PRESIDENT Aquino deserves a standing ovation for the successful, peaceful, honest and orderly May 9 elections. Under his watch, the Philippines has shown to the world that Southeast Asia’s oldest democracy can still stage credible elections.
Mr. Aquino proved his detractors wrong by not doing what they fear he would do: A “high-tech hello, Garci” or “hocus-Pcos” to ensure the victory of his presidential bet and, thus, protect himself from the threats of jail when he leaves Malacañang in June.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) also deserves a pat on the back for a job well done. Ironically, the poll body got a lot of bashing on election day for some malfunctioning vote-counting machines (VCMs) that delayed voting in some precincts. There were even suspicions that the Comelec would corrupt the electoral process with VCMs that were preprogrammed to count votes for the administration’s favored presidential bet. That would mean tampering more than 97,000 VCMs deployed nationwide for the elections. Suspicions aside, these sensitive machines were stored in ovenlike rooms. We are lucky only 150 of them conked out.
We also have to give kudos to the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and the thousands of PPCRV volunteers who have done a heroic job not just on election day, but also during the registration period with their voters’ education program. That the PPCRV has made public all unofficial counts and showed the results of the elections as they come in made the May 9 polls transparent in the public’s eye. The whole nation must, likewise, applaud the efforts of our men in uniform —the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines—who were deployed nationwide to ensure that our elections are safe, peaceful and secure.
In like manner, our hats off to the four unsuccessful presidential candidates—Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Sen. Grace Poe and former Interior Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II—for accepting defeat with dignity. For the first time in Philippine politics, the public heard concession speeches from losing candidates.
The loudest applause, of course, is reserved for our teachers, who assisted in the voting process. Here’s how a netizen paid tribute to them: “To the unsung heroes not just today, not just every election day, but in every single day that you’ve dedicated your life to help build a nation of hope, even if it means sacrifices of all sorts, a big tight hug to the teachers [and the volunteers] who spent crazy hours to facilitate a fair and honest election. May your dedication resonate in the credible results of the May 9 polls!”
Teachers are the most trusted public servants in our country. That’s the reason more than 233,000 of them were deployed nationwide on May 9 to assist in the voting process. They attended to voters’ concerns in their designated precincts with care, and made sure the voting process remained orderly. The whole country must laud these teachers, who sacrificed their time and risked their lives to serve us, the voters. But after we give them credit, here’s hoping the next administration will give our teachers the special attention they deserve.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano