There’s the Rub
Have a heart
By Conrado de QuirosI almost fell out of my chair when Miriam Defensor-Santiago came out with her advice to the newbies in the Senate. Would you take advice from Erap on how to live an abstemious life?
I almost fell out of my chair when Miriam Defensor-Santiago came out with her advice to the newbies in the Senate. Would you take advice from Erap on how to live an abstemious life?
Not all was light and hope in the last elections, there was a dark side to them. Agence France-Presse pointed it out last week. The elections also produced a “rogues’ gallery” of winners. Those rogues are:
Another dramatic thing happened in the election, though not quite a surprising one. That was Leni Robredo leading the rout of Luis Villafuerte in Camarines Sur. Leni buried Luis’ wife, Nelly, in a landslide in the congressional fight for the third district. John Bongat, a Robredo ally, remained mayor of Naga City, leaving his nearest rival, Jun Pelagio, biting the dust as well, and Luis himself lost to his grandson, Migz, as governor of the province.
But of course Grace Poe topping the senatorial race is the one dramatic, phenomenal, game-changing feature of the last elections.
Shortly before Election Day, UNA put to the front of people’s minds what has been at the back of them. The 2013 elections were just a prelude to the 2016 presidential election.
Next to death, it’s the great leveler. Young and old, men and women, gay and straight, the young in limb, and the young at heart, they came, queuing up patiently before the voting room. The gays were easy to spot, a group of them was performing outside, doing some kind of stand-up comedy to the delight of the crowd. Truly, you take them out and TV will die.
If the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) had plotted it, it couldn’t have done a better job. By the time Team PNoy held its last rally in Amoranto Stadium last Friday, it was showing the cracks. Two of the senatorial candidates were frosty to each other. Or at least one was to the other, who was Loren Legarda toward Alan Peter Cayetano. Noticeably—all the reports noticed it—she refused to buss him in the cheek.
I’ve written about this in elections past, but it bears saying again (and again). That’s the idea of the “wasted vote.”
Miriam Defensor-Santiago had an interesting piece of advice for voters on the eve of elections. Don’t vote old, vote young. “I want young people in the Senate. I don’t like septuagenarians who are actually campaigning for wheelchairs. I’ve never loved these characters who live in a time warp.” The reports said she had people like [...]
What a difference an election makes. Three years ago, the one thing that occupied our minds was the extent to which Arroyo’s government would cheat. It was the first time votes would be counted electronically, which caused widespread anxiety and fear. The possibilities for cheating had just been jacked up a hundredfold, computerized canvassing threatening to make “Hello Garci” look like child’s play.
Is it a little late in the day? Not at all. Hope springs eternal, and nothing gushes forth hope more than music.
