What makes a ‘powerful voter’

With the health threats posed by the coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic still pervading all over the places, our so-called “traditional politicians” who will run in the coming May 9, 2022 elections would have to kiss goodbye to their usual campaign antics, from handshaking, hugging, and to carrying babies. And even perhaps to refrain from the popular “selfies” that candidates indulge in to woe their potential voters.

Under the “new normal” that would be strictly enforced by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), commissioner Antonio “Richie” Kho Jr. rattled off some of these no-no’s that all candidates must comply with to help prevent the further spread of COVID-19. Kho disclosed the poll body is continuously discussing measures on how to carry out the country’s upcoming elections given the challenges spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We will allow campaign, but we will encourage them to use the internet. We will probably limit who will attend the miting de advance but will discourage carrying kids or kissing the babies, and hand-shaking in the campaigns,” Kho told us during our weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay Zoom Webinar last Wednesday.

Kho chairs the Comelec “committee on the new normal” specifically created to craft the guidelines and measures the poll body would enforce in conjunction with the anti-COVID policies of the national government. Kho recognized the need for the poll body to coordinate their anti-COVID campaign with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) steered no less by President Rodrigo Duterte.

President Duterte appointed Kho at the Comelec in July 2018. Prior to his Comelec post, Kho first served the Duterte administration as undersecretary at the Department of Justice. He is a Lex Talionis fraternity brother of President Duterte at the San Beda College of Law.

By Feb. 2 next year or three months before the elections, the term of Comelec commissioner Rowena Guanzon ends and this will create a vacancy in the seven-man poll body. Guanzon was appointed by former president Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III. Like her, the incumbent Comelec chairman Sheriff Abas, was first appointed by PNoy in April 2015 as commissioner. But in 2017, President Duterte named Abas chairman of the poll body. Aside from Kho, the other Duterte appointees at the Comelec are, namely, commissioners Marlon Cascuejo; Socorro Inting; Aimee Ferolino-Ampoloquio; and Michael Peloton.

Kho believes there will be increased use of social media and online platforms for campaign advertisements (ads) of the candidates. “Social media presence will be a major thing for campaign. It’s a great equalizer for people who have less funding,” Kho pointed out.

“Our politicos really are very creative,” he quipped.

Kho announced the Comelec en banc have decided to consider social media “boosts” and on other online platforms will be counted as political broadcast ads. In fact, he mentioned, the Comelec have drawn up the rules on campaign spending limits that will include now expenses on social media to the statement of contributions and expenditures (SOCE) that all candidates must submit, whether they won or lost after the elections.

More than as a campaign platform, Kho recognized the use of social media has become an essential strategy to observe social distancing and limiting the potential COVID-19 “super spreader” events that campaign sorties and political rallies of candidates may likely cause or trigger.

But how about public school teachers who would still perform their election duties to run the polling precincts at schools? When school year 2020 to 2021 ended last month, President Duterte stuck to his guns not to allow face-to-face classes until schoolchildren get vaccinated against COVID-19. To this concern, Kho explained, the Comelec is looking at extending voting hours on election day to prevent congestion of people inside the polling precincts.

According to Kho, the Comelec will ask the 18th Congress for additional funding to procure and implement anti-COVID measures for next year’s elections. While no amount is set yet, these anti-COVID measures will be included in the proposed 2022 budget still being prepared by the Comelec, Kho cited.

So far, Kho noted, the Comelec has already gone ahead to implement the P637-million contract for the refurbishment of the more than 90,000 vote counting machines (VCMs). These were the same VCMs used in the May 2019 mid-term elections that are still intact and functional. He clarified this on the questioned award of the contract to Smartmatic/TIM that won the public bidding.

Kho disclosed the Comelec is currently negotiating with an unnamed local pharmaceutical company for the procurement of anti-COVID vaccine for their more than 6,000 personnel all over the country who would physically supervise the orderly conduct of the elections on the grounds.

While we’re having these virtual conversations, Kho’s fellow Comelec commissioner Guanzon was being bashed after the latter made a shout-out in her Twitter post looking for where she could buy anti-COVID vaccine for her office staff.

Former Comelec commissioner and now a private legal counsel for the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) Gregorio “Goyo” Larrazabal and veteran election lawyer who run but lost in the last May 2019 senatorial elections Romulo Macalintal welcomed the initiatives of the Comelec to reduce the risks of COVID-19 infection to all Filipinos, especially on election day next year. Joining us in our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum, Larrazabal and Macalintal prodded the Comelec to ensure the anti-COVID measures will not compromise the credibility and integrity of our country’s electoral exercise while protecting also the Constitutional rights of every Filipino voters.

“An informed voter is a powerful voter,” Comelec commissioner Kho reassured them.

So by the time we hold our national and local elections, the 58 million Filipino voters could hope to really feel powerful to decide who will be our country’s next leaders to get us out of COVID-19 pandemic woes.