Comelec purging voters only from the South District?

With barely two weeks to go before May 10, Election Day, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has begun purging or cleansing the voters’ list and as of press time, it has purged 40,000 names from the South District of Cebu City, which has long been suspected of being bloated out of proportion. The "cleansing," as reported by Cebu City South District election officer Edwin Cadungog, removed an average of 20 to 30 voters per precinct! While I’m glad that illegal voters have been removed, I would like to know if there’s a number of legitimate voters who were also purged? How can they seek justice if that happened?

The entire voting population of Cebu City is estimated at 460,000 voters, of which 250,000 belong to the South District. Usually, the South District has more voters than the North District. That means, the figures for the South District is now down to 210,000, thereby making the North District technically the bigger of the two in Cebu City! Luckily, I belong to the North District and quite surprisingly, the Comelec has not reported any bloated voters’ lists from the North? Why is this so? I would like to believe that there should be some sort of a ratio here. I mean, I find it impossible to have zero illegal voters in the North District while 40,000 has been "cleansed" by the Comelec in the South District. The Comelec ought to explain why this is so… before the tongues start wagging!

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Here are two letters sent to me in reaction to our columns. One is from my most prolific reader, Joe B. Nacilla of Alfon St. BF Resort Village, Las Piñas City, who every now and then writes in (yes, he doesn’t e-mail his letters; they are typewritten and mailed to my office) his comments. Here’s an excerpt of his letter:

Dear Mr. Avila,

"‘Overhaul our complicated tax system’ was the title of your column last April 14 and I agree 100 percent! It looks (like the) BIR is a weak planner or poor inter-department coordinator. Let us take the case of the Value-Added Tax (VAT). The Philippine STAR column of Atty. Senen Glinoga dated March 23, 2004 says, "BIR agonizing over VAT exemptions of lawyers." Congress approved RA 9238 exempting lawyers, doctors and banks from VAT effective Jan. 1, 2004. According to Atty. Glinoga, (the) BIR had a problem in the interpretation of the law affecting ONLY lawyers. But why does the BIR include doctors and banks in the delay of the implementation?"

At this point, we task the BIR to do what it should to implement the VAT. But taking the cue from no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) who stated during my television interview with her last April 19 that she is pushing for the BIR to base the taxes on a percentage of the gross income of the individual… something we can see happening if she wins the elections come May 10. That should make taxes no longer complicated!

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This is another letter sent to us via e-mail in reaction to our article about saving our indigenous languages, coming from Lino Faelnar, the Manila representative of Save Our Languages Through Federalism (Solfed).

"Hi, Bobit,

"You’d be surprised to know how deeply Continental Airlines and its subsidiary Continental Air Micronesia go to respect local cultures. On the way to Guam from Honolulu, the Continental Air Micronesia flight passes through the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia: Kosrae, Truk, Pohnpei and Yap. Each of these FSM states has a language of its own. Continental Air Micronesia uses the language of the state it is about to leave for its on-board destination and safety announcements.

"A local person does this for the airline. Our local airlines could learn something in customer relations from this. They could, for example, use Cebuano for destination and safety announcements for flights leaving Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Davao, Ilonggo for Bacolod and Iloilo, Chavacano for Zamboanga, and so on. It would also give more local flavor to tourism. While we are at it, there is nothing Cebuano in Cebu Pacific Airways other than the name. The owners and management should be ashamed of themselves."

Lino’s observation is right on the dot. Yes, there was one airline that did that before, it was Grand Air; unfortunately it collapsed. I wanted Cebu Pacific to take this up, but they didn’t find it important.

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Today, allow me to celebrate a milestone in my life as it is the 30th year of the Pilipinas Muna Tour, a "See the Philippines First" (today, our good friend former Tourism Secretary Richard "Dick" Gordon calls it domestic tourism) sponsored by the National Jaycees and Norkis-Yamaha. It was a hot April 1974 when a group of hardy riders on their motorcycles went on a 26-day tour of the Philippines. A year earlier I bought my first motorcycle and grabbed the chance for an adventure ride to places I’d only dreamed of.

Thirty years ago, the roads weren’t the same as they are today. Yes, the Pilipinas Muna Tour brought us from Cebu to Bacolod, then to Iloilo and Kalibo, then back to Bacolod, down to Dumaguete, sailing to Dapitan, then up to Northern Mindanao, to Cagayan de Oro all the way to Surigao, crossing to Sogod, Leyte then to Allen in Samar, crossing the San Bernardino Strait to Matnog, Sorsogon all the way to Albay, then to Manila and up north to Dalton Pass, Tuguegarao and Aparri, then back to Manila via Ilocos, Vigan and Baguio City.

Last year, my motorcycle group, the Easy Riders, had a Northern Luzon ride on big bikes and we didn’t pass any dirt roads at all compared to the mid-70s when only 30 percent of the roads we traversed were asphalted or cemented. One thing I learned about our Filipino brothers, the smaller the town, the warmer the welcome. I won’t ever forget the town of Sanchez Mira where the townsfolk went out of their way to bring beds to the high school, which doubled as our hotel. With us on this tour were Tony Canales, Boy Ang, Sensio Abot, Joseph Canete, Jack Darza and the late Jimmy Uy, our tour leader.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.