EDITORIAL — HOPE springs eternal

The official campaign period for the midterm elections starts today for the national races. As in previous electoral exercises, stakeholders are again working for HOPE – honest, orderly and peaceful elections. Unfortunately, there has always been a yawning gap between the aspiration and reality.

The start of the campaign period means the Commission on Elections finally has authority to regulate the conduct of the campaigns of candidates for the Senate and the party-list system.

There’s a lot to regulate. Electoral anarchy has descended on the land, thanks to self-serving legislation and the interpretation of laws by the Supreme Court. Across the country, campaign materials of “unli” sizes have been inflicted on the public. Billboards and streamers are displayed everywhere, on vacant lots, walls and fences of public and private structures alike. Campaign materials dangle from electric posts, trees and utility wires, assaulting environmental laws and aesthetics.

Local government officials, who should be regulating the display of such materials using laws against littering and the display of outdoor advertising materials, are often the ones leading the space polluters. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which could invoke environmental laws in going after the polluters, has washed its hands of the issue.

The Comelec has a lot on its plate, apart from dealing with campaign litter. It must monitor campaign spending and battle disinformation and other malicious campaign-related content online, now facilitated by artificial intelligence. It must confront vote-buying in the time of e-wallets. It is again working with the uniformed services to prevent election violence, which has undermined every electoral exercise in this country.

In working for HOPE, the Comelec will need all the help it can get. Rival candidates can watch each other’s camps for possible electoral violations. The Comelec is encouraging the public to alert the poll body about violations on the display of campaign materials in public spaces as well as possible vote buying and the abuse of state resources for personal or partisan purposes.

Honest, peaceful elections have been elusive in a country where thievery by public officials has become institutionalized, but people cannot give up and hope springs eternal. HOPE is best realized with public cooperation and citizen vigilance against efforts to undermine the vote.