By Mariano Santos, PINOY Publisher/Editor
After the disappointing voters turnout in Chicago during the February primary elections when only 25 percent of the registered voters cast their ballots, a question was fielded to this writer about voters turnout in elections back home. I answered , “ Hmm, about 105 percent.” (Laughter)
It has been exactly a year since I had an exclusive interview with the reformist governor of my home province of Pampanga. Recently the Commission on Elections in Manila announced that Among Ed Panlilio has to give up his seat in favor of Mrs.Lilia Pineda, one of the candidates in the three-cornered contest in the 2007 elections, who protested Fr. Panlilio’s victory. Then incumbent Gov. Mark Lapid conceded to Fr. Panlilio. Lapid and Pineda are close to President Gloria Arroyo.
Here is an interesting news report by Tonette Orejas from the Philippine Daily Inquirer filed from the City of San Fernando entitled “Surprise! Lapid real winner in Pampanga.”
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And the winner is —Mark Lapid!
Too bad Lapid is not allowed to claim the post of governor of Pampanga although he won the biggest number of votes in the recount of the ballots cast in the 2007 gubernatorial contest.
Lawyers said Lapid, the reelectionist governor, was not a party to the recount case, whose result was announced by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Feb. 11, and could not invoke victory. Only the losers—Gov. Eddie Panlilio and former Board Member Lilia Pineda—can. The recount conducted by the Comelec second division showed that Pineda received 190,729 votes, Panlilio 188,718 and Lapid, 210,875 votes. In the 2007 race, Lapid had placed third among six candidates. Lapid, a movie actor and son of Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid, is now head of the Philippine Tourism Authority.
Lawyer Temie Lambino, Comelec provincial supervisor, said only the votes cast for Panlilio and Pineda were officially revised. The former governor had conceded to Panlilio, a Catholic priest, on the second night of the provincial canvassing of votes in 2007. That left Panlilio of the Liberal Party and Pineda of Lakas-Kampi-CMD in a rematch. The third candidate, Ricardo Ocampo, is an independent. The Comelec recount has prompted questions from Panlilio and Pineda. Panlilio wanted the Comelec to explain how he lost the 30,988 votes from his 2007 tally. The numbers in the recount were also confusing when the tally was reviewed against those of the National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) in Pampanga.
The Namfrel report on the 2007 polls showed that the province had 1,125,810 registered voters, lower than Comelec’s record of 1,128,411 voters. In its tabulation in 5,606 (98.85 percent) of 5,671 precincts, Namfrel said those who actually voted totaled 762,448. The Comelec count of actual voters, however, was 779,100. The Namfrel report showed that Panlilio garnered 218,571 votes; Pineda, 216,788; and Lapid, 206,789.
A Namfrel staff member wondered why the votes in the recount were lower. (End of PDI story.)
In the Wonderland of Garci, everything is possible—all 105 percent of it—more or less depending on the circumstances. Laughable indeed.
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After 50 years
I often heard my Ima reminisced back in 1960 about the “peace time” when a “kusing” could buy a lot of good stuff in the “palenke.” That monetary denomination is actually a half of a centavo. Sixties was when there was economic hardship under the outgoing President Carlos Garcia administration when long rice line of distressed Filipinos availed themselves of the Rice and Corn Administration’s (RCA) subsidized staple foods. Then Vice President Diosdado Macapagal cruised to take over Malacanang on the promise of a better life for the masses.
Fifty years later, Macapagal’s daughter Gloria M. Arroyo is set to leave the Palace after more than nine years of ruling the country. In 1970, I left Quezon City because my career as a registered architect was stalled. Construction industry was devastated by the devaluation of the peso due to the uncontrolled campaign spending in 1969 by then reelectionist President Ferdinand Marcos. Inflation was sky high and unemployment pushed professionals out of the country into the pool of underemployed immigrants in the US and other First World nations.
This month I am attending the Golden Jubilee of our High School Class ’60. On March 3rd, I will catch the tail end of the main program of our reunion. I beg off from the responsibility of being the emcee of the whole day program due to my task of putting out this newsmagazine. “Duty first,” I kiddingly told Amy Cacapit Hidalgo who co-chairs the event with our Class salutatorian, Lu Sevilla-Lansigan.
When I will arrive there at early afternoon, I will have barely a couple of hours to share with my schoolmates who marched during our commencement exercises at the tune of the “Triumphal March” from Verdi’s opera, “Aida.” I was told to deliver the closing remarks. I go home regularly to our homeland. This time I go home with a feeling of uneasiness. My anxiety lies on what I will hear from schoolmates from half century ago about their lives. At this juncture, it is fair to be asked if we, as a class, have made a difference—is the world we moved around better or worse?
It is an uneasy question. Meanwhile, there is another article in the Inquirer, this time an editorial about the ongoing dryspell in the country. I remember back in the sixties, fear of drought come in April—never in February when sweaters sent by my doctor-brother in Ohio came in handy due to the chilling cold wind descending from the north. The rivers and streams of our homeland never ran low in March. Excerpts from the PDI commentary:
RP faces severe drought
After the devastating floods of September and October last year, the Philippines now faces a severe drought
A recent Inquirer story said it all: “El Niño drying up farms. From North to South, farmers try to survive.”
As of the latest count, at least 11 provinces have been severely hit by the weather phenomenon that is being blamed for the blistering dry spell that has hit Asia and Australia and the intense blizzards in the United States. Water reservoirs are drying up and farmlands have cracked with the onslaught of El Niño.
In Pangasinan, irrigation water is already being “rationed,” and downstream farmers have held back transplanting their seedlings because no water is getting to their rice fields. Thousands of hectares of farm lands may be wasted for at least one rice planting season, including 1,750 in Ilocos Norte, 1,200 in Bulacan, 1,061 hectares in Camarines Sur, and 13,000 to 42,000 hectares in the Western Visayas region, according to the latest reports. Isabela is reported to have lost at least P1.6 billion worth of rice and corn crops. Total damage to crops has been estimated to top P3 billion this year.
Power supply could turn from low to critical, especially in Mindanao where water levels in hydroelectric facilities are receding fast. Operators of the Magat Dam, which supplies irrigation water to about 85,000 hectares of rice farms in the Cagayan River basin in Norther Luzon, have warned that if the water level drops down to 160 meters, the 350-megawatt hydroelectric plant will have to be shut down temporarily.
President Macapagal-Arroyo directied the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and the Philippine National Police to curb water pilferage in Metro Manila; the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to ensure the optimum use of water resources and rationalize water allocation..”
Things have changed…for the worse.•