Premature campaigning

If the law on premature campaigning embodied in the Omnibus Election Code were to be implemented strictly, then those who have declared their intention to run for public office in the 2016 elections and are now going around the country and regularly  airing political advertisements on television and radio would all be sent to jail.

      

But no thanks to the Supreme Court, there is no such thing as premature campaigning as not one of the presumptive candidates have officially filed their certificates of candidacy.

      

And there's the rub: No one can be sent to jail or given even a slap on the wrist because the Supreme Court has greenlighted premature campaign.

      

In other words, what the legislative branch has deemed as illegal, the judicial branch has deemed perfectly legal. 

      

The Constitution, however, is very clear: "The State shall guarantee equal  access to opportunities for public service." 

      

If only those candidates with enough money can hit the campaign trail or put out expensive advertisements, that is not giving equal access to opportunities for public service, that is giving the rich the monopoly of public service.

      

What is needed now is an amendment to the Omnibus Election Code that would make it illegal to engage in premature campaigning in whatever guise, whether promoting the programs of this or that government office, citing one's achievements in public office in advertisements or streamers, or hanging tarpaulins in public places with the politicians' names and photographs prominently displayed and congratulating new graduates or greeting the public "Merry Christmas", for instance.     

      

Filipinos are being taken for fools by the presumptive candidates shamelessly promoting themselves for the 2016 political contest. But if there's no law against premature campaigning, we can always avail of a remedy at our disposal: Don’t vote for them on Election Day. –End-

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