Beauty contestants remind poll bets to keep campaigns 'green'

Candidates running in the May 10 elections received yet another reminder to keep their campaigns clean and green, this time from 52 contestants in an upcoming beauty pageant. The 52 “environmental diplomats" in the Miss Philippines-Earth 2010 pageant challenged all candidates to unite and stand up for Mother Earth. “Our message ‘One Vote, One Earth, One Future’ underscores the need to fuse the exercise of our right to vote and be elected with our shared responsibility to protect the environment from harm, which is too often ignored," said Sandra Inez Seifert, Miss Philippines-Earth 2009 and Miss Earth-Air 2009, in an entry on the blog site of EcoWaste Coalition. During their media presentation, the 52 candidates from various provinces and from Filipino communities in France and the United States sent the message “One Vote, One Earth, One Future." They held placards that read “go for waste-free election," “say no to guns, goons, gold and garbage," “spare the trees (they don’t vote)," “keep your tarps to the minimum," and “remove streamers from electric wires and posts." EcoWaste, which has partnered with the Miss Earth Foundation in campaigning for waste-free polls, threw its full support behind the latest reminder. On the other hand, the Miss Earth Foundation and EcoWaste expressed dismay over the candidates’ disrespect of campaign guidelines despite repeated reminders from the Commission on Elections (Comelec). “We lament the wastefulness of the election campaign. It is as if the environment does not matter at all to most candidates in the race for their coveted positions. We appeal to all aspiring public servants to campaign responsibly and heed what the Miss Philippines-Earth hopefuls are saying," said Eileen Sison of the EcoWaste Coalition and NGO Representative to the National Solid Waste Management Commission. The groups identified several campaign excesses and violations of rules that are time and again ignored by many national and local candidates and their supporters, including: * Posting campaign materials outside the designated common poster areas. * Nailing or tacking posters on trees. * Displaying posters and streamers that exceed the prescribed sizes. * Hanging posters and streamers on electric posts or over walkways and sidewalks. * Putting up oversized and/or out of place billboards.

“It is not too late for the candidates to show they also care for the environment. They need not wait for disqualification cases to be filed against them for violating campaign rules. We ask them to voluntarily clean and straighten up their campaigning, starting with the removal of posters nailed on trees," the groups said. The groups also pleaded to all political candidates, parties and party-list groups to integrate environmental care and protection in their political platforms. “Business as usual is no longer an option for our country after [storm] Ondoy (Ketsana) and the ongoing onslaught of El Niño on our farms and dams. We therefore appeal to all who are running for the 2010 polls not to digress from their responsibility and put the environment at the heart of their political agenda," they said. — LBG, GMANews.TV