Fools lose

SO TRITE a statement that it has become a truism: Nobody, absolutely nobody, loses elections in the Philippines, it’s one wins and the other is cheated.
Thus, the Liberal Party’s Eddie T. Panlilio’s incredulous claim that the 488,521 who elected into office Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda were “bought” for P1,500 each, his own relatives in Minalin town not excluded from his sweeping hallucination. Vote buying is a form of cheating, right?
Thus, the Liberal Party’s Jose “Pol” Quiwa III finding mathematical improbability – a euphemism for cheating – on the “impossibility” – something askance in the increase in the degree of probabilities there – of his getting a measly 10 percent of votes in all 158 precincts in the third district of Pampanga.
The final count of the Commission on Elections for the third district congressional race is: incumbent Rep. Aurelio Gonzales with 195,651votes against Quiwa’s 24,640, an avalanche of a difference of 171,011.
How, in Barangay Sindalan in the City of San Fernando, his self-claimed bailiwick, Quiwa could muster even less than 10 percent of the vote he could not fathom. Hence, his filing before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal an electoral protest against Gonzales.
I just wonder what means the HRET would have in its possession to make Quiwa fully comprehend what really hit, er, devastated him.
Thus too, Representatives Matias Defensor of Quezon City, Ace Barbers of
Surigao del Norte and Munir Arbison of Sulu, and Laguna Gov. Teresita Lazaro storming the high heavens, er, the high ceiling of the House, with cries of fraud and incredulous claims of having been offered by shady characters, in exchange for cash ranging from P10 million to P1 billion, of guaranteed poll victory through machine-switching or electronic vote manipulation.
For crying out loud over this patently criminal instance only after they lost, these characters, the honorable that is, deserve neither tea nor sympathy but denunciation and ridicule.
Yes, we agree this time around with election lawyer Romy Macalintal scolding these whiners for their “sins of omission.”
Said the President’s former lawyer and Panlilio’s one-time pro bono counsel: “You really deserve to lose the elections if that’s what you did. You do not deserve to be elected. You do not have the right to say that you are looking after the welfare of our nation. Because if you have concern for our country, that would have been what you did—have them arrested.”
And his clincher: “It’s a good thing they did not pay up. If there were some who did, they are stupid. They were just duped.”
Yeah, reminding us of one more trite but tested Filipino truism on categorizing people: manloloko, the conman; nagpapaloko, the fool; and luku-luko, the crazed. All coming out of the woodwork most prominently during elections.
I remember one candidate who had everything stacked in his favor in his run for the congressional seat in the first post-EDSA elections. He lost by less than a hundred votes.
To everyone he met after the polls, he appealed for sympathy with a uniform statement: “Me-pirayit ku. (I was cheated).” This went on and on for months until he met another loser, a perennial one at that, who sneered at him: “Nung eka mamurit-murit, bakit ka pepapirayit? (You fool, why did you allow yourself to be cheated)?”
Yeah, you can’t fight cheating? Be a fool: run and lose.