We went to the supermarket earlier today and, as we turned the corner to Circumferential Road, Sam noticed a GMA 7 truck in front of us and wondered what event was taking place. The answer became obvious just as few seconds later. As we passed the Yñares Sports Complex along Circumferential Road, there were new Manny Villar and Loren Legarda posters on the fences, covering the old ones that were already there. There’s going to be a Nacionalista Party rally later, apparently, and the place was being prepped.
It has become SOP. If there’s an election related event, before the candidates arrive, the venue is saturated with their posters. It even happened twice in our subdivision. A mayoralty candidate and a Congressional candidate held separate events at the clubhouse and, all the way from the road leading to the gate to the electric post right in front of our garden, new posters were put up. Had they dared put up anything on our garden fence, I would have caused a scandal.
The thing about these posters is that paper posters that are pasted on walls with starch solution is no longer in vogue. These days, posters made from plastic material (the kind used for making tarpaulins) are used. They are more expensive, yes, but they also last longer. They cannot be easily torn down or pasted over with other candidates’ posters.
From experience, we know that, win or lose, political candidates don’t consider it their responsibility to remove the posters and dispose of them properly after the elections. The MMDA scraped paper posters off the walls in the past but it’s never a thorough job. In fact, because elections take place in May, and the rainy season begins in late May, it has often been the case that the remains of campaign posters get torn down by rains and winds.
Now, the plastic or plastic-laminated posters are NON-BIODEGRADABLE. When the rains come and bring them down from the trees and the posts, these posters will not disintegrate into a million pieces and decay. They will stay whole and clog up canals and drainage systems.
Almost every candidate in the 2010 elections has mentioned the environment in one way or another. The bottom line is that they all care about the environment and they all claim that they intend to do a lot of things to save it. Does the concern extend to proper disposal of their campaign posters? What about the billboards? Yes, there are candidates’ billboards. And some are located in very precarious places. Remember the brouhaha when billboards fell on people and vehicles when the rains poured last year? We’ve been living with the eyesores for months. In some cases, politicians faces decorate the streets and roads all year ’round. When the rainy season comes, will we have to bear the consequences of their vanity and self-centeredness?
When I watch the news, I see video footage of campaign sorties where presidential candidates (Erap and Jamby, in particular) riding in trucks throw out candies and other plastic-wrapped items to the crowds. The gesture is tacky and insulting enough — like lords throwing alms to the poor. But what happens to the items that don’t land in someone’s hands? What happens to the plastic wrappers of candies and other items that get trampled on and left on the streets? Do the candidates instruct their staff to pick them up?
Remember typhoon Ondoy and how a few hours of rain submerged Metro Manila and parts of Luzon in floods, killing and displacing people, and destroying properties and livelihood? How much worse will it be with all the additional garbage — much of it non-biodegradable — brought about by the 2010 elections? Will the candidates even understand, much less acknowledge, how they constitute a large part of the problem?
Will candidates care about the environment AFTER the elections? Despite the lip service, they don’t act like they do at this point. Why should they care when the elections are over especially if they lose?
“Had they dared put up anything on our garden fence, I would have caused a scandal.” I did!
The city mayor and his sister-in-law who was running for mayoralty and congresswoman respectively were in our place last Friday. And their so-called volunteers pasted posters and banners all over the place. When I saw somebody climbing our fence tying a banner on our property wall, I grabbed my camera, immediately went out and took pictures of what they were doing. Afterwards, I demanded them to remove the banner or I will send the pictures to the Comelec and a TV station. They did. Because I am really serious in reporting their violation. I also scolded them and told them they should have asked our permission prior to putting the banner because it is a private property.
Good for you! hahahaha
share the same sentiments here. been our problem during elections. mahaba kasi yong fence namin so ginagawang billboard ng mga politicans. well, right now medyo strict na rin ang city gov’t regarding posting on private properties kaya kunti n lng dumidikit sa fence not like before that the whole fence is completely covered. i just hope that our barangay will do the same thing in the last elections wherein they had a clean up drive.
Well, since judgement day is a couple days away, it should be Gordon/Bayani because it’s either THEY win or WE lose. We could counter these so called “surveys” with the powers of ten. Let us show these “powers to be” that in this Information Age the People rule.
we’re lucky here in Marikina that there are not much eyesores like those posters. Very minimal lang ang naka-paskil and walang nakasabit sa mga linya ng kuryente. There are also common poster areas here where they make sabit. It’s a different story though during election day where schools are messed up by hundreds of campaign materials.
I wonder how Nicky Perlas (who’s an environmental advocate) does his campaign…perhaps he uses a bio-fueled car (with no air-con),posters made from recycled paper and other eco-friendly practices.
Zara and Tribeca, you should see fences along Ortigas Avenue Extension. Cainta area. And along Sumulong Highway. Shucks, terrible.
Tom, re “it should be Gordon/Bayani because it’s either THEY win or WE lose.”
Is that so? as far as I’m concerned, whoever wins, we lose.
C’mon, we the people are given just one day every six years to be the boss. Tapos ganito ang attitude, ano ka? You kinda wonder just how much of this attitude is already factored in with those that manipulate. You have a choice with Gordon/Bayani. You think ganon ganon lang ang nangyari sa Subic? Una sumabog ang Mt. Pinatubo tapos sinundan pa ng pagalis ng US Navy. Those two events alone should have knocked out Olongapo as a city. Ano ang nangyari? I could relate and admire Gordon with what he did at Subic because about that same time in 1996, I and 10,000 other shipyard workers at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California lost our jobs on account of the Base Closures. The city of Vallejo became a ghost town like overnight and the economies of the surrounding areas in Solano County were affected severely. You think that here in America where the local, state and federal governments would have had a contingent plan, dito tinalo sila ni Gordon because even up to now almost 20 years ago the city of Vallejo hasn’t fully recovered yet. Kaya ngayon, ano ba ang kailagan ng mamamayang Pilipino? Ang sarap pakinggan ang kasabihan kung pangulo na si Gordon, na dito sa Pilipinas, “bawal ang tamad at mas bawal ang tangga”.
“we the people are given just one day every six years to be the boss.”
Dream on.
“Tapos ganito ang attitude, ano ka?”
Make your point, pero wag ka bastos. Support Gordon, if you like, but this is not the space to force him down our throats.
I agree with Ms. Connie–vote or not, whoever wins, we lose.
Election laws should be amended to give candidates and political parties a mandate to use biodegradable or eco-friendly campaign materials and to clean up their mess after the elections.
i agree with you jhay. it would be too ironic if they won’t clean up yet they have platforms on the environment.
mas maganda sigurong tingnan kung yung mga kandidato mismo ang nakasabit sa poste o kuryente!
MWAHAHAHA I’ll volunteer to take photos!
the mayoralty candidates here in manila have long made a collage out of the walls of our house. we don’t live in an exclusive subdivision — our house faces a very public street. maybe that’s why they didn’t think twice of plastering every inch of our walls with their posters(and it has long been that way too). they even completely covered our doorbell, for heaven’s sake. ang nakakatuwa/nakakainis pa diyan, there are probably 3-4 layers of posters already since the competing candidates make sure they completely cover their rival’s posters, and vice-versa.
When we were living in Caloocan, we had the same experience every election. Worst part was that the HQ of Luis “Baby” Asistio was just three houses away. They’d park their vehicles in front of our house with the PA system blaring, often blocking the driveway. Naku, kung magwala ako nun, ganun na lang.
Heh. My goddaughter wrote a well-thought out, biting letter to the candidate whose people put up posters on their wall without asking for permission; pointing out that while said candidate wanted to change the face of local politics, the incumbent and his minions had *never* in all his years in office, dared to paste up so much as a shred of newsprint on their walls.
She also sent the word out on Twitter and Facebook. In very short order, she received an apology and the candidate’s minions were taking the offending materials down. *grin*
There another more insidious thing that’s happening while people are all agog about the elections: the stealing of storm drain gratings. I walk/bike all over this neighborhood of ours in Quezon City and am alarmed at the number of drain gratings that have been dug out of the concrete and stolen. Wait till the next rains begin, and a repeat or worse of the Ondoy catastrophe’s in the offing.