Tuesday, May 29, 2007 [ 5:07 AM ]

ACCUSATIONS

One of the news in Bandila last night said that Team Unity is accusing the Genuine Opposition of vote padding and vote shaving in areas, where according to Tonypet Albano only one TU candidate made it to the magic 12.

Now this is unusual, because it is very seldom we hear that the incumbent is complaining of being cheated. As the party of the incumbent administration, who would dare cheat Team Unity? And who has the capacity to do so? Besides Team Unity is the one bragging about their machinery. Does their machinery only include getting them votes and not protecting it?

Another point is that most of the areas where TU says cheating happened is from Metro Manila. Why can’t they believe their candidates were crushed here? Metro Manila, since the Garci scandal, has been opposed to the administration. An almost sweep victory for the opposition here is something to be expected and you can have the surveys to prove it. It is very much unlike the accusations of cheating in Mindanao areas where TU is expecting to get most of their votes. Mindanao’s election credibility has been tainted with doubts since the 2004 presidential elections. There, not so much like here in Metro Manila, monopoly of power, political killings and election violence is very rampant. Not to mention that the election watchdogs there can’t even perform their jobs because of political pressure and harassment from local officers sympathetic to the administration.

The opposition’s victory in the senatorial race is just expected. The administration should start looking in reality that the people doest trust their leadership. Because until they realize it, that’s the only time they can do something to gain it back.
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Sunday, May 20, 2007 [ 5:12 AM ]

STATEMENT VOTE

The people finally voted. Except for some disenfranchisement, the Filipino voters have already expressed their opinion on every controversy and issues that swirled the country since 2005. Based on the latest Namfrel quick count and to the conducted Exit polls of pulse asia together with the media counts, it is obvious that the people voted against the administration.

In the past two years, the people wanted to speak and wanted to be heard. They want to tell their opinion on all the issues, and they saw this past election as a venue to do so. Call it referendum for the President or whatever, but it is obvious that this election has been the evaluation of Mrs.Arroyo. Do they trust the President? No because if they do they would have voted for the people she endorsed. Do the people support her efforts to push for Charter Change? No because if they do they would have voted for Prospero Pichay and the Team Unity bets who were very vocal on their desire to abolish the Senate.

The people want to say that they trust the opposition more than the administration allies. This can be proved by the rankings of Chiz Escudero and Mike Defensor. These two gentlemen stood firm in their positions in all the controversies the Arroyo administration faced. They represented both ends of the pole, Escudero being the critic and Defensor being GMA’s defender. If before they represent left and right, now they are top and bottom.

The people in the past years kept quiet and patiently waited. They didn’t support the calls for revolution and they trusted the system. They saw how the impeachment process was trashed but still they waited. They hoped for the Senate investigation to push through but EO 464 was issued. But despite of that they waited. The people exhausted and trusted every legal procedure to know the truth and to make the guilty accountable. But nothing happened. Now that there is a chance for their voices to be heard and to let the administration know what they want, they grabbed that chance.

In the latest Namfrel count, eight genuine opposition candidates made it to the magic 12, two from team unity and two independent candidates. The non-GO who so far is on magic 12 are Joker Arroyo, Ed Angara, Francis Pangilinan and Gringo Honasan. Four people who can stand against GMA anytime of the day. But even with this result, I still think the administration should be thankful, because it will be better for them that the people released their grievances through their votes than in other extra-constitutional way.

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Just last week we were again reminded that our lives are not really ours. Yoyoy Villame and Kuya Cesar Nucum, legends on their own fields, died of heart attack. My condolences for their families.
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Sunday, May 13, 2007 [ 4:30 AM ]

WHY VOTE? WHY NOT?

Sad to say, I have talked to several people who will not vote in the midterm elections tomorrow because according to them, their votes would not be counted anyway so why bother. It is true that there is a possibility that cheating will happen in tomorrow’s polls and in fact the politically motivated killings and allegations of vote buying in different parts of the country is a clear indication of it. So why vote?

From the perspective of someone who belongs to the younger generation, I am frustrated to hear this kind of reasoning especially from the older guys whom I expected to make wiser decision than myself. If we don’t vote because we believe that there will be cheating, isn’t it a sign of giving up and just letting the crooks demolish our democracy? It’s just like saying why lock the doors of your house if the robbers will break the window anyway. I can only say that at least let’s give them a hard time doing it.

If all of us will vote for the candidates we want to be seated in public office, at least we will make cheating harder for them to do. At least, if we voted for the candidates we want, it will be very obvious who cheated their way through their positions. We will know who the cheat is because we know who we really voted for. If we don’t vote, we will just dignify their cheating because we will give them the right to blame us for not doing our job.

If we don’t vote, then we don’t have the right to complain. We don’t have the right to complain for whatever devastation our country gets into because of our leader’s unpatriotic self-centered ambition-focused decisions. If we don’t vote, we don’t have the right to complain because we didn’t do our job. If we don’t vote, there will be no one to blame but ourselves who let the unworthy be placed in their seats. If we don’t vote, we only have ourselves to blame. But if we do vote, we can say that at least, we did what we have to do.
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