It is crystal clear that the government’s top priority, as soon as the dust of the electoral battles settles down, is to implement the reform measures needed to modernize our election system. A purged and updated computerized master list of voters, an automated vote count, an intensive voters’ education campaign – all this and more have become an urgent necessity, if we are to move forward as a nation.
The manual of votes in the last elections is a primitive, antiquated way of conducting modern-day elections. Considering that there were more than 30 million votes that had to be counted, the manual count was truly bacbreaking for the country’s teachers and the other groups involved in the last balloting. If the same system is not changed, there will be chaos and disaster in the 2004 elections.
It now appears that our country’s economic recovery will depend, to a large extent, on the electoral reform measures that will be adopted and implemented in preparation for the 2001 polls. To investors, a slow vote count or a lousy conduct of national elections is associated with a sluggish economy. And to political and business analysts, economic recovery will only come about if there is political stability.
Political stability, as everyone knows, hinges on our efficiency and competence in conducting our elections. Our existing antiquated and backward electoral system, which is worse than that used in Third World countries, is anathema to political stability.
In the same morning that he read my column about the complaint of residents of Villarica Village on a pollutant right beside their subdivision in Cainta, Rizal, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson ‘Sonny’ Alvarez immediately reacted. He directed his DENR personnel to conduct an investigation. By evening of the same day, May 16, the DENR team had already submitted a report to Secretary Alvarez.
The initial findings of the DENR probe team are adverse to the Cathay Pacific Smelting Corporation located at Felix Avenue in Cainta. Indeed, there are steel dusts emanating from the operations of the steel smelting and rolling mill plant, forcing residents in nearby residential subdivisions to shutter their windows and doors. "If the company fails to comply with environmental rules, I will be constrained to order them to desist from operating," said Secretary Alvarez.
Sonny Alvarez typifies the breed of public servants so badly needed by the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He is, indeed, an
aksyon agad man who is sensitive to public opinion and who has the ability to prod his staff and field personnel to undertake the needed action, in response to legitimate complaints and suggestions coming from the general public. May Sonny Alvarez’s example be emulated by other government officials!
Long before the last electoral campaign went into full gear, my schoolmate from the Ateneo, Willie Villarama, told me he was going to vie for a congressional seat in Bulacan. At that time, I thought he was kidding, because the incumbents he was going to face were political giants who would be hard to topple. Moreover, Willie had long been absent from active political competition in Bulacan, and I thought he no longer had the savvy, as in his younger days, to clash with titans like the Panchos.
What do you know? Willie Villarama, like David of old, toppled a Goliath, Apol Pancho, in the second congressional district of Bulacan. And Willie amassed a massive 53 percent of the vote – some 86,268 – as against Pancho who could only muster 24 percent or 54,844 votes. Now, watch Willie shine in the halls of Congress, as he has been doing in whatever chore he has been doing, either in the public service or in his capacity as a private citizen.
Last week, the Good Samaritan Foundation deposited P100,000 with the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, for the account of seminarian Abraham ‘Bambet’ Mirandilla, who was, at that time, being prepared for his kidney transplant. That amount of P100,000 is in addition to some P37,000 which was earlier turned over by the Good Samaritan Foundation to Bambet, for his dialysis and other pre-transplant expenses. By the way, Bambet’s kidney transplant will finally be undertaken tomorrow, Wednesday at NKTI.
The Good Samaritan Foundation also appropriated P5,000 as burial expenses for 9-year-old Guia Tabbu of Caloocan City, who died from brain cancer. The amount of P5,000, too, was given to the family of Graciano Siwa of San Juan, Metro Manila as burial assistance. Finally, the sum of P19,979 was paid to the Our Lady of Peace School, for the tuition fees of Juliane Francesa, a scholar of the GS Foundation.
From all indications, the MAD is on the way to topping the party-list elections, putting all of its three nominees into the House of Representatives. As of last unofficial report from the NAMFREL tabulations, MAD has about 11 percent of the party-list vote. Under the law, only six percent are needed to get a maximum of three seats.
MAD’s success in the balloting can be mainly attributed to the support given by the Iglesia ni Cristo. On the eve of the May 14 vote, the INC directive to its faithful was to write down "MAD" in the space for party-list. The total number of votes cast for MAD should give an idea of how big the INC vote is.
From businessman Manuel V. Agcaoili, here is food for thought:
If you think you are beaten,
If you think you dare not,
If you like to win but think you can’t,
It’s almost certain that you won’t.
Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger woman or man,
But sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.
Here is one more thought-provoking item passed on to me by Noli Agcaoili, dealing with a short course on human relations:
The six most important words: "I admit I made a mistake."
The five most important words: "You did a good job."
The four most important words: "What is your opinion?"
The three most important words: "If you please."
The two most important words: "Thank you."
The one most important word: "We"
The least important word: "I"
My e-mail addresses:
<[email protected]> and
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