Garbage recycling in the 2010 elections

You cannot inherit the presidency. – Sen. Richard Gordon, The Philippines

I received my voting documents in the mail on Friday in full anticipation. This is my first time to vote away from my country. Voting always excites me. It is an exercise of a right, after all. And I´m all for rights. So even when we were entertaining some guests last night, I could not stop myself from opening the envelop. This came straight from the Commission on Elections in Manila. In between making the table and preparing some drinks (thank God my husband did the cooking), I so ever curiously went through all the documents in the envelop.

VOTING DOCUMENTS

There are five documents that one will receive in his/her absentee voting mail — the list of candidates, voting instructions, ballot, ballot envelop and a sticker. Be careful upon opening your envelops absentee voters, the sticker is small and you might miss it. So please open your envelops carefully, otherwise, you might lose it. I personally think that the COMELEC should have placed this inside the voting envelop instead so it would not be easily lost. If a voter is not very careful, just takes out the big documents and trash the envelop where these documents where mailed in, they would easily lose the sticker. And without the sticker, the ballot is not valid.

CHOOSING LEADERS

I recognized the names of my President and Vice-President right away so I scribbled a symbol before the names for writing in the ballot later. But choosing the senators was a little bit difficult.

While there are 61 candidates running for the twelve open posts, I can not seem to choose. As of the moment, I only have two names ready to be written down. The candidates can easily be classified into the following:

• Recycled politicians
• Recycled surnames
• Just plain ridiculous

RECYCLED POLITICIANS

By recycled politicians, I mean those coming back after maximizing their terms at the Philippine Senate. This means they have continuously served for nine years, rested for a full term of three years and are coming back to serve again for another term or full three consecutive terms. In the Philippines, a senator is usually elected for a term of three years and may be reelected for three consecutive terms. A fourth reelection is not possible so they usually take a rest during this period, make everyone believe they do not intend to run again but still busy themselves in societal issues to prepare for another election.

RECYCLED SURNAMES

In the list that I received from the Commission on Elections, there are quite a lot of old surnames. But if you look closely, the first names are different from the old politicians who held a senate seat with the same surname. After further research, you will realize that the candidate/s is/are the son/s of the old politicians holding the surname. Well, it is not really their fault if they hail from a political family. Children of doctors usually become doctors too. And so do children of parents in other professions. Environment plays a big role in character building. But if one does not have any legislative achievement to be proud of, that is another story.

Sad to say, upon my research, there ARE candidates running for the senate who have websites with multimedia galleries and all, but when you click the Legislative Accomplishments button, it says, ¨coming soon…¨. Raincheck? It´s less than three months to election day, and if you Mr. Politician respects my intelligence as a voter, the first page in your website that you must have accomplished is the Accomplishments page. Otherwise, you´re just sending the message that your surname will keep you a senatorial post.

JUST PLAIN RIDICULOUS

A singer running for senator. An actor running for senator. A broadcaster running for senator. A no-name, a lot of no-names running for senator. Well, what can I say, in every election, entertainment is inevitable. #

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