Editorial – The other face of politics

THE 2010 elections for national and local positions will involve the participation of millions of new voters who have just come of legal age that entitles them to exercise their right of suffrage.
In fact, the nationwide movement called BOTO MO, IPATROL MO (guard your vote), is mainly addressed to the youth of the land who have been called upon to not only cast their votes on Election Day, but to also to take pains to guard their ballots and see to it that their votes are counted and recorded.
How they will do that in view of the automated process to be used for the first time in the country’s history, remains to be seen.
These new young voters, no doubt, can hardly wait to participate in such a solemn exercise for the first time.   
No doubt, too, the excitement and anticipation attendant to such a grand event will be coming to a boil, so to speak, as the day of reckoning draws nearer by the day. It is the same excitement, perhaps, that grips the young in anticipation of graduation day, or their coming out party.
That’s to be expected.
But, one may wonder what the youth are probably thinking on the heels of what transpired last week inside the hallowed hall of the Philippine Senate where the country, through the eyes of media, caught some members of the Senate with their “pants” down. That is a figure of speech, of course, meaning some not-so-honorable senators had been exposed for who they really are as persons. Instead of pants, the word should be “decorum”.        
The exchange of words between accusers of Sen. Manuel Villar and his defenders on the controversial issue of the C-5 road extension project in which Villar allegedly violated ethics because he stood to gain from it as a property owner,  was a shameful display of vulgarism bordering on libel. All at the expense of correct parliamentary practice and certain individuals’ personal honor.
What do the young voters think of that mini-circus involving senators that they had until then regarded wit some awe and respect. You’re a senator, therefore, you must be someone special; someone a tad above the rest in this country.
But those two days of infamy unmasked some of the protagonists as the type of people they relly are, and the fact that senators who were not involved in the bitter debates did not lift a finger to censure their erring colleagues made them a party to the shameful proceedings.
Which brings us back to the new, young voters. That ignominious zarzuela in the Senate last week may have opened their eyes to that other face of Philippine politics.
It’s not a pretty face.