THERE is much more at stake in the May 10 Philippine national elections, besides choosing a new president and other elective officials.
For the first time, automated voting, counting, and tabulation will take the place of manual polling. This means, voters will choose their candidates
through a computerized process that will hopefully save time, reduce if not eliminate totally cheating and other poll shenanigans like flying voting (voting more than once), ballot grabbing or switching of ballot boxes to name a few.
If successful and glitch-free, it could usher in a new era in a country where
the exercise of suffrage has been notoriously marked with violence and terrorism, massive anomalies and most of all widespread cheating, long considered by many as “institutionalized “ because of its impunity.
Come May 10 therefore, Filipinos will be at the crossroad of political history if this much vaunted computerized elections will result in a clean, free and honest elections.
What are the risks if the high–tech political exercise comes up short and fails? There is the spectre of the threat of a “failure of elections“, and the consequential military coup or junta and worse, an unstable nation and the
collapse of a fragile economy.
And when this happens, it could have dire ramifications like loss of confidence among foreign investors, unemployment and other ripple effects
that could further erode the government’s credibility.
Let’s pray for the Filipinos and their success at the polls.
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DEADLINE: Consul General Minerva Falcon of the Philippine Consulate general in Toronto is reminding all registered overseas absentee voters here
to send in their ballots to the Philippine Consulate.
She said the consulate is adopting postal voting and the end of the voting period is on May 10, 2010, Monday at 6:00pm., Toronto time coinciding with the close of voting in the Philippines on election day.
She added all ballots may be sent by mail or personally delivered.
“In postal voting, time is of the essence. I wish to remind overseas voters that every single vote counts “She reiterated.
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THE SOUND OF SILENCE: The Philippine Embassy in Ottawa is surprisingly silent on the case of its Labor attaché here in Toronto.
The Philippine Press Club of Ontario (PPCO) has sent a letter of protest
several weeks ago to Ambassador Jose Brillantes and to the Philippine departments of Foreign Affairs and Department of Labor.
Up to this date, we have not received even a courtesy of a reply.
As the saying goes, “ni ha ni ho wala “.
Of course, there is the famous cliché that “Silence is golden “but
sometimes “Silence can be rotten“!
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SILAYAN-GATE? How do you explain the alleged break and enter at the Silayan headquarters last March 9 by a suspect which was captured in a video surveillance camera.
According to reports made by Silayan officials, important documents were carted away and on April 8, Willie Nabus was summoned by the Toronto Police’ 51st division to shed light on the matter.
He was charged with break and enter, April 8, but was released after signing an “undertaking“ to stay away from any Silayan staff and from the Silayan office premises and to return all the documents taken.
Nabus, through his lawyer, denied the accusations against him and said he did not take any documents from the Silayan center.
The case, docketed under #2222773 is now under investigation following the incident.
The Silayan Center is embroiled in a bitter board fight with protagonists involving Willie Nabus and a faction belonging to Nora Taculad.
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EXPENSIVE SPOON: Remember Luc Cagadoc, the boy who was scolded by his Montreal teacher, in 2006, for using a spoon to eat his lunch?
Well, the boy was awarded $17,000 by a human rights body, the Quebec
Human Rights Tribunal.
The tribunal said, Luc, represented by his mother, Maria Theresa Cagadoc, was a “victim of racial and ethnic discrimination“.
Initially, Mrs. Cagadoc filed a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights and Youth rights commission against the boy’s school, the Ecole Lalande in Montreal in 2006 but this was dismissed in 2008 saying the incident was isolated and not discriminatory.
The school principal, identified as Normand Bergeron also berated the mother and his son saying “you are in Canada and …you should eat the way Canadians eat. If your son keeps eating like a PIG, then he will have to go to another table because that is how we do it here“.
Cagadoc said Bergeron’s statements were “racially insensitive and discriminatory towards me and my family “.
And so with the help of a non-governmental organization, the Center for Research Action on Race Relations, Cagadoc filed a new case with the Quebec commission which favourably acted on their complaint and awarded them the damages.
Now Luc and his Mom can buy a lot of spoons and perhaps gift the teacher and principal as souvenirs.
Indeed, what a spoonful of Justice!