To our better judgment, I and my family decided to head to
our voting precincts this afternoon. People are normally flocking in the
mornings. So half past three, we went to the nearest elementary school in our
barangay (where our precincts are). We were quite worried because of the
numerous depressing stories we kept hearing the whole day. And when we arrived at
the school, voila, the sweaty crowd, multitudes of traysikad (small three-wheel
local cabs) and habal-habal (public utility motorcycles), and the whiff of fine
dust greeted us.
Instantly, we looked for our precincts and names. Lucky for me, I saw my name immediately. I spent some minutes helping my sisters and mother. Luckier for me, my voting area was not crowded. In fact, there was no crowd, and I and my sister did not have to line up since there was no queue. If I interpreted it right, there are only few PCOS machines this year for receiving the ballots. Three years ago, almost all precincts have individual PCOS, unlike this year, one PCOS machine have to service around 10 precincts. Yup, that was why a long queue was observed in many rooms, with the exception of ours.
I identified myself to the lookouts (I don’t know the right word) and I was then guided what to do. I did not anymore present any IDs (unlike other places! LOL). I sat then and studied my ballot. First was the list of senators. I voted for exactly twelve people. I did not prepare any list since I wanted my instincts to dictate me. I voted for a few independent candidates and opposition. For my party-list, I shaded AKBAYAN.
For the local candidates, I voted for incumbent officials Pedro Acharon and Darlene Antonino-Custodio. Yup, I still believe in them. For the past years, General Santos has been steadily progressing, making names, and gaining respect from many cities. Partly, that was due to them. Though there are many criticisms, particularly in their ability to address the current power issues, their accomplishments have outweighed that “failure”. Nobody is perfect. If we find it hard to improve ourselves economically or even solve our personal problems, how harder it would be to please the thousands of people in the city and attend to most of their every demands and needs. But then, they were able to do that. So I go for the continued progress of the city, no need for any change now.
For my vice mayor, I voted Shirlyn Bañas. She’ll balance out
the power, and besides, I love the conflict. For my councilors, I have a mix of
the independents, PCM-UNA and AIM. I rather not go straight. Conflict creates
better harmony in the end, unlike the harmony made by conniving people.
The entire voting process took me less than 10 minutes. That
fast! After I voted, I stayed awhile in the school and had some chitchats with
people familiar to me.
All in all, I had a pleasant voting experience. May I voted
for the right people in the end! (Google also supports today’s events!).
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