Monday, May 10,  was the Philippines’ first fully automated national and local elections. A few days before my brother told me to withdraw as much as I can from my payroll account in the event the election fails and the country is thrown into chaos. So as you can see, everyone was tense. I, on the other hand, was excited because this would be the first time I would vote.

The polls opened at 7AM but I woke up at 9. And since the school is just five minutes away from the house, I decided to walk.

A few meters from the entrance of the school.

And while campaigning ended two days ago, these people, kept on handing out crap.  It looks like a fiesta.

Time I went in: 10:08AM.

After finding my precinct, I had to line up. I thought this was the whole line. Not.

Almost there.

Turns out the whole room was a waiting room. Crap.

After about an hour in the waiting room, they led us to the real voting room.

I could smell the ballot paper.

Well hello, my fellow voters.

And hello PCOS machine. I filled up my ballot in less than two minutes.

One hour and thirty minutes later, I was done.

Can’t remove the damn thing.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour talks to ABS-CBN’s Maria Ressa

With machinations almost Shakespearean in nature, the generations-long feud between two political clans in Buluan, Maguindanao—a rural area located in the southern part of the Philippines—has risen to heights in what observers can only describe as a “gruesome massacre” “unequalled in recent history.”

On Monday, a group of at least 36 people, mostly composed of women identified with Buluan vice mayor Dato “Toto” Mangudadatu and 12 journalists, were abducted and later killed by close to a hundred gunmen allegedly led by members of rival Ampatuan political clan. As of Wednesday, the number of bodies found rose to 52.

More than the fact that helpless and unarmed journalists were killed, is the fact that all people in the group were helpless and unarmed.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has placed Maguindanao under a state of emergency, ordering the Philippine National Police to go after the perpetrators.

Four days after the filing for candidacy was opened and at six months before the elections, this is the first election-related crime to hit headlines. Shakespeare had it better. Clearly, we’re in a tragedy.

PHOTO CREDITS
Associated Press (Aaron Favila, Noel Celis)
www.worldphotos.com
www.wn.com

With eleven months before next year’s presidential elections, six months before the one million or so presidential aspirants file for candidacy, and five months before the deadline for the registration of new and lazy voters, the public and the media (especially the media) are in a state of nationalistic ecstasy. Even before the House of Representatives began dancing the Cha-Cha to the disgust of many, people seem to have been placed in a vicious state of activism and it’s-your-freaking-responsibility-to-register-and-vote obession. Taking off from the success of Barack Obama’s campaign and inauguartion, everyone is invigorated with the realization and hope that we can do that too.

Nearly every ad and space is filled with computer generated images of Philippine flags elegantly whipping in the winds of change, superimposed with the children longingly gazing at the horizon seemingly wishing  for a new pair of socks, accompanied by the  rise of a synthetic string and brass orchestra because hiring a real one just isn’t within the budget of stirring nationalism. Some might even say, it’s too much. Okay, maybe just me.

I have no problem with patriotism, nationalism, fighting to protect your vote, stirring the hearts of your countrymen and women, educating the public, or encouraging youth participation at the polls.  However, like all things that begin with the best of intentions, some end up being as meaningless as the politicians they swore never to support.

I doubt everyone who bought Ako Mismo’s trendy dog tags which they so aptly began selling on Independence Day last Friday knew what Ako Mismo is all about. When I first saw their  ad, I wanted one too. Nevermind what it meant. Those  look really nice. I doubt those who signed-up to be Citizen Patrolers for ABS-CBN’s election campaign knew what they were going to do. But those pins Karen Davila and Julius Babao are wearing will sure look nice on my ID strap next to my  dog tag.  I doubt everyone who joined the “No to Con-Ass” group on Facebook has read House Resolution No. 1109 or at least one competent editorial about it. Still, that image looks nifty on my wall and makes me seem socially proactive.

The youth can’t be labeled as apathetic. We actually care.

About more things than you think.