Post election thoughts

It appears Binay will win the VP contest. With 4M+ votes to count, he leads by just under 800k votes over Mar Roxas. Ever since the start of the counting, Binay had that consistent 800k lead. As more votes get counted, that lead stays the same. Wonder where that 800k came from? Regions 4 is so close to home and yet he did not take care of it.
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The total votes for president was close to a million more than the total votes for vice president. It means there are many people who did not vote for a VP. Or many VP votes were invalidated. Erap was caught on cam to having not voted for a VP. Probably his experience with GMA made him do it.
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Did Mar get overconfident? Maybe. The surveys said his lead over Loren was comfortable. And she looked she had nowhere to go. With INC's endorsement locked up a long time ago, they did not see Binay. Now Chiz feels like a kingmaker. He can claim his endorsement clinched it for Binay.
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Villar: Ako ay may sipag at tiyaga.
Gibo: Ako ay may galing at talino.
Noynoy: Wala yan sa mommy at daddy ko.
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Pinoys don't mind performers-turned-politicians-who-don't-perform as long as they are not tainted with corruption. Joey Marquez lost. Lito Lapid and Bong Revilla won. It also helped that they stayed away from GMA in this campaign.
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This election's vote is a vote against GMA. Gibo despite all his galing at talino lost big. Villar despite his billions and sipag at tiyaga lost billions. All because of the GMA connection. Erap the ex-convict was ahead of the two. Binay postured himself as anti-GMA. He branded Mar as pro-GMA. He leads as of now.
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Chiz enjoys his kingmaker role. But he better make sure that his VP behaves, or else he will go down with him.

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.