The changes brought about by the automated election was just astounding that even the most cynical of critics admit it is a resounding success. Now, that the counting of votes is almost finished, and the winners - except for the VP race which is still a tight one as of this posting - can already be fairly ascertained one question comes to mind: What now of the RH Bill?
Noynoy Aquino, the Philippines next president, has previously announced his support for the RH Bill. However, as the Presidential race got more heated and the battle for endorsement from religious leaders became more intense and crucial, he changed his position. As more and more election results were transmitted has also become obvious that the pro-RH senatoriables - Lisa Masa, Risa Hontiveros, and Satur Ocampo - wouldn't get a seat in the senate. So what now of the RH Bill?
Before the election fever even caught on I remember seeing this tarpaulin at green meadows saying:
Yes to Life, No to RH bill.
Yes to life! Indeed, yes to life...but what is life?
The answer escapes me. Hence, i want to ask this questions to the church:
In Freakonomics it was said that voting is inefficient i.e. the amount of time, money, and effort you put in voting is not commensurate to the actual effect your voting will have as to the result of the election. Voting,therefore; is an inefficient exercise. Be that as it may, I still braved the NLEX traffic and traveled 4 hours of traffic to go home - via the SCTEX no less - to my hometown Alaminos, Pangasinan.
Alarm clock rang at 6:30am...way too early to wake up on a holiday. Of course it's not just any holiday but election day - the day I am finally going to meet the talk of the town Mr. PCOS machine. At 8am we were already at the polling place, techno-savvy that I am I already wrote the precinct number which I got on comelec.gov's website Precinct 0022A. Armed with my written list of names of candidates I am going to vote for and our precinct number committed to memory my mom and I looked for precinct 22A. After one round of searching for precinct 22A we still couldn't find it -- only precincts 1-9 exists. I know I am bad at math, hence I went to law, but 22 and 9 is way too far even if there's some mysterious odd, even, prime numbers only scheme going on! So, we swallowed our pride, and approached those PPCRV volunteers. We gave our precinct number 0022A and voila we got the answer - no algorithms required - apparently the one posted online is our OLD precinct number before the clustering happened, and we are now on precinct/cluster no. 6! Wow, thank you Comelec for wasting our time and for getting us to sweat a tub of water! So precinct found, next goal -- find your number. Okay, thank you so much for another goal to hurdle. So going back again to the PPCRV people, who searched in the excel sheet our number 123, and 124. So all set...
Five minutes after we found our precinct, the next step getting a number to vote and queuing for what seemed like an audition lane to wowowee! My mom, though a senior citizen in denial, opted to take advantage of the senior citizen lane so okay, i just had to pep talk myself and sing Britney Spears 'Stronger' while waiting. After like an hour of waiting I finally was able to vote. Finally!
Secretly, i was humming 'may bilog, may bilog na hugis itlog...' lest I over or undershade. So after being handed down what looks like a 3 feet of paper (yes, we have that many candidates!) and handed the smartmatic marker I took one of the seat. Since we were voting in an elementary school, the seats were of course for the size of elementary students. So hurdle number five: how to fit a 3 feet paper, cover it with a 12 inch folder while all the time trying hard to fit yourself on a desk that was a nice fit when you were 1 foot shorter and 30 lbs lighter. I somehow managed to do this, however; so on to hurdle number 6: making sure not to over or undershade.
Shading is difficult, hands-down. Maybe I am just obsessive-compulsive but trying to be within the oval - the bilog na hugis itlog - is one hard feat! Since I voted early, the marker was still full and some of my shadings went through at the back of the paper. I was for a while, nervous that the PCOS machine would not accept it. Fortunately it did! What I thought would be the clincher round - getting the machine to accept it - proved to be a breeze. One go and the machine said: Congratulations Your Vote has now been registered.
Now, on to putting your thumbmark and getting the dirty finger i.e. the indelible ink. So voting finally done, time for some Halo-Halo! So while my mom and I were having snacks in the canteen near the school, I saw this two ladies wearing SWS exit poll IDs. I immediately called them for me to be surveyed. They only asked for who we voted for from President to Senatorial race, no question was asked on party lists which is OK.
I finally proved that this exit polls exists. Now on to the questions. After being asked who we voted for - I voted for Gordon while my mom voted for Gibo - some follow up questions we're asked. Some of the questions asked were:
1) Your choice for president is based on:
- platform (plataporma)
- pagkatao (personality?)
I answered, plataporma. When it was my mom's turn she asked, can i answer both? The interviewer said that she can only choose one, so she chose pagkatao. Now looking back, in choosing a president it's difficult to say you're just basing your decision on his/her platform after all you also look at that presidentiables personality, that is, his capacity to actually implement his platform. Thus, it's not clearcut and to box a respondent's answer in an either or choice would not be reflective of his/her motivation for choosing such candidate.
2) What do you think will be the future of the Philippine Economy (not so sure if it was worded as such)?
- bubuti (better)
- pareho pa din (same)
- sasama (will worsen).
This is very vague and ambiguous, so I had to clarify if my answer will be based on my perception what the economy will be on the basis of who I think will win or on the basis of who I voted for, or on the basis simply of ALL market factors. The interviewer said its the former -- based on who I think will win. I said, it will worsen*.
One day post election, and the clear winner is emerging...i stick with my answer. June 30, we're on to the final and longest round.
*this is my perception, and I don't wish to explain it. I call it positive pessimism - you don't frustrate yourself when you didn't expect much to begin with.
According to this article SWS won't accept voters who volunteered to be interviewed...Oooopppsss. :)
I have always been curious about who taxi drivers will be voting for, and being the curious former statistics obsessed student that I was I always make it a point to ask drivers who they will vote for. In about two months that I have done this, the clear answer is Joseph Estrada a.k.a ERAP.
It has always been common talk with some of my friends that to reelect Erap would just prove to the International Community that we never learn from our mistakes. To pardon a 73 year old convicted plunderer was probably compassionate or humanitarian, to let him run again for the same position we rid him off would probably count as fair, after all he does not possess any of the disqualifications for running, by Comelec Division 2 standards at least, but to re-elect him AGAIN for the same position is unacceptable, it is LUNACY to the most exponential level!
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As a disgruntled voter who is rooting and voting for an unpopular but very capable Presidentiable, I have reached a point where I believe wholeheartedly and without a single ounce of skepticism that we are, or maybe have become, a country of stupid voters. An hour ago, I was thinking that IF ONLY ours is a population of thinking voters then there is probably still hope. Still hope that the poor will not always be poor, the oligarchs won't always control the government, and we the hopeful generation would one day not contemplate - hope, wish, pray, or die for - a chance to go and work abroad and leave the country for good. It seems though that I am living in a different dreamland with the white rabbit never appearing to say 'it's time, it's time!'.
If only ours is indeed a population of thinking voters. Wishful thinking, indeed. The educated, the elitist, the thinkers always blame the masses for electing incompetents like movie stars, singers, etc. and I am one of them. I admit to being snobbish and downright dismissive of candidates who lure and wow the masses with all the posters, promises, entertainment, and all that she-bang without offering a concrete platform. The strategist in me, however; admit that the only way to win an election is to sway the vote of the masses. After all, we are the only country in Southeast Asia where the absolute number of poor people has increased since 1990. This is according to an ADB report.
Resentful as I was for the irrational choices that the masses have for electing a President, I would have to admit that probably in their perspective too they were making the right choice. To better understand their perspective, and the masses seemingly fanatic and unconditional support for Erap I had one pro-Erap taxi driver convince me to vote for Erap. His reasoning was very simple, he didn't have all the statistical reports etc, and he never denied that Erap didn't steal his only argument is that Erap has genuine concern for the poor. Never mind that that concern didn't seem to be manifest in a concrete platform to actually alleviate poverty. Never mind that Erap's pro-poor program seemed to be concerned only with giving them 'food for the day etc.' he is as adamant as any hardcore supporter that Erap is pro-poor. If you think about it, what difference is an Erap supporter to a Noynoy one -- the other one promises that hindi ako magnanakaw (i will not steal) while the other promises (not directly of course!haha) that he will only steal jueteng money.
Rational is in the perception of the voter. The manong was unsuccessful in convincing me to vote for Erap, but one thing is for sure, i'd rather have an irrational - in my perspective- popular mandate for Erap than another 'people power' elected candidate.
Note: i am going beyond 360 today, because this is just too complicated to be contained in 360 characters.
Applauds the teachers serving as Board of Election Inspectors, not only are they taking on the very difficult of implementing the very first automated election but most notably that they appear to be genuinely concerned that there will be a failure of election. Failure of election equals GMA’s extension, thus UNACCEPTABLE.
Just saw the all star Villar ad with Dolphy, Willie, and Manny. I have to applaud Villar for his use of non ‘intellectual celebrities’, after all the thinking ones don’t really pull the vote. Intellectuals influence only other intellectuals who argue, comment, dissent etc. That’s why Gibo and Gordon will never win – they have intellectuals as endorsers.
