MANILA, Philippines—It’s a case of too early the hero for Bayani Fernando, it seems. The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman has made his political intentions clear by plastering his face all over MMDA-managed traffic islands and posts some two years before the presidential election, and he is threatening to do the same thing all over the country. The self-promotion is calculated and well-engineered (it’s not for nothing that Fernando is an engineer and construction businessman). It ensures he’ll be in the public’s reckoning when the time to pick presidential candidates comes around. If he does not make it, he can still be in the running as a running-mate or falling short again, as a candidate for the Senate, that chamber of presidential pretenders.

Fernando is already a pretender and interloper—at the expense of the public. And his pretentiousness knows no bounds. In the run-up to the Ninoy Aquino Day and National Heroes Day, the MMDA distributed stickers and other paraphernalia bearing his name, which means “hero” in English. Motorists put the stickers on their windshields and those who violated traffic rules were reportedly treated leniently by MMDA traffic enforcers. Pressed to explain the stickers, the Land Transportation Office said it’s illegal to put just any sticker on windshields and asked motorists to remove them.

The attempt at self-canonization is both pathetic and sacrilegious. Only the extreme egoist could put himself on the level of patriots and heroes, who are there in the pantheon not by self-aggrandizement but by collective acclamation. And if heroism, in the case of Aquino and others like him, is self-sacrifice and self-immolation, how can Fernando claim to be in their league? He is making martyrs of us all by his insufferable arrogance.

Parañaque City Rep. Roilo Golez has asked Fernando to junk his presidential ambition. He pointed to recent surveys showing Fernando nowhere near the magic circle of presidential hopefuls. Making fun of Fernando’s propensity to put U-turns at just about every busy street in the metropolis, Golez said, “It’s time he makes a U-turn on his presidential ambition.”

The issue is more than popularity and whether or not Fernando has a fighting chance in his presidential bid. The issue is using the people’s money for electioneering. By filling the streets with his self-advertisement, Fernando is using public funds for self-aggrandizement. The widespread and sustained campaign to put his face and name at just about every corner of the metropolis goes way beyond the bounds of public information. Who is paying for his huge tarpaulins hanging along major roads? Who is paying for his provincial trips, including the one in Aklan province where he brought along the MMDA band?

In fact, Fernando has gone beyond mere self-promotion. Some eager-beaver senators who harbor presidential ambitions may have suddenly become very visible around the country via giant billboards and print and broadcast advertisements where they espouse their favorite advocacies and pet projects. In some instances, they have become endorsers and image models of skin whiteners and other vanity products. But at least they are not using public funds for their visibility campaign.

This is not to say that Fernando’s very evident electioneering should be stopped, and those of the other tolerated. This is why we join the call of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago for the Commission on Elections to enforce the Omnibus Election Code of 1985, particularly Sec. 80, which makes it unlawful for any person to engage in an election campaign or partisan political activity, except during the campaign period.

As Fernando and the others have shown, the prohibition against premature campaigning has been blatantly circumvented by self-advertisements disguised as advocacy or lifestyle ads. The presidential hopefuls may not have declared their intentions, but this is specious and a manifestation of bad faith at the least. They have been campaigning all along at the cost of public resources and, in the case of Fernando’s tarpaulin madness, at the cost of public space. All of this vainglorious self-promotion has made Metro Manila a terrible eyesore. Fernando and the other presidential aspirants should stop inflicting their images on the motorists and the general public.