SIMPLE, HUMBLE MAN – All are equal when casting one’s vote, according to former Fifth District Rep. Mark Cojuangco, after waiting for almost three hours before he could cast his vote due to the long queue.

To experience what people go through, he said he patiently waited for a hundred voters to cast their votes in Barangay Labayug, Sison before he could.

Cojuangco, son of business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., showed to all that he is like any other ordinary voter, exercising his right of suffrage, not asking for any special treatment, lining up like all voters do.

“He has always been like that whenever he casts his vote here,” said a voter who saw him in the line.

Cojuangco, wearing slippers, even refused the offer of his staff to line up for him. Ayaw niya kasi unfair yun. But other VIP people did just that, they made their staff stand in line for them. Ayaw nilang mainitan. Ayaw nilang pawisan. 

He sat initially on a foldable chair, then moved to cemented fence and school desks while the line crawled like a turtle.

until I decided to use my waiting time to write my stories to avoid boredom.

That humble trait of Cojuangco and his sense of fairness in relating with other made me admire him more.— Tita Roces

 

VOTE-BUYING SPREE – Although the election in Pangasinan was peaceful and orderly, it was nevertheless marred by massive vote-buying down to the grassroots which the police and the Commission on Elections again failed to check.

It is an indisputable fact that this malady has been going on in every election despite the intensive voters education waged by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), weeks before the polls.

Many of our people, especially the poor, understandably easily succumb to vote-buying. The temptation is just too strong and difficult to reject the easy money being dangled by the politicians. To them, it’s manna every election and I can’t blame them. It is the system that it is at fault.

Since we started working in media, we did not cover an election that was not marred by vote-buying, and mudslinging and candidates rarely won because they had better platforms than the others.

We pray that when President Rodrigo Duterte, who is bent on stopping corruption in this country, would put the plug on vote-buying since this is the root of corruption in this country. We are electing vote-buying candidate who is corrupt from the very start.

Where else will the politician get money to recover the funds used in buying votes except from the coffers of the government, through dubious government contracts, commissions or the employment of ghost employees and ghost projects?

Can a Duterte presidency cure all these? I hope it can. Didn’t he say that we will feel the change in three to six months of his reign? Watch out! –Leonardo Micua

(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)

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