Marcus Can Blog

Today, people in Dasmarinas, Cavite flocked to their respective public schools to participate in the plebiscite that will determine if Dasmarinas will finally win its bid for cityhood. If my memory serves me right, more than 10 years ago, I have already seen banners and posters promoting awareness to the public that the municipal government is ready to upgrade its status. Several people though have protested for a couple of reasons. These people stated from the obvious – the place stinks (coming from the nearby poultry/piggery) to the presumed effects – prostitution will proliferate, etcetera. This year, the campaign was revived and it looks like, the current administration is more than willing to get a majority of YES votes. And as concerned residents of this municipality, we were among those who came (dragged may be more appropriate for me) to exercise our first act of making our votes count – whatever it was.

Here’s an excerpt coming from a link posted by a facebook contact (thanks Mike E.). It’s from wikipedia.org and states the motivations for cityhood:

With the enactment of the 1991 Local Government Code, municipalities and cities have both become more empowered to deal with local issues. Regular municipalities now share many of the same powers of chartered cities, but its citizens and/or leaders may feel that it might be to their best interest to get a larger share of internal revenue allotment (IRA) and acquire more powers by becoming a city, especially if the population and local economy has grown enough. On the other hand, due to the higher property taxes that would be imposed after cityhood, many citizens have become wary of their town’s conversion into a city, even if the municipality had already achieved a high degree of urbanization and has an annual income that already exceeds that of many lower-income cities. This has been among the cases made against the cityhood bids of many high-income and populous municipalities surrounding Metro Manila, most notably Bacoor and Dasmariñas, which for many years have been more qualified to become cities than others.

I don’t know when the results will come in, but just this evening the municipal hall was full of activity as people surrounds the yellow ballot boxes, as each arrive batch by batch coming from different polling places. It’s not yet 2010, but the scene already reminds of TV footages from past elections. I’m hoping that this one will proceed smoothly no matter what the majority voted for. Goodluck Dasmarinas.

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The sight of the ballots being ushered into a suffocating crowd strengthens my stand for poll automation. I really think that whether our country in 2010 opts for manual or automated election, cheating will still happen as long as there are people who desires to cheat. But if every citizens take their part to be informed and vigilant, the possibility of an individual or group to stage such deceit will be thwarted if not totally eliminated. So please…

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (congrats Marcus!)

My sleepy mind is now getting radical. Here are some lines I just thought about while preparing myself into to slumberdom:

1. If drug products can have it, why not end a political infoad with “No approved therapeutic claims” as well? Makes sense, right?

2. It’s high time we start every political TV shows with, “Voter discretion is advised.”

3. “Vote moderately.” Whatever.

4. If a candidate shamelessly decides to make a movie out of himself, then including these lines in the ending credit might just be appropriate: “Any resemblance to a saint, prophet, or a divine being is purely coincidental and most likely were just due to the intent of the character to be depicted as such.”

5. Surgeon general warning: “Voting, if unwisely, is dangerous to your health.”

These are all for now. Can you think of more?

Mood: 4/10 Honks! (sleepy, sleepy, sleepy)

Remember the saying, “give credit to whom credit is due”? Well, this is what I’m doing right now. After weeks of preparing for this day and setting my mind that today I’d be needing extra patience because I’m going to deal with people inside the municipal hall to have myself registered as a voter for next year’s election, I was actually surprised how everything went unexpectedly fast.

Contrary to what I’ve heard from personal feedbacks and from the tri-media news, the registration process was a breeze. I was already readying myself to spend at least a half day inside the municipal hall when I got stuck in the verification (first step) because the personnel has to leave his table every time just to go to another floor where the computer is located. But no cursing of any form came from my side – I brought along a book to read in anticipation of a long day. But guess what? I was wrong. After the inefficient step one, the next steps went so smoothly that after I had my picture taken I asked the personnel twice if the registration is indeed over.

So despite the recent exposés (from news on TV) like overpriced voter’s ID lamination and registrations ending way ahead of time thus leaving registrants frustrated, this time I’m giving credit to the Comelec people (probably some are volunteers) of Dasmarinas, Cavite. Hopefully it will remain this way until the last day of the registration process. Of course, it will help a lot if soon-to-be voters will not wait for the very last day and cram themselves inside the municipal hall which for sure will have an impact to the efficiency of both the Comelec personnel and their usually frail computer system.

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (had a nice afternoon with wifey and kid in the mall. met some ex-Intel folks as well)

“Easy come, easy go” – Anonymous

The benefits of the world wide web always fascinates me. Gone are the days when one has to travel far, endure a long queue and rub sweaty faces and armpits just to get near a celebrity to brush elbows with them or if he gets lucky enough, exchange ideas with them. Trust me though it won’t even last a couple of minutes, then. Nowadays, what one has to do to get close to anyone whom he adores or likes is just a couple of type away in any search engine available. Or getting it from your on-line networks.

I got Jim’s site from my wife’s links. She’s his fan. From then on I return to it every now and then to check on his blogs as I discover more about him than reading from the Song Hits mags (do this mag still exist?) or any other newspapers. On his site, I slowly uncover his talents, ideas, spirituality,fantasies (surprisingly, a man of his stature still have fanstasies) and even, his temperament, that is if you read between the lines. Sometimes though it is just too obvious.

Last night right after posting my blog I tried to check his again and there it was, he’s angry at something now. Something that I was also angry at for several days already. As I read about it I find that his frustrations (and evil wishes) are just like any other Filipino. And the thing about it is that he could have cared less, let the issue pass off his mind in his Australian residence. But he did not.

I know Jim is one of those who participated in the Edsa 1 revolution. He even composed the song “Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo” as a theme for the post-Edsa 1 Filipino. And If were in his shoes I’d be so frustrated as well with the succession of events that have been going on lately. The Filipinos have forgotten again. I don’t know if it’s just me, but with the current situation, I can imagine again people calling for reforms, calling for the president to step down, calling for a snap election…maybe sooner they (or we) would be calling the Gods to cast fire unto the Philippines. If we don’t get our acts together, we’ll get it sooner than we think. Now I’m frustrated.

Anyway, what I learned today is that even a man like Jim, who may have stuffed his walk-in closet with awards and accomplishments (or even cash) is still likely to give damn (pardon the word) about what is happening to our country. I wish (or is it proper to say hope) that sooner, not later, someone from the millions of Filipinos will step in to take leadership (but please let the current term finish. To hell with those who are now planning a new “EDSA”) with unquestionable integrity and bravery to face and eradicate the TRAPOs that have been multiplying every election.

Tomorrow is barangay election day. Keep your fingers crossed.