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The Reason Why…

By bluepanjeet on May 19, 2007 in Acid Rub

32nd---veras_eyes

Its already 6 days after the 2007 Philippine Elections and I know many of you are already saturated by this topic. I know, I feel the same way too. To be honest and not being rude, I’m allergic to politics. Yet I indulge myself in this political satire and discussion everyday all over the Pinoy Blogosphere. Though I wanted to shift back my posts to my life’s humor and Irony, but I can’t seem to ignore the significance of the 2007 elections in our everyday life as Filipinos, at least for those who are living here in the Philippines. The indelible ink on my index finger is beginning to fade, but the news on the poll results keeps on tainting my thoughts everyday for the past six days now. For all you know, I only voted 6 senatoriables whose identities I would not divulge here as I already mentioned in my past post. But watching the pre-elections program of different pinoy channels, cant seem to help myself but wonder why 75% of Filipinos still cannot get the gist of the significance of their vote. The 75% of Filipinos I’m talking about here are the ones who voted and the ones who didn’t.

1) Why is it that the turnout of voters are very low? Is it because that many of us are so dismayed on the Garci scandal that we fear that cheating will be wide spread again?
2) Why are some Filipinos still voting for the trapos (traditional politicians), the nuisance and the infernals?

Well I do not know their reason nor do I have the right to question them, but simply I’m inquiring, wondering and asking. Do we really know the implications of our vote? or do we just take them for granted because we all fail to think outside the box? The pre-election programs which I watched before the actual election made me see a glimpse of my future senators. They were asked by panelist on different occasions regarding their stand on some issues they are familiar with, or ironically, to some that are to controversial for them to answer.

In the program “Isang Tanong” by GMA 7, senatoriables were asked by the different media and journalism personalities. and there and then you could see how these people make their stand on issues that always made our country notorious.

Richard Gomez for example was over confident in his seat that he didn’t have a hint that an impending humiliation was coming towards him. His answers were incongruent with the questions of the panel for starters, and when asked regarding his stand on the numerous parties mushrooming overnight just to cater to various factions going around the political parties, he manage to raise himself higher than usual by stating “implicitly” that he doesn’t need any help from political parties, only to be scorned later and “implicitly” by the different media personalities. when given the privilege to write down a specific question for his opponents to answer, he wrote down in interrogative form the entire would be platform of his term as a senator: “what are your plans in alleviating drug addiction in the country?”. The people are not dumb as he think they are, because what viewers ar looking for, is a question that cannot be asked by a 5 year old kid. Is this the senatoriable I would vote for? I asked myself.

Tessie Aquino Oreta and Chavit Singson were sautéed however in their very own lard. When the former was asked “who is the better president between GMA and Erap?” and the latter was treated the same with “How come you blew the whistle on Erap where in fact you cannot blew it on GMA’s Corrupt Administration?”. The two found themselves in a situation wherein they wished they just sank on the floor instead of answering those questions. Oreta had a long pause, a priceless face and an irked gesture. The pause was enough to say that she was caught in her own web. Paradoxically, Singson’s reply was more rapid, wherein after the question, he immediately answered it with haste,without any reflection, without any insight and without really thinking at all. His answer was so far that even a moth can hop in and ride towards the moon. Again, I asked myself, Are these the senators that I would vote for? Obviously not, for “Money” was spelled all over their face.

Victor Wood insisted his ignorance on parliament, the very same parliament that was being pushed by administration congressmen to wipe out the senate. I asked myself once again: what will he do in the senate in case I voted for him?

Nikki Coseteng, Sonia Roco, Michael Defensor, Miguel Zubiri, Prospero Pichay and Koko Pimentel did a satisfactory job in answering the questions, but again their answers were either safe or plain deviation from the truth.

Montano did a good job in answering the “Filipino questions” of the panelists. But the doom overcame him when the question raised by the very intelligent, (yet deliberately cunning), Loren Legarda fell on him. The question was easy but was made difficult by the sadistic elitism of Legarda. A show of academic pride yet very degrading for a journalist, who by the way showed on her ads that she’s for the masses. Her question read by the host was: “what concrete steps will you take to ensure the will of the people through their exercise of the right to vote will prevail over reasonable fears of massive cheating and fraud in the 2007 elections?”. She could have just asked ” what will you do to protect the votes of the people?”. She definitely forgot that most of the viewers doesn’t understand dictionaryish words.

It was obvious that Montano’s mind was blank. He did not know what hit him. The first 5 seconds was very obvious that Montano was looking for words to blurt out. He mumbles, he stutters and finally pieced together his answer, only to state the very disappointing “we need to pray”. Of course I agree with that. I’m an ex-seminarian for crying out loud, and all I could have wished for is for everybody to pray. But sometimes, we have to be realistic. Cesar Montano was not in the position to say that, it is precisely because he is not running for papacy, he is running for the nation’s senatorial seat. To pray alone is powerful indeed. But if he added that “we need to work and be vigilant, could have been more acceptable. For in order that faith maybe fortified, prayer and work should be integrated. I scratched my head and asked once again: “is this the candidate that I will vote for, who is known for his brute and then all of a sudden will urge Filipinos to pray in the midst of wide spread fraud?

KBL Senatoriables were pure nuisance; no platforms, lacks tangency and inconsistent in all of their answers. While Kapatiran Candidates were good but they do not know anything about law making as evident on their answers. For the last time I asked myself, are these the people I will vote for?

Of course, people who have voted for these people would blatantly defend that there are factors to consider why they may have failed to answer such questions. or one could just say that it is not enough to base our vote on a 3 Q&A session. I say, they have a point. But my perspective is, what choice do we have in knowing what’s on the candidates’ mind? This is the only opportunity to see the other side of the coin. And I guess it really made an impact to those who only saw the the politicians through their subliminal yet ridiculous ads.

THE REASON WHY I VOTED? Exactly. My vote will determine the position of the right people who will carry my nation’s fate towards the future. I rest my case, for now.







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BluePanjeet Interactives 2007 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License










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  1. 2 Comment(s)

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  2. By K on May 21, 2007 | Reply

    Victor Wood? Damn I thought this guy was a deceased, forgive my ignorance but when it comes to Politics (I just stay away from Pinoy blogs who talks about our Gov’t) I’m not surprised that every election time, these candidates speaks the same thing but has done nothing to our Gov’t when they take their seats. Annoying.

    Honestly, I have not voted for 20yrs since I left the Philippines. I’m not happy with the people voting for somebody because he/she a celebrity or he/she has money.

    [Reply]

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  3. By bluepanjeet on May 21, 2007 | Reply

    No k, he is alive and unwell.. haha and he was not disqualified by the COMELEC even though its very obvious that he is nuisance. (What’s the use of COMELEC anyway?)

    Good for you, at least you wont regret it later why you voted for a particular candidate, who turns out to be a mistake, as most candidates are. :)

    [Reply]

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