Even in the distribution of cash or material assistance, Filipino officials can find time to engage in politicking and promote both their candidacies and their names to their constituents.
We don’t know if other countries engage in politicking in the same level as Filipino politicians/public officials do when it comes to distributing assistance — perhaps other Third World countries do but certainly not in the US and other First World countries where it is not only frowned upon but will certainly earn those engaging in it a resounding rejection in the elections.
But here, where majority still live below the poverty line, cash and material assistance is seen as manna from heaven and the people who claim credit for making it possible seen as God’s gift to them.
That local government units (LGUs) have to seek clearance from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) before allocating cash and material assistance to farmers suffering from the severe dry spell shows just how both incumbent officials and candidates running for public office are untrustworthy in keeping their hands clean from the smear and the foul smell of politicking.
How many times have we heard of stories, factual accounts, of social welfare workers being scolded and ordered by barangay officials into entrusting to their custody the distribution and allocation of cash and material assistance donated by both national and local governments and the private sector?
More often than not, these wind up in the hands of their political patrons who personally distribute these cash and material aid and then have the gall to claim credit for them.
Both them and their barangay officials would prioritize the distribution of cash and material aid to their supporters while withholding it from those victims who are not aligned with them.
Their sworn mandate to serve the people regardless of their political affiliation is thrown out the window whenever their patrons come calling. These patrons also find themselves in the front lines distributing cash aid as in the recent incident at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).
Even the Philippine National Red Cross isn’t spared from politics as its head, former senator Richard Gordon, is running anew for the Senate, and based on surveys it looks like he’s headed there.
The only groups that aren’t tainted with the stain of politics is the Church and some non-government organizations that are either commercial or identified as left-wingers. Though the Church has its social responsibility, it remains to be seen how far should that responsibility go in relation to its main business of winning souls to Christ.
That said, local and national governments should exercise due diligence and restraint in advertising its reelectionist officials and instead allow the bureaucracy to do its job to serve constituents without political color.
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