Election Epilogue Ushers in Real Prologue

 

 

 

In its earnest attempt to wrap itself on the relevant issues of the day, my puny mind sizes certain things up this way.  Many of us that do social media regularly, may not really want to aim for changes that will drastically change the landscape of the country, physically, economically, and socially.  Maybe “want” is not the right word, but more along this line, that given our fortunate status in life, it would be difficult for us to fathom the kind of fundamental changes that would be needed to bring about real meaningful reforms in society, governance, and in the economy in general.  So “cannot” is the better operative word.

After all, many of us live lives that can be considered comfortable and affluent enough.  And in any context, it is a difficult choice to try and upset the status quo, with its warts and all.  But truly, our privations in life are not anywhere near the same degree and caliber as the poor in the country, which by any worthy standards number too much.  Not just discerned from cold and hard statistical facts, but by cursory ocular observation around where we live and spend our days.  What the poor suffer are glaringly worse in comparison with the challenges in life that we perceive and imagine.  At times, worlds apart.

 And the poor gather in such great numbers, we can categorize them into different groups. We not only have the sorry multitudes of the very impoverished  poor, but the hardly-visible working poor, and the under-employed poor donning a  false façade of physical respectability and success.

 These great numbers are truly the ones in dire want of real reforms, but whether they are aware of the magnitude and requirements of their needs is another issue. One is not even sure if their numbers know what kind of reforms are necessary to ameliorate their unacceptable situations.  So it will be necessary for us the “enlightened” to lead the way to their “promised land”.  Noblesse Oblige.

And in a rare confluence of events, their numbers are joined by those in the upper echelons of society who are tired of the too-long tried and failed rule of the oligarchic elite.  In their utter frustration and restiveness, they too want change, great and novel change.

All this amidst the entire country enjoying good advances in domestic production and services to give it a justifiable claim as a surging tiger economy trailing the  hot heels of progress and development. Except that in micro-economic levels these good stuff do not trickle down any lower than maybe the upper 5% of the population, giving it a very bad case of very uneven and lopsided distribution of wealth and gaping income inequality.

The preponderance of rhetoric and issues in this election then centered around and about that crappy and unrefined outlier, but who was one perceived as divorced from anything and anybody connected with the lamented status quo.

 Maybe it is time to stop paying lip service to that old Magsaysay adage many politicians like to quote in times of wakeful reverie, which shiningly declares that one who has less in life should have more in law.  First to understand what it means, and next how best to make it reality.

A Layman's Political Look At Voters In Cagayan de Oro

Okay, so I have averred on several occasions that the population of the City of Cagayan de Oro may top over a million. Nobody really knows for sure anyway, so it appears as valid as any guess.

Anyway, here are some irrefutable facts. For the last election cycle in 2007, the total number of registered city voters came out at 219,206. Of that number about 76%voted, coming out to a total of 166,451.

For the current election cycle it is forecasted based on early new registration returns that an increase of 10% will be added to the election rolls, for a total of about 240,000. If we get the same number of people voting during this cycle we should have 182,000 actual voters. Remember both 2007 and 2010 are national elections.

As is arguably implied, three candidates from a total of seven for the city’s top executive position are expected to slug it out for the prize – the incumbent Vice-Mayor, the current Congressman of the 1st district, and our outlier dark horse, former councilor Berchmans Abejuela. A close struggle is expected to ensue, dividing city votes 3 ways. If true as projected, a candidate who is able to garner at least 60,000 votes has a good chance of winning, assuming the two other candidates are able to accumulate similar numbers of votes.

So where are the votes for each major candidate expected to come from?

For the current congressman of the 1st district, he is expected to perform well in his own bailiwick. He resides in Carmen, a district that already has over 20,000 registered voters.

Surprisingly, the entire poblacion of 40 barangays has a total voting population of only about 22K, topping 25K taking into account the projected increase, with Carmen projected to register 22K. Both Carmen and the poblacion pegged 74% actual votes from registered voters during the last cycle.

The first district has total registered voters of 92,929, quite less than the 2nd district’s 126,237.

Aside from Carmen, the first district has the following heavily populated areas registering voters in the high four figures – Balulang, Patag, Kauswagan, and Bulua.

But the 2nd district aside from the poblacion also has high concentration areas like Camaman-an, Macasandig, Bugo, Gusa, Macabalan, Puntod, and with Lapasan registering at the low five figures. Others figuring out prominently are Agusan, Cugman, and Tablon.

We expect Berchmans to perform well with the younger, more motivated and untainted voters so the populations from four city universities will be a constituency that he could court, impress and win over as a solid core constituency.

Another huge, though seethingly silent and disgruntled, constituency should be the many disaffected Cagayanons scattered throughout the city, who have been resigned over these many years to the doggone idea that they have lost their city in many respects. Berchmans comes across as one of them – giving flesh and expression to their once devoted concerns and homegrown values.

Both contending opponents are not only well-entrenched politicians with deep pockets, but are currently public officials which undoubtedly give them better exposure and access to resources not otherwise available to an outside non-officeholder. Look around, on government-installed billboards, signs and images plastered conspicuously on government vehicles, etc, and it is easy to see why they do. Government largesse, or call it pork or whatever, from the ways it is disbursed and accounted for is mistakenly acknowledged to have originated from the personal resources of the government officials named. When in fact since it comes from tax money, really comes from the people themselves.

The current Vice-Mayor of course is the uncrowned kingpin in the city. He had served forever as mayor, governor, and then slid down to vice-mayor because ostensibly it was the only way to perpetuate power. And now, he wants to reclaim his much-desired title.

This will be an interesting election, hopefully a hotly-contested joust majoring in clashes of ideas and public programs of government, rather than the typical toss-up between candidates spiraling down the path of who can outspend whom, or a flagrant contest of temerity or gall to finagle ways to a dubious, or less than honorable, victory.

In the issue of honest transparency and to better appreciate the attendant political capability and credibility of each candidate it is hoped that public forums or debates are held before election time.

Quick Takes On A Slow Journey

Quick because of time constraints and slow because a journey that lasts for three months is never fast.

But make the trip I had to do so here I am on the second week of a globe-trotting trip that stretched over 7,000 miles from the temperate comfortable climate of Northern California to the hot and humid cauldron that is the tropics, the Philippine Islands in particular. Where the sun beats mercilessly as early as seven o’clock in the morning until its waning moments in the afternoon. Where anything enclosed, a car or a room, or your clothes on your body, unwittingly serves as your toaster oven when Mr. Sol is involved.

But please bear with the whining, since I am simply and unrepentantly your formerly born and raised in the tropics native who after a long absence will now have to re-acclimatize like the rest of the fair-skinned foreigners. Pretty soon I should be back to my normally squinting self and at home with my elements.

This trip started with me solo sitting by Gate No.7 at SFO listlessly waiting for a 10pm Philippine Airlines plane to depart. Listless, because I had already perused and re-read all the pertinent notes about the urgent tasks that needed doing when I get to my destination. Arriving very early at the airport to avoid commute traffic made for the very ample time from check-in to flight time. The fact that the plane to be used was squatting silently by within sight did not help in my listlessness, with the metallic bird’s imposing hulk immobile and waiting at the tarmac with no obvious further needs of preparation for the 16 hours to destination.

Oh, should I mention the hills of “balikbayan” boxes I had to negotiate at the check-in line as a highlight of the trip? Nah. Too common and trite. It happens during every trip of PAL to the old homeland. Proud Filipino returnees declaring to all and sundry that they are going back home, loaded and burdened to the limit (the airline’s baggage limitations) by those bloated boxes taped and tied like a badly-beaten boxer ready to go down.

To say that the 16 hours of flight was uneventful would be an understatement, especially sitting cramped and stiff in coach class, but uneventful it was, blessed only by a few hours of languid stupor called sleep during a flight.

Speaking of stupor, is that how one feels when one’s plane arrives at about 5:30am and the connecting flight is for 7:20am on the same day, and it takes about the same time to claim one’s sole piece of luggage from the baggage carousel? Because that was what actually happened. And I am happy to report that I reacted better than an Aussie who deplaned in a latter flight but shared the same carousel who was starting to feel beside himself impatiently eyeing for his luggage. Anyway, being on time for the connecting flight was enough petty consolation for me to forget all the earlier hazards. I was only too glad to be sitting on the plane that would be the last leg of that long trip. So I did not mind the woman who I found was sitting on the seat assigned to me, and who curtly retorted that she was sitting there only because another passenger wanted to put his hand-carried luggage on the overhead rack above the seat assigned to her.

After the short ride from the local airport to the house, I was ready to be greeted with familiar surroundings from a house owned for so many years and which appears frozen in time from the last visit, and a lot more time when looking at the very vintage books that date back to my school years. Shedding travel clothes down to what would be considered decent based on local custom, I was ready to hit the ground running, or more like walking slowly given the almost unbearable heat of the late morning sun.

First visit went to the local credit union to do some updating work. Déjà vu! Again, the scene was almost frozen in time much like the last visit – crowded with clients waiting and hugging dearly to small pieces of paper showing their number in the waiting line. I immediately bolted out promising to return at some later time, unable to gather enough patience to go through the ordeal. It was a little better after returning at an unholy hour, like a few minutes past lunch time.

The first day ended with early bedtime, though with the difference in time I had been without sleep for more like 40 hours.

To be continued.

Philippine News In The Internet and Philippine Media

When I sat down to open my PC and read from Google News, this breaking news riveted my attention:

Philippines says Abu Sayyaf leader killed in clash


This was at 5:00 PM PST of January 17th, Wednesday.

Of course, I welcomed the news and its reportage, except that to my dismay it cited a foreign news source, Reuters.

Decided to try another one, this time googling the words, Abu Sayyaf, under Google News. The following came out as having been posted 18 minutes earlier:

Atrocities allegedly committed by Abu Sayyaf leader slain in Philippines

Again, giving a foreign news source, Associated Press. And both items were also published on foreign on-line sites, the latter from the International Herald Tribune.

From the Google News results using the words, Abu Sayyaf, I scanned down the pages which were sorted by date and time. I went to as far as 24 hours ago, only to realize it was only SunStar that reported the same item, its latest being 6 hours ago from the time of googling, which was 5:00 pm PST. And yet the same item had been on-line in the news since about 24 hours ago.

My speedy on-line scans showed that the reportage was done essentially by foreign sites around the world. Some from MidEastern sources, others from SouthEastAsian sources, and even one I can recall that came from Lompoc, a small California town.

I also tried the Philippine blogosphere, searching through Google’s Blog Search section a few minutes after 5:00pm.Again, I couldn’t find any entry for the last 24 hours that dealt with the same item – the death of a very significant Abu Sayyaf leader.

In fine, the overall pattern so far has been that this significant event that happened in the very remote southernmost part of the island of Mindanao, in Southern Philippines, was initially and essentially reported by foreign sources.

I am supposing that part of the problem may be because foreign news organizations and groups may be extending their operations globally simply by hiring local Filipino journalists as their local correspondents, feeding them news but putting their names as sources. Another case of outsourcing?

The question then is: Where is the vaunted Philippine media? Hopefully, not playing second fiddle to or co-opted by these foreign news organizations?

Many of us originally from Mindanao may begin to believe, if we have not already done so, that Philippine media and all the accoutrements of what many now term as Imperial Manila may be too focused with its own regional politics and other metropolitan issues, as to be unconcerned with issues which though may be geographically happening in Mindanao, but definitely have grave national repercussions and consequences. Maybe, internationally, too.

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