PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2007 OPINION A13 Congress headed for same setup Precious vote THE WAY IT LOOKS, THE SAME SETUP IN THE can’t depend on them. MY LUCK HAS RUN OUT. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY 13th Congress will remain in the 14th Congress: • Many were surprised at the strong showing university life, I have flunked a subject. Fluid Mechanics the Senate will be in opposition hands (even if POLITICAL of GO candidate Antonio Trillanes in the Senate should have been a cinch, given the other tougher subjects I Team Unity wins five new seats), while the House race. Pundits ascribe this to his strong media ex- was able to pass during my five years in the university.But tak- of Representatives will still be dominated by the TIDBITS posure or as a protest vote against the establish- ing the subject lightly proved too costly for me. Not only did it administration coalition. Our only hope is that ment. Others noted the continuing fascination of blemish my transcript, it was also a blow to my ego since most the incoming Senate wouldn’t be as obstruction- Belinda some people with rebel figures (Gregorio students get grades of 1 in the subject with minimal effort. ist as the present, and that the gridlock between Honasan, too). What’s sad is that those who vot- Enrolling in the summer class was the obvious remedy. the two chambers wouldn’t be as bad as it was in Olivares-Cunanan ed for them didn’t think of the damage they did to the past Congress. A most urgent legislation the economy. This shows an urgent need for a However, I already had given my word that I would volun- Congress ought to consider is the automation law, won despite efforts by Tan and his five brothers continuing voter education program to help peo- teer in asocialout- which was passed by the House but unacted, like to go into massive vote-buying and herd people ple mature politically. Only in this country would reach program in many other bills, in the Senate. into their warehouses and resorts in the guise you see those rebelling against the political sys- Davao during the YOUNG BLOOD *** of getting them into election seminars. In Is- tem being elected to that very system! summer vacation. I I’m personally heartened by the victory of abela’s 4th District, lawyer Gigi Aggabao of Much has been said about the enormous ex- just hoped I made several personal friends: UNO, who also supported Team Unity, trounced penses• incurred by many senatorial candidates in the right choice to Mark Anthony S. Goroy • In Pangasinan’s 4th district, Speaker Jose Rep. Anthony Miranda of Kampi. Aggabao and the recent election, and questions have been honor my commit- We want to know what the young de Venecia knocked out challenger Dagupan Isabela leader Heherson Alvarez delivered an 8- raised about how they could recover these in a ment. are thinking about. What are their 4 vote for TU. On the other hand, in the home- Mayor Benjie Lim, 75 percent-25 percent. JDV job paying P35,000 a month. A lot of the expens- It was the first thoughts on current issues? We said it could reach 80 percent-20 percent in his town of the Albanos, the family of TU’s deputy es went into tri-media ads as well as transporta- time I stayed in a far- favor. Doubtless, a strong factor that worked spokesperson, Tonypet Albano, it was 11-0 in tion expenses. Recently, for instance, an opposi- welcome contributions from the flung barangay of twentysomething and below.—Ed. for the Speaker, aside from his track record of TU’s favor. It’s sad, though, that Isabela Gov. tion senatorial candidate hired 17 helicopters Davao City. The projects there, was this argument from Grace Padaca is losing to Ben Dy. from a private company, for deployment in vari- place is a typical barrio where farm animals roam freely and Heherson Alvarez: the Pangasinenses already Secretary Roberto “Obet” Pagdanganan ous areas in Monday’s elections. That cost quite a houses are built far apart. I was with a group of three teach- won• as governor in Bulacan, regaining his have a Speaker; why give up that edge? lot. ers and 13 college students who stayed there for two weeks. Reelectionist Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar- post-Edsa post, while reelectionist Rep. Mau- *** Perez• trounced opponent Arturo Pacificador rice Domogan won over Councilor Joe Molin- Barangay Forbes Park Chair Jose Concep- Our task involved conducting academic tutorials, holding by 15,000 votes, despite the support of the tas in Baguio. cion Jr., who stepped down from chairing leadership seminars for the youth, assisting a medical mis- Iglesia ni Cristo for the latter. When INC an- *** Namfrel owing to his current post, made sure sion, organizing a sports fest and laying a 650-meter pipe nounced its choice of Pacificador, a good num- Show of strength: that voters of the exclusive Makati villages of from the water source to the barangay hall. ber of its members rebelled against their min- Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo’s ticket Forbes, Dasmariñas, Urdaneta, Magallanes, We thought that our main objective of laying pipes would isters and voted for Perez. The INC’s stand swept• the various posts there and delivered 11-0 Bel-Air and San Lorenzo were equipped with be “as easy as laying eggs,” as one student volunteer had frightened some people who decided to flood for GO, leaving only one slot for TU Bicolano can- the necessary election paraphernalia. These joked. But we city dwellers were dead wrong. Digging the province with pictures of Antique’s hero, didate Joker Arroyo. The Comelec’s move on elec- included the voter information sheet which in- proved to be an arduous task especially since most of us were the late Gov. Evelio Javier in a pool of blood af- tion eve to disqualify Robredo only served to dicated the voters’ precinct numbers and the doing it for the first time and many of us didn’t even know ter he was murdered in February 1986 by strengthen his hand. list of candidates for all posts. His idea was, as how to handle a spade. The scorching summer heat aggra- goons suspected to be followers of Pacificador. • The administration banked on the com- he put it, to give a sense of what barangay em- vated the situation. It was so hot that a mere ice candy tasted The photos carried the caption, “Never Again.” mand votes of certain “controlled” areas, to cut powerment is all about. as delicious as a Roman gelato. The episode in Antique is a good lesson for the down GO’s strength; but this is being assessed in But despite this preparation, only 45 per- In digging the soil, we came to know not only the nature of INC: it should choose whom it should back up; view of initial returns showing TU’s inability to cent of the voters in these rich villages showed manual work but also the difficulty encountered by people why did it support a suspected murder master- gain the majority. To be sure, three municipalities up at the polls. Most of them were house who construct roads or lay down water pipes or wait on us in Eastern Samar voted 12-0 in TU’s favor, and re- mind? In the same province, Rep. Exequiel helpers, drivers and gardeners, the majority of while we eat or those who try to keep our streets clean, etc. Javier, Evelio’s brother, won over Robert ports say some ARMM municipalities did the whom voted for the opposition candidates. Doing their kind of work, I learned to appreciate them more. Delfin by a small margin. same, while parts of Leyte delivered 10-2 for TU. The low turnout in these villages reflected the In Santiago City, Isabela, reelectionist But on the whole, even TU strategists concede low turnout in the National Capital Region—a It made me resolve to be patient when I can’t have my way Mayor• Amy Navarro won in a three-cornered that the senatorial and local elections shouldn’t fact that pleased the administration coalition, with them. It made me realize that they are not supermen fight against her Vice Mayor Armando Tan and be held together, as local candidates normally as it will need less votes from the provinces to who can do anything we want them to do. former Mayor Pempe Miranda. Reports say she look after themselves first, so national candidates cover for the NCR’s opposition votes. We got to know the members of the families we were help- ing. One was Mang Edwin who has three children with his wife of 12 years. They live in a house that is just big enough for an SUV to fit in. A teacher, a sheltering tree Their apparent poverty didn’t keep them from sharing IT WAS HARD KEEPING TRACK OF THE BODY his mother more than the honors that would be their joy when we visited them. From their hospitality and count or the exact number of casualties during heaped on her? And what does one say to Ba- engaging stories, we got the impression that they feel more the campaign period and the election day itself. HUMAN naag’s husband? What does one say to her family, fulfilled than other well-off families who live empty, materi- The INQUIRER put at 147 the death toll since the her friends and, of course, her students? alistic lives.