Apopong, GSC - Groggy, everyone woke up early to experience the much bragged about the first ever National Automated elections of the Philippines. not knowing which cluster we all belong, we decided to go to our assigned school to check it. Much to what we expected, quiet a number of voters are already in their precincts. Traffic, erronous parking added with dusts welcomed our day. But that did not put our excitement away not until we've reached our room precinct.
INITIATIVE and COMMON SENSE, two of the things most of the BEI's lacked during the voting period in the school where our precinct is.
They put too much time getting the PCOS machines ready that they missed out what to do with throngs of voters to make things SYSTEMATIC on the ELECTION DAY!
SYSTEMATIC, which according to Merriam Webster online dictionary has something to do with methodical procedure or plan. Why the clamor for this? Most voters easily get tired. They easily get intimated by long lines (that includes moi), because of these they tend not to vote at all. Check the Turn-out of Voters if I am wrong. Plus, the heavy downpour early afternoon added, slowed down the Voting Process even more. In my precinct alone, the voting lasted till 10:00 in the evening. Well, I still do consider us lucky compared to places who declared FAILURE of ELECTION!
They say, Philippine elections is like a CIRCUS.. I guess they're right
Lining up was tedious, waiting was easy but INCONSIDERATE beings, is another thing. If you are familiar with the word "SINGIT", that is also one of the crimes that some Filipino voters committed during the Election Day! It greatly shows we lack discipline and we do not respect the system.
Setting an example, the Mayor-elect Darlene Custodio
lining up for an hour and a half before finally casting her vote
A standing ovation goes to all the Filipinos who patiently waited in line
for long hours to cast their votes for few minutes.
Now comes that the unpopular PCOS machine do their job. The final counting, transmission and so on and so forth. Compared to the previous elections, General Santos was generally peaceful. BEI's, Teachers, Watchers and Volunteers need not stay up late. No more reading of ballots in school precincts and in Three-day time, Local Winners we're proclaimed.
Proclamation in GSC last May 12, 2010
Aside from the Endless line that I am whining about, the Election Process of May, 2010 is somehow successful. For an ending note, I would like to borrow words from my favorite Columnist Conrado de Quiros:
I’m eating my words, I’m eating crow, I’m eating humble pie. I don’t mind saying it: I was wrong about the automation, I was wrong about the Comelec commissioners, I was wrong about Jose Melo, I was wrong about Smartmatic. And, boy, am I absolutely ecstatic to be so....
