to the environment goes beyond lip service by running campaigns that are truly green and striving to ease the clean up and trash load on the communities affected by those campaigns by instructing their volunteers to clean up after their own messes.

Making candidates run environmentally friendly and responsible campaigns will prove to be a difficult task for the Comelec that can hardly even monitor and enforce campaign spending limits but it is an initiative that cannot be delayed any further. Requiring all the candidates in this country to run green campaigns will depend on the Comelec's ability to impose penalties on violators because the sad reality among most politicians in this country is that they make a lot of promises that they don't intend to keep.

Our experience with the campaign period has shown us that aside from the tons of figurative and literal trash that will be produced by candidates in their desperate bid to win votes, most campaigns will be conducted using the cheap materials that have the unfortunate disadvantage of being harmful to the environment. The Comelec and local government units will have to stick to their guns if they want to slowly but surely minimize the impact campaigns have on our precious environment.*