EDITORIAL – Mad scramble for barangay and SK seats

Just days into the registration period for those seeking to run in the May 14 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections and tens of thousands of aspirants have flocked to different Comelec offices nationwide to list up. The sheer number of eager hopefuls can be an indication of several things, including attractiveness of the positions being sought.

Government work, which ideally means serving the public, ought to be essentially a tough job. That aspirants are literally clawing head over heels to register suggests there has to be something that makes even the tough job of tending to the needs of the public seem truly satisfying and gratifying. One can only surmise at what can make a person oblivious to the difficulties.

This is not to say that there are no people truly willing to sacrifice for the common good. But in all likelihood, those with fire in their bellies to truly serve cannot but belong to the minority. In all likelihood, even those driven by the need to serve find the drive more compelling when the road is paved with even more compelling incentives.

But then there are also a great many who may have been forced to run on account of some deep-seated frustrations and failed expectations. Among all Philippine elections, it is the barangay elections that often get easily postponed, for whatever reason. Postponement of elections translates into fresh mandates that are more of an unearned reward than anything else.

Even for those who may have served creditably well in office, a postponement of elections and the resulting term extensions can only mean one thing --failure of accountability. The voting public gets deprived of the right to hold public officials accountable. Even if an official may deserve reelection, taking that right away from the people to make their own determination is a most disappointing and deflating thing.

People may have been driven to run for office themselves out of frustration in a system whose only hallmark is its consistency to be inconsistent. People may have been driven to take matters into their own hands, in a sort of if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them stratagem. And so we have in the coming barangay and SK elections a potential for a deluge of candidates all eagerly anticipating some change in the long-unchanged grassroots political landscape.