Table Talk By: Mike S. Apostol All of a sudden everybody wanted to be a voter The nationwide chaos as a result to the latest registration of voters for the coming barangay and SK election is a phenomenon. All of a sudden everybody of legal age wanted to be a registered voter. The queue of registrants throughout the country was so long that took days for some voters to be registered, while those from the barangays stayed within the COMELEC offices day and night until the last day of registration. In many areas of the country, those who were not able to register after many days of waiting became unruly, tossed table and chairs provided by the COMELEC and shouted invectives because of frustration to COMELEC employees. In some areas of greater Manila, some were injured because of stampede when they rushed to the narrow entrance of COMELEC registration centers when the deadline for registration was nearing. This is a scenario that is surprising and when registrants were interviewed as to why they wanted to be a registered voter, the answer is unanimous “they wanted to exercise their right of Suffrage”. That was a flimsy reason because many months before an election, there is always a call for new registration of voters but the outcome is not as interesting as the recent voters registration for the barangays. There must be a hidden and tempting reason as to why the sudden rush to become a registered voter. *** After the Barangay elections, the Presidential election will come in 2016. Right now the position of Barangay chairman is alluring to some “losing” candidates, “has been” barangay chairmen and kagawads, “bata” of politicians and influential power brokers, suspected but moneyed underworld characters, retired military and police officers and even from the religious sector. Their interest to join politics is awesome but bewildering which did not happen in the past elections. One maybe surprised why all of a sudden “Nationalism” to serve the public has caused so much interest to many “hopefuls” and why it coincides with the coming Presidential election. There must be a real reason or reasons for these fantasy. *** The results of this year’s mid-term election for the national positions is claimed by many sectors as “fantastic”. The commissioning of the computerized Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines can be allegedly manipulated as claimed by many concerned citizens and allegedly those who belong to the Administration Party is assured of victory coupled with a “well oiled” political machinery. This maybe a reason for the mad scramble during the voter’s registration and allegedly it was suspected that some “political bigwigs” were responsible in the huge voter’s registration turn-out that even COMELEC never anticipated the development. Maybe the Presidential election in 2016 will be the most expensive in the political history of the country because millions of voters are added to the list of political “windfall beneficiaries”. *** Scoop: The barangay government is supposed to be a non-political entity. These words “non-political” must be erased from all documents in the country. It is impossible to perceived barangay governments as “non-political” for as long as the head of the DILG that handles the affairs of the barangays is a politicians and coming from the Presidential family. Let us call “a spade a spade” nothing less nothing more only the truth. Agree or disagree. ***
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 00:23:49 +0000
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