We still have roughly 2 weeks before the 2010 Philippine National Elections and the campaigns are in hyper-drive. Here in the Philippines, campaigns by national and local candidates appear everywhere and among the most common campaign materials of these candidates you see on the streets are posters, banners and stickers. These are mostly attributed to the campaign staff of the candidate.
Posters can be seen anywhere from gates of houses, walls of different establishments, lamp posts, electric posts and even on the electric/telephone wires themselves. I’m not totally against them as this is a good way to remind people who they can vote for but remember the issue about safe driving? Accidents usually happen if the driver’s attention to the road is divided and now, wherever they look there are campaign posters.
What happened to the ruling that posters should not be placed on main roads? It’s really hard to implement since there are lots of persistent and inconsiderate hard-headed supporters. To the candidates your supporters can make or break your campaign. You’d best remember that.
And my goodness, I’ve seen a couple of banners blocking traffic lights. There are also some that are blocking pedestrians from walking safely on the sidewalk. Why? Because of huge tarpaulins and posters extending over the sidewalk, people would have to duck or go around them.
Sometimes, these campaign materials can ignite some conflicts between supporters of opposing candidates. It is very common that supporters of opposing candidates clash because each would accuse each other of tampering with their campaign materials. They usually say the other party ripped or removed their posters or the other party placed a poster over theirs and so on. You’re all doing your jobs so keep it fair.
Here’s something interesting. After the elections, there are a lot of politicians (and/or their supporters) who would leave their posters on the streets. They made a mess so they should be responsible in removing them after the elections. Don’t give our local cleaning staff a hard time in removing them.
Now this is the hard part. I’m not sure who and when, but because these campaign materials obviously aren’t free, including the salary of the supporters if there is, there may be politicians who take advantage of their position to make a return of investment. They may be getting a slice of the budget to make up for their campaign investment. Again, who knows?
Well, I’m pretty sure it’s kind of hard to choose a candidate but as for me, these campaign posters do not affect the way I will vote. After the elections, let’s see what will happen to these campaign posters. And the one you see on the picture I provided is an example and this is actually not the worse. On some streets, you probably won’t even recognize where you are because of all the posters.
Source:
MMDA Official website
http://www.mmda.gov.ph/main.html
MMDA Official website – MMDA & COMELEC To Conduct An Extensive Cleanup Of Illegally Posted Campaign Materials
http://www.mmda.gov.ph/news.htm#april132010
MMDA Official website – Sec. Oscar Inocentes Ordered The Agency’s Roadway / Sidewalk Clearing Operations Group (RSCOG) To Remove All Campaign Materials Illegally Posted
http://www.mmda.gov.ph/news.htm#feb122010c
