By now, Trump’s twin, the rich mom’s son, the little dark man, the ‘amgirl’ and all the candidates out there are on edge. Losing sleep. Having nightmares. So are their campaign people, the money bags and supporters. The voting public, too, are itching to get their hands on the ballots this coming Monday.
Not I and my barber Egay. May 9 will be just another haircutting day for him and a regular crossword puzzle-solving day for me.
Why would I walk half kilometer under the hot sun to a voting precinct and risk getting a heat stroke? Why, indeed, would my barber and I participate in an exercise we don’t anymore trust, don’t believe in and that offers us only between-the-devil-and-the-deep –blue-sea choices?
I and Egay don’t trust the Comelec. Back in 2010, now exiting – thank God – bsA predicted loud – and heard by the number counters in Intramuros – he’ll win by a margin of 5 million votes. He did and it was not because he threatened to lead a people power march ala Edsa 1 if he loses. In 2013, the unknown, erstwhile movie censor with a Philippine SSS card in one pocket and a US SNN card in another pocket was proclaimed by Sixto – of the ‘Ah, basta’ quip notoriety – a Senator with a whopping 20 million votes!
The IT guys – who should know – are saying and have been saying the smart machines of the Venezuelan sales rep have everything to do with everything wrong in the past two elections. Forget for a moment the sewer mouth and consider the following: The loss and change of CF cards a couple of days before actual voting, the more than average non-transmissions of voters results, the non-review and even the question of the non-existence of the source code, the receipt of voter results from other countries, the discovery of the ‘Antipolo voting machines’ and some voting machines dumped somewhere, the unvarying 60-30-10 voting results across all regions of the country, the haste in proclaiming winners with some 2 million votes still unaccounted for and other snafus and glitches. Which then Comelec headman Sixto says sheepishly he did not tell the public because he had solved them. Oh?
Present Comelec chief Andy is now saying the May 9 elections is going to be ‘transparent, efficient and accountable’ in response to negative perceptions about the work of the agency and they are working hard to plug loopholes and prevent glitches.
Andy’s assurance seems no assurance at all as Al S. Vitangcol 3rd, CHFI, CEI, in his 3-part series on Election Fraud: The dark side of Automated Election Systems (The Manila Times,April 25, 26, 27, 2016) says that elections results with the AES can be ‘possibly’ tampered with. Minimum or none at all human intervention, he says, should be done in the ‘delivery of electronic services’ to prevent ‘vulnerability’ and the chance for not-so-nice fraudsters to do their job.
Egay and I also don’t believe in – disdain – surveys. The legendary lawmaker Miriam laments that while she always tops surveys in universities she is not even included in commercial surveys. Sir Jose Sison (A Law Each Day, The Philipine Star, April 26, 2016) says surveys are ‘unreliable and harmful’ and my barber and I fully agree. Surveys, according to him, ‘…are not… public service projects… are conducted only as a means of conditioning the minds of the electorate… used as tools for protesting the results of the elections… and prevent the electorate from finding out who is the most qualified candidate…as they based their choice on who is winnable.”
Lastly, my barber and I look with dismay at the choices of candidates. No debates can alter the obvious that what we see are what we get. Not a pretty sight. Uninspiring to listen to.
Along the stretch of road I daily pass through on my way to the outskirts of our little barangay to buy a couple of newspapers and palaver with my street-corner friends are sprawled groups of old people, little children, girls and boys, even babies, who look they have not taken a bath for days and weeks, haven’t eaten a decent meal. Seeing them so simply breaks my heart. Now, if only one candidate would say with certainty, not promise, to build them shelter, places to stay protected from sun and rain, I might just change my mind, brave the harsh sun and the risk of a heat stroke and walk the half kilometer to our voter precinct and vote for that candidate. Even if he turns out to be the candidate who makes the blood of the missus boil with just the mention of his name.
Photo credits: www.linkedin.com