Of politics and entertainment

Cebu City, in its history of elections, had witnessed the upsurge of entertainers from the movie industry in the Team Rama proclamation rally for the May polls at the Plaza Independencia last Sunday when the group boasted a crowd   allegedly estimated at 25,000 to 30,000 people.

If we go by the numbers, can an inference be drawn from the size of the crowd in a political rally as a barometer in judging Team Rama's chance of getting a landslide victory as they claimed? This has been the repeated pronouncement of Congressional candidate to the North district Annabelle Rama in several interviews that all their candidates are winning judging on the "warm reception" they are receiving during their handshaking and pulong-pulong and validated by the surveys their party has conducted.

The interesting questions are: Who are the real crowd drawers? Were the Cebuanos drawn to their rallies because their candidates are persons of character and competence, thus, are better alternatives?  Or simply because of the stable of stars who are big names in the entertainment industry and most of the Cebuanos who attended the rallies are big showbiz fans?

Apparently, the former presumption is highly debatable while the latter is more certain and logical. The only recourse for Team Rama to ensure numerical advantage of their political gatherings is to import big-name actors and actresses to lure a crowd with the illusion that they could transform their presence into votes for the May polls.

Cebu City electorate enjoys the branding of being "intelligent voters." It is quiet a shame and an insult for the Team Rama to lure Cebuano voters with senseless entertainment fancy instead of focusing their campaign on platforms  and important gut issues such as employment and livelihood, peace and order, housing and informal settlers, traffic congestion, among others.

We thus called on Cebuano voters to be more discerning. To wear proud and loud the badge of being intelligent voters. To prove once again come May 13 polls that we deserve no non-sense leaders who do not capitalize on their fame and popularity but vision and rationality.