My 2010 election experience - a tale of an almost disenfranchised

PCOS machine

My wife and I were at the polling precinct before 8am. We knew where the room was, we knew our sequence numbers, and we brought along a codigo of our choices. We were also aware that our precinct was clustered along with 4 others. We thought voting in this automated election will be a breeze. It wasn't. It was almost a frustrating exercise.

We went to the 2nd floor where our precinct is. The actual polling place (wehre the PCOS machine is) is on the first room on that building wing. Our cluster is made up of that precinct and the next 4 rooms. But voters are made to line up past to the next room where they give out numbers. Election helpers call out the numbers and the voters will transfer back to the 1st room to vote. Only up to 10 voters are admitted into the room.

Comelec again made a lapse in judgment. When they clustered precincts because to minimize the number of PCOS machines to be used, they should have allowed more than 10 voters at a time. In the manual era, when there was no clustering, they allowed 10 voters at a time. Today, with clustering - effectively making a precinct 5x as big as before, allowing only 10 at a time will naturally create long queues. I think they should let in 50 at a time. If 50 is deemed too big, then 25-35 is certainly better than 10.

Anyway, I finally got to the voting room after an hour and a half. I counted more than 20 markers on the watchers table, including the ones being used by the voters. There were also enough desks for the voters to use. Comelec could have allowed more than 10 at a time. Is there a plan to disenfranchise voters?  I finished marking my ballot in just over 2 minutes, carefully not marking outside the of oval shape. I heard comments that ballots with shading outside the oval are rejected by the PCOS. When the PCOS screen said "Congratulations!", I managed a smile despite the tiresome wait. I have done my part to change this administration.

Final thoughts on this election

People should vote for change. This administration has brought us Joc-joc, Garci, ZTE, Neri, Winston, Abalos, C5, ad nauseam. If we don't vote to change all that, they will not only go scot-free, we're bound to get more of that.

People should also vote for a vice president and senators who will help accomplish that change. Villar will lose but he will still be a senator with a chance to be senate president. Congress will still be controlled by GMA, who herself will be a congressman with a chance to be Speaker. In that scenario, President Noynoy can be impeached easily. That tack will be pursued by GMA and her minions much more so if the VP is on their side. That's why I think they're buttering up to Binay (Loren is so far behind). He will be easier for this admin to work on. So, to avoid all that possibility, the country will be better off if the whole team for change gets elected - the president, vice president, and the whole senate slate.
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People give more credence to self rated poverty surveys than to official government poverty statistics. After all, poverty can be argued as a just state of mind. So, despite the catchy jingle and all his proclamations of his poverty the big question is why don't people believe that Villar was poor?
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Gibo won handily in a mock election at a government office. This is far, far, off the nationwide survey results from the regular pollsters. Some say this is because the people in this office are technocrats and they go for technocrats like Gibo. Hmm, maybe. But many people here think like bureaucrats. I think that people in this office have found their comfort zone. They are very comfortable in their positions that they want the status quo to remain. Garci, Joc-joc, Abalos, GSIS fiasco, etc do not bother them at all.

As we comfort the disturbed, we should also disturb the comfortable.

My women's tennis album XXXI - Tamira Paszek

Back to the heat

After a hot week at the office, my family went to Baguio City. The city is busiest this time of the year. Popoy and Vito hate long travels but we convinced them to make this trip. Vito has been to Baguio before, he likes it but he hates the long journey. Popoy hasn't been there yet, and he hates being out of his comfort zone that is watching TV and playing with this cousins. They were initially cold to the idea, but the moment they felt the cold breeze, they immediately warmed up to the City of Pines.

I got the chance to watch Mayweather-Mosley too. The kids enjoyed Burnham Park and the Wright Park. The wife escaped from the searing Manila heat. In all, we had a good time. It's just bad we have to return to the heat today.

The bureaucracy for the bureaucracy is very-crazy!

Bureaucracy has been defined as the combined organizational structure, procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage  activity, usually in large organizations. It is often represented by standardized procedure (rule-following) that guides the execution of most or all processes within the body; formal division of powers; hierarchy; and relationships, intended to anticipate needs and improve efficiency (source: Wikipedia).

Has bureaucracy realized its intentions? Judging from the way the government sector is vilified by its public, the answer is an obvious no. Why so? The government bureaucrats get much obsessed with the rules, regulations, and procedures that they readily lost sight of what they were supposed to do in the first place.  The process becomes more important than the output supposed to be produced.

If bureaucracy is harsh on the public, it is much more so on the government employees themselves. Imagine a bureaucracy for the bureaucracy. It is very-crazy.
(images from http://www.powayusd.com and http://positivesharing.com/)