Analysis
Election 2013: The revenge of the excluded
By Amando DoronilaThirty-seven million Filipinos go to the polls today in a midterm election which President Aquino considers a referendum on his three years in office.
Thirty-seven million Filipinos go to the polls today in a midterm election which President Aquino considers a referendum on his three years in office.
Electing public officials is the most important act of any citizen in any democracy. Here we choose people who will have the power to make decisions that bind all of us. If we try to do it rationally, we will find that it is also one of the most complex things we can do in life.
Despite scathing criticisms damning the PCOS (precinct count optical scan) system, the automated elections will be held tomorrow (Monday) as scheduled. Let us all go out and vote.
THREE DAYS to Election Day. Are you prepared for it? Here are a few practical do’s and don’ts for voters:
I was going to continue with my column of last week, but I will have to defer it. Several of my friends implored me to write on the elections because they were worried. In a conversation we had as to who they’d vote for for the Senate, they had great difficulty naming 12. Once they [...]
I’m going to continue on the campaign trail because now is a good time to push reform, and we sure need reform. Here’s why: Over the past 40 years I’ve watched the Philippines sink from the top (the second best to Japan) to near the bottom in Asia. People talk about it, but no one seems to really care enough to reverse this sad decline. The one factor I know is not the cause is the people, who have more than proved their abilities.
When I ran for a Senate post in 2010, I expected that I won’t make it, for a very simple reason: Voters generally preferred rich and famous candidates.
Pro-life advocates and supporters are advised to bring their cell phones to the House of Representatives on Monday. The likelihood is that congressmen will again avoid nominal voting. As was surreptitiously done the last time just before the habagat winds and rains slammed and deluged Metro Manila, it will be viva voce. The Ayes will simply din out the Nays and we will never know who voted how.
In a speech at Far Eastern University last November 22, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago mocked the nation’s political system, in which she has played a prominent role, as one dominated by the ignorant. “Let me summarize the problem with Philippine elections,” she told her young audience. “Of the 50 million voters who will troop to the polls in May next year, the greater majority are not intelligent, they are not educated for voting, and the candidates they choose are not educated for serving.”
First a few thoughts on the recent US elections. In less than 24 hours, the votes cast by over 100 million Americans were counted and tabulated. In the wee hours of the following morning, the losing candidate was congratulating his opponent with a gracious concession speech and offering his prayers for the success of the president and the nation. One of the saving graces of American politics is the spirit of sportsmanship that allows losers to bow out gracefully and winners to be magnanimous in victory.
Yes, I am still an American citizen, waiting these many years for permanent-resident status as a step toward Philippine citizenship. I follow American political developments, although not as closely as those of my adopted country.
I would like to comment on the article “2013 polls: same faces but new foes” (Inquirer 10/1). All of the aspiring national candidates named are popular and I am sure they will capitalize on this to be elected into office. It is a pity that there are some senatorial hopefuls whose names are unheard of, yet they are also capable of engaging in a national discussion of issues within the halls of Congress.
