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Raissa Robles

Power cuts at rallies, sex scandals and name-calling are par for the course

Several times during his rallies, presidential race frontrunner Fernando Poe Jnr has found the electricity cut as he's about to speak.

Two weeks ago, senate candidate John Osmena was suddenly accused of sodomy by a young male prostitute.

In Philippine elections, incidents like these - and many more - are not presumed to be 'coincidences'; they are considered part and parcel of the range of tools available for political brinksmanship.

Why more than 40,000 candidates compete for elected posts that pay far less than that spent campaigning was probed by a recent groundbreaking report from the Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Paltry salaries are more than compensated for with the perks of office - in the form of entertainment, travel and staff expenses, and so-called development funds. Very few end up poorer after a stint in public service, the centre found.

Methods for gaining public office range from the standard, to the unorthodox to the downright lethal. Already, seven candidates for local posts have either been severely wounded or shot dead.

To prevent assassination attempts, security has been tightened around President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now a close second in the five-way race.

These precautions, though, do not protect her from character assassination. A record 20 lawsuits and disqualification cases have been filed against her for allegedly using government resources in her campaign, and for reportedly giving the powerful Lopez family a sweetheart deal in exchange for political support.

She has also borne the brunt of increasingly offensive adjectives flung at her by Poe campaigners. While they refer to their candidate Poe as ang panday (the blacksmith), using the title of his hit movie; they allude to the 1.47-metre Mrs Arroyo as ang pandak, or shorty.

Lately they have branded her tonto (ignoramus) and 'liar' as well.

The retaliation of the Arroyo camp is more subtle but effective. Since Poe only projects himself well in political sorties, these events have been specifically targeted.

The microphone often goes dead and the lights go out during the actor's all too brief speeches in areas where an Arroyo ally controls the local electric company.

In some cases, a section of the audience  suddenly walks out. And on the very night of his rally, the pro-Arroyo incumbent mayor of that area coincidentally stages a crowd-drawing event.

'The administration is playing dirty tricks on us,' said Vice-President Teofisto Guingona, who broke with Mrs Arroyo last year and recently joined the Poe camp.

The audience that walked out 'could have been planted by the other side', said Poe's running mate, Senator Loren Legarda.

Boots Anson-Roa,  a Poe candidate for senator, said 'sabotaging' their rallies with power outages was nothing new: 'We don't want to be malicious, but these incidents have occurred again and again. We no longer believe they are just little accidents.'

Mrs Arroyo's allies all plead innocent.

This year's presidential race is such that no one has emerged as the likely winner. More than halfway through the campaign, there is still a large pool of voters up for grabs.

Asian Institute of Management professor Ned Roberto estimates that up to 16.3 million voters could still switch sides or have not made a choice. Deposed president Joseph Estrada won in 1998 with only 10.7 million votes.



Philippine election a hotbed of dirty tricks