Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Say Chiz?

I am neither pro-Chiz nor anti-Chiz, but Francis Joseph "Chiz" Escudero has many fans and believers. His political career seems made. He is leading the latest counts from yesterday's senatorial elections, according to Inquirer.net's Eleksyon 2007 blog.

That said, I just wanted to share my dad's Chiz anecdote. They were both waiting at what used to be Monique Wilson's Paco home, where we were having rehearsals for a show. My dad asked him "Sinong hinihintay mo, anak mo?" (Who are you waiting for? Your kid?) Turns out he was waiting for his then-girlfriend now-wife Christine.

I honestly didn't really think about who I'd vote if I was in the Philippines. (Just repeating my comments on other people's blogs here.) I'm not an Overseas Absentee Voter (OAV), so I'm really just a spectator of the carnival, where the issues are only sideshows--Bakhtin would be impressed. (Or horrified.) Not that I don't care. But the distance makes me feel...distant from it all. Maybe other Filipinos abroad feel the same way, hence the low turnout of OAVs. It could be something else. They could have become jaded, disillusioned, fed up, indifferent. I hope I will not feel that way about my homeland. Sadly, it's all too easy for that to happen.

4 comments:

  1. i did notice a low turn-out of voters yesterday. at least on where i'm at. but it may be true elsewhere, too. judging from people's comments about the elections, both from bloggers and those i personally know of.

    thanks for the trackback. :-)

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  2. do pinoys feel so powerless, i wonder.

    you're welcome. do drop by again sometime. :)

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  3. Apathy - that is not good news for us. But sometimes we can't blame the people.

    The recently held elections was dirty, disappointing, and a real cause for disillusionment. I forfeited my summer OJT to campaign for Kabataan party-list and its platform of hope and change.

    Now we may not even get the required votes to get one seat in Congress due to fraud and violence, of which the most blatant so far is
    the abduction and killing of two of our poll watchers in Camarines Norte.


    Instead of forcing people to wallow in pessimism and cynicism, I only hope that the low situation our country is in will galvanize the people into uniting for social transformation.

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  4. well said!

    my undergrad thesis was about youth and voting. am very happy to see young people who are concerned and involved. :)

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