Political Noise

I was still half-awake in my bed when some political noise jarred me completely out of sleep.

A barangay kagawad (name withheld) is holding a bingo bonanza in the middle of the street as her way of reaching out to her constituents on her birthday. How typical of a Pinoy politician, huh? Louspeakers galore. Obvious orchestrated clapping of hands. Argh. 

I could only imagine the people's money used in buying the bingo prizes like bags of grocery items and appliances. There's even a soup kitchen! Sopas in styro cups were distributed among the bingo participants, and, yep, the bingo host repeatedly pointed it out. "Hey, there's soup for everyone!"

The whole affair reeks of dirty, phony game of Pinoy politics.

Introductions went like this... "matulungin, madaling lapitan, tunay na malalapitan, pinakamamahal, napakahusay, ating kaagapay, kabalikat sa pagbibigay ng magandang serbisyo, ang rek(c)ord na di mapantayan, ang puso ng Barangay Pinagkaisahan, ang tinatanyag na si... " If I could only grab the megaphone and say, "Talaga po?"

Then, a not-so-loud clapping followed. Not satisfied, the host raised her voice a bit higher, "Bigyan po natin ng malakas at masigabong palakpan." Loud clapping now.

It has the same party flavor of local noontime shows and it redefines the concept of public service. Sigh.

Unless one is deaf or blind or simply dumb, you'd know it's premature campaign for May 2010 elections.

Then a lot of barangay kagawads participated, gave their promises, thanked everyone and introduced one after another politician, barangay-level, city-level, congress-level. The same superlatives were used in the introduction. My second argh. Damn this political noise.

Oh wait, I can smell Bistek* now. Another argh.


*a mayoralty hopeful in the City of Stars