MARGINALIA: Araw ng Kamangan: when liberal democracy crawls

MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 11 May) Let’s be honest.

In this liberal democracy—this noisy, flashy, personality-driven fiesta we call an electoral process—there exists a peculiar, unofficial holiday observed with more discipline and stealth than any national commemorative day. It’s not in your calendars, but ask any voter in the barangays of Bangsamoro, or across the archipelago for that matter, and they’ll know.

It’s called Araw ng Kamangan. The Day of Crawling.

No, it’s not about toddlers learning to walk. It’s not even about the tired bodies of poll watchers preparing their energy drinks and extra SIM cards. It is—brace yourselves—the sacred day when candidates, stripped of microphones and public stages, crawl. Quite literally.

House to house. Envelope to envelope. Vote to vote.

On this day, the legs of democracy don’t walk tall. They slither.

You see, according to the law, no campaigning is allowed on the day before the election. “Fair game,” they say. But we know better. The game doesn’t stop. It just goes underground. Campaign jingles give way to quiet knocks on wooden doors at midnight. The loudspeakers go silent, but the whispers of “naipadala na ni boss” echo louder than ever.

If there were a Guinness World Record for synchronized squatting, our politicians would win hands down—on all fours.

And the people?

Some wait with their voter’s ID ready in one hand and a fully charged phone in the other—ready to document proof of delivery. “For monitoring purposes,” the team leader says. Or shall we say: for tamper-proof corruption?

Let’s call it what it is: institutionalized kamangocracy.

“But at least they gave something…”

Ah, this classic defense. The bread-crumb morality of survival. The envelope, the grocery pack, the gasoline money—these become the substitute for platforms, principles, or any semblance of vision. The once-prophetic act of leadership has turned transactional.

Yes, there are hungry stomachs. Yes, the state has failed. But should this justify turning our right to choose into a marketplace of betrayal?

You don’t sell your vote. You auction your future—and it’s always the poor who pay the highest interest.

Now let’s look at this through the moral compass of Islam.

“And do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly or send it [in bribery] to the rulers in order that [they might aid] you to consume a portion of the wealth of the people in sin, while you know [it is unlawful].” (Surah al-Baqarah 2:188)

That brown envelope you hand out or receive under the guise of kindness? It’s not sadaqah. It’s riswah—bribery. And bribery, according to a hadith earns the curse of the Prophet (s):

“The one who gives a bribe and the one who takes it—both are cursed.” (Sunan Abu Dawud, hadith 3580)

Imagine crawling into Hell with an envelope in your hand, still unsealed.

In the Bangsamoro, we like to speak of jihad—of noble striving, of uprightness in the face of oppression. But here we are, allowing the fitnah of vote-buying to devour our moral ground like termites on a wooden floor.

When did we start crawling for corruption instead of standing for justice?

When did shūrā (consultative governance) get replaced by lagay?

When did we, a people who once fought, nay are fighting, for self-determination, start crawling back into the arms of transactional politics?

Here’s the real kicker. Araw ng Kamangan may officially last a day. But its effects? They linger for years. That one vote you sold for P500? It’s the pothole that won’t get fixed. The medicine that won’t reach your health center. The diploma that your child won’t receive because the school budget vanished into another pocket.

You sold your today and mortgaged your tomorrow.

This parody is real life. The comedy is our tragedy. The joke is on us—and it’s no longer funny.

So, this year, when the crawl begins again, will you join the slither? Or will you stand, even if alone, upright?

As the Qur’an reminds us:

“Stand firm for justice, even if it is against yourselves, your parents, or your relatives…” (Surah an-Nisa 4:135)

Stand.

Don’t crawl.

Because real leaders walk tall—and they don’t bribe their way into office on all fours.

[MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Mansoor L. Limba, PhD in International Relations and Shari‘ah Counselor-at-Law (SCL), is a publisher-writer, university professor, vlogger, chess trainer, and translator (from Persian into English and Filipino) with tens of written and translation works to his credit on such subjects as international politics, history, political philosophy, intra-faith and interfaith relations, cultural heritage, Islamic finance, jurisprudence (fiqh), theology (‘ilm al-kalam), Qur’anic sciences and exegesis (tafsir), hadith, ethics, and mysticism. He can be reached at mlimba@diplomats.com and www.youtube.com/@WayfaringWithMansoor, and his books can be purchased at www.elzistyle.com and www.amazon.com/author/mansoorlimba.]