By Elena Abundo

I have been reading and putting into application the 12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do To Help Our Country as written from the book of the same title by Atty. Alexander Lacson. It is very much convincing that I had to sacrifice my personal bliss in order to do the 8^th Little Thing: During Elections, Do Your Solemn Duty. I have booked my flight abroad for a short hibernation from schoolwork when I suddenly thought of having it postponed just to vote on the 14^th of May Elections. Its quite out-of-the-ordinary for me to do in the out-of-school setting but I also changed my parent's flight schedule so we could all in the family have our voices heard.

I have considered it as out of pure disgust why I had to do such just for the nation. I am not trying to sound heroic here or rebel without reason but simply the term 'solemn duty' has been inculcated on my vocabulary and has been deeply rooted in my heart. Questions like 'why do I still have to vote when it is going to be manipulated anyway?' and 'will this act change the status of the citizenry?' boggle my mind. However, it was up until I have just done such that I begun to slowly figure out the answers.

A Fraudulent Society

Though a first time voter, I was no longer surprised with the 2007 elections. What have happened had what my eyes have witnessed since birth. Its one of the reasons why I have lost a tad of my appetite. Why waste time and effort when you already know the how’s of what’s and that you already know the result?

All of the so-called 3 G’s, bribes and bribery, cheating, disenfranchised voters, vote-buying, deadly election-related violence, direct intimidation of the armed forces, the suspicious absence and abandonment of duties of Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials, and the overt coercion by candidates of powerful political clans have become so normal and in a way, have been considered to be a culture during elections in a political-and-economic-torn country. Violence and lawlessness are already termed 'normal' hence, they come in package, part and parcel of the electoral system.

Reports from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism dated the 30^th of May stated that progressive partylist groups have filed a case against the entire Board of Canvassers of Zamboanga Sibugay for the "unusually and incredibly huge number of votes" in favor of two "party-list fronts" of the administration. According to the PCIJ, the partylists found glaring irregularities between the certificate of canvass (COC) and the statement of votes (SOV) in seven municipalities in Zamboanga Sibugay. As said by the groups, votes were tampered with by surreptitiously inserting another digit to make the original entry bigger.

Artless Ingeniuty

I have always been proud of my country. Principally because I was born here, I grew up here and that I live here. I have always admired the Filipino way of thinking, the talents we have been endowed with, how we use it and how many of us make it big in the international scene. The ‘FILIPINO’ label runs through my veins.

This one thing I can hardly accept is the Filipinos’ artless ingenuity. Many Pinoys are good in mathematics. It’s just that many have abused it. The scam that happened in Zamboanga Sibugay says it all.

A Say From the Outside World

I was already out of the country but was still in tune with the latest on the elections. A coincident it has been when I was chatting with a friend from Australia and she was watching news about the Philippines. Thus, there was a shift in our topic. I was a bit dismayed of what was shown over the international television but I can't hide it for it was the reality.

Like a child that tells in the streets what he sees at home, I can not tell a lie to somebody who wants to know what is really going on. It hurts to hear that the Philippines is next to Nigeria in terms of how the elections are done. It hurts to hear that it is only in the Philippines where politicians have to kill people, wipe out places and spend over a hundred million pesos or two just to win for a position. Much as I wanted to cover-up the view with the ‘good’, and ‘great’ side of the Philippines and of being a Filipino, it is always the negative of a photograph that tells what the real image is.

As I tried to evaluate why our elections have become like this, I can’t separate the opinion of those foreigners who came to the country to observe. They were really keen as to how things went and got done. I have considered, too, their points of view for the reason that they were from developed countries and they could see the differences. Lawrence Sundra from Compact said that it was the failure to enforce election laws, the weakness of the party system, and the legal loopholes that make the polls prone to fraud and violence.

A Sort of Pity

Much has been heard about bribery and vote-buying and fraud and cheating. It was a sort of mixed emotions. I pity those truly intelligent (but not smart) politicians who were able to fool their fellows. Congratulations to all of you. You have just shown to the world that you (you know who you are!) are like those who voted you and made you get into power. By the way, you are an employee!

To the ‘blinded’ voters, can 500 pesos or even make it 5, 500 pesos (something about numbers!) feed you for a term of those you voted? I in all honesty respect those poor but smart voters who by all chance had their voices heard.

Past as Part of the Present

It’s been almost a month past the elections. The good thing about looking at the past is that it teaches us on how to do what in the future. We have seen, heard (and hopefully) understood how everything went. We have seen the flaws. We witnessed how it was.