Judging by the stories in the news everyday, anybody not familiar with the Philippines and Filipinos is likely to conclude that poll automation is an insidious conspiracy designed to destroy the nation.
Ever since the government decided to take that giant leap in its electoral processes from the dark ages to the age of enlightenment, not a single story that saw print or got broadcast ever gave poll automation even the slightest privilege of the doubt.
Everybody who had an opinion to give gave poll automation a failing grade even before a single godforsaken machine actually cast a shadow upon the land. Everybody had a theory of doom even if they did not actually understand what they were complaining about.
To everyone poll automation is bad, never mind if in the absence of actual implementation there is no actual basis upon which to base a logical and legitimate conclusion. To the Filipino, it is enough that he has made his mind up about poll automation being bad.
The Filipino is strangely like that. He is an inveterate complainer. Nothing is ever good enough for him. He hates the situation he is in and hates the people he believes are responsible for placing him there.
Yet, when some bright guy proposes change, the Filipino whips around and starts attacking the purveyor of change. Thus, when somebody says only Cambodia ranks lower than the Philippines, it is not difficult to understand why.
Poll automation, whether Filipinos like it or not, will eventually descend upon the land. There is no stopping the march to progress, unless we would rather have Cambodia overtake us much sooner than later.
The way Filipinos regard poll automation, it is as if the process and the system were specifically invented with only one purpose in mind — to bring the Filipino nation crashing down in a giant ball of fire.
Read the newspapers. Listen to radio. Watch tv. Everything bad that can be said about poll automation is there — it can be jammed, it can be sabotaged, there will be blackouts, the machines can be stolen, if the machines arrive at all, etc, etc. Enough already.