Divine ramblings

I am among the few who, even though cynical about the elections in the Philippines, still has some hope that it wold somehow make a difference. Early morning of May 14, me and my sister ventured off to go to our precinct to vote.

We forgot our precinct number. Bad move.

We spent 2 hours walking around our district’s public elementary school trying to find our precinct number. That was not the first time we did vote (first was the 2004 presidential elections, as soon as I turned 18 I registered) so we knew our way around. Or thought we did.

We first tried to go back to the classroom where we voted three years ago. Nope, our names weren’t there anymore. Tried other floors and classrooms, still not there.

In vain I tried to remember our precinct number. It was just three digits and a letter. But after 3 years, it was buried deep in my over/under-used brain. My sister tried to look it up at the Comelec website the night before, but the site was already down. Tough luck.

My observations during the originally-45-min-maximum-affair-turned-into-a-2-hour-search-for-our-friggin-precinct were 6 out of 10 people who were there are pollwatchers and volunteers. To top it off, those people were split into two groups corresponding to the rivaling groups on my city. Those in favor of the previous mayor and the current mayor. Both groups were wearing new clean plain polo-shirts. Two colors for the two groups.

Red and yellow.
The second I saw them, I thought: Ketchup and mustard.

So, the ketchups and the mustards were scattered around the school. Trying to help the voters although they also helped in clogging the hallways. Like I said, there were a lot of them. There were no bitterness between the two groups thank God.

My sister, who claims being scared of strangers, intimidated some of the peole around her (i think she’s not aware of that but hehehe …) Singkit kasi e. Mukhang masungit. Crowded, lost, blistering hot, sweating, hungry, not to mention she has a meeting to attend to later in the afternoon, she was not pleased.

I remember a young male ketchup approached my sister as she was browsing thru the list of voters (looking for our names) and tried to start a conversation with a "ano pong hinahanap nyo, ate?", all smiles.

"Syempre, pangalan namen." was the reply and she walked away.
Woho, I silently laughed as the male ketchup frowned and retreated, muttering "sungit naman ni ate".

I decided to separate with my sister for a little while to look for our precinct at the other buildings while she try to consult the computer database (which is comparable to a Bingo game, where one person calls out a name to a crowd)

Regardless if some were using their job to pick-up girls or win over voters, I found myself being fascinated by my neighbors (all of themare from the same district, the reason for the use of the term). They were all smiles and were very eager to help. Not to mention easy to converse with. I found myself talking to the some of the condiments, ketchup and mustard alike, and my fellow voters, getting sympathy for my situation and giving my own for theirs. And shared some laughs at the discomfort of the whole ordeal.

I even saw some people who were all laughs and hugs and when they were about to part said "nice meeting you". Dun lang sila nagkita! San ka pa!

While I was walking around the school, I came back to the entrance. I found a huge blackboard with the "map" of the different precinct numbers, arranged by its geographic location. I immediately found my own precinct.

… 2 hours and the solution was given to us in the very beginning!

Irritated by my own stupidity and the hassle it has brought me, we finally finished voting in less than 20 minutes. Hmm I voted …
the former opposition representative
the dragon
the magdalo
Mr. Noted, Sharon’s husband
Roco’s wife
Ninoy wannabe
the who danced funny (sipag at tiyaga guy)
Vilma’s husband
the biodiesel guy who, whenever I hear his name, reminds me of a sexy star
the Filipino Adolf Hitler (remember kuratong baleleng case?)
Defensor
Coseteng

I made it a point of not voting the dancing queen, the who was supposed to be in prison, the vegetable, and the one who ran for vice president but failed.
Especially the last one. She proposed that public school teachers don’t receive any pay during summer. What are they supposed to do for those two months? Hibernate !?

Lessons learned. Neighbors are nice people provided you are also nice to them. It wouldn’t hurt to spare a smile. Before voting, secure your precinct number, eat breakfast and vote in the morning when it’s still a bit cool.

Last note, as for the mayor, I voted the ketchup but it was the mustard for the vice-mayor.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.