An Election Watcher

I joined a political organization which is The Young Friends Foundation, Inc. and because of this I became a Municipal watcher. I got the job without knowing the duty or responsibility I will be handling. Good thing the organization had a series of meetings before the election day, in where those experienced in the field taught us what we need to know to fulfill our duties. However, since it is the first time to have an automated election we have been warned that there will be a few adjustments. Before the election begun, everyone thought that the automated election would have a faster processing compared to previous year. We were so wrong in assuming that.

So May 10, 2010 was the judgment day.

As an assigned municipal watcher, I went to duty 12 noon as scheduled. Upon entering the canvassing area, we were asked to submit our “Appointment Slip” as the Municipal watcher. We were then given an attendance sheet to sign.

Printer and Laptop was unpacked and ready.

Canvassing Officers were given their username, password and usb.

Two of the canvassing officers are requested to key in their username, password and insert USB for verification before the machine could proceed to the next step.

A test print is being done, to ensure that the printer is functioning well.

Municipal watchers were ask to verify the results that the machine has before the canvassing has started. Everything should result to zero, and so it was.

After this we waited for more 6 hours for the Baranggay elections to finish for the assigned officer to transmit the result to the Municipal Hall.

Bottons on the left side of every Baranggay is in color red, which means that transfer has not started yet. Yellow, would mean transfer started but not yet finished and Green, means fully or successfully transmitted.

We waited for each Baranggay to go on yellow and green so that we could see the results for that area. Hoping that no error would occur.

Unfortunately, a lot of errors happened which kept the laptop operator restart the laptop again-and-again and so does the key in of canvassing officers.

I waited patiently until every Baranggay in my assigned Municipality has successfully transferred their results.

3:00 AM teachers still delivering results to the Municipal Hall.

Most of the municipal watchers could were already asleep. Good thing for me, I could go on for days without sleeping. This just goes to show these municipal watchers has not performed their duty like I did.

After the results were printed. Municipal watchers still have the task to sign a lot of papers.

I finished my job about 12 noon, which means I was there performing my duty for 24 hours. Some did not stay that long, they haven’t even signed any paper in which I have signed thousands. I am not a paper and pen kind of person, I BLOG – I need keyboard or keypad. I have sacrificed not eating nor drinking that full 24 hours and tire my precious hands that now have callus from signing papers not even for my fans, for the sake of doing my duty. It would have been a huge help for everyone if all the municipal watchers had done their job fully. The numbers of papers I have signed would have been reduce to hundredths.

FELLOW FILIPINO: Huwag naman po mag tatamad-tamaran. Lahat naman po tayo nahihirapan eh. HUWAG MAKASARILI!

My Presidential bet didn’t win, but life goes on… KUNG SANA KASING SIPAG LANG TAYONG LAHAT NI GORDON at VILLAR … YAYAMAN DIN BANSA NATIN … kaso … haaay naku … nagkaka-wrinkles na ako!

5 Days to Go, Still My Heart Goes for Gordon

Yes, I love Dick Gordon and I am voting for him to be the next President of the Philippines this May 10, 2010. No matter what others say, win or lose in surveys, for me Dick Gordon is “simply the BEST!”

I was also touched by a post of a blogger saying “Kay Gibo ako Noon … Gordon Ngayon.” The blogger mentioned all the reasons why Gordon is the best candidate. I know the feeling, I was once going for Villar before I remembered the heroic things Gordon had done for the Philippines.

GO GORDON!