Hello, summer

Netnet Camomot

IT is hot, hot, hot!

And, no, this is not about anyone’s–especially mine–lovelife.

Summer is here. Can’t help notice. We felt the heat during our stopovers at Don Carlos, Bukidnon and Pigcawayan, Cotabato on our way to Cotabato City. The kind of heat that pierces through your bones. Zzzzzt.

Someone in Cotabato City suffered from a heat stroke, had to be brought by ambulance to the hospital. Our tours there were like, Hop out of the van, quick photo ops, rush back to the van. That kind of heat.

Philippine politics is also hot. But, again, not the lovelife kind of heat. Election Day is coming soon to this theater and every political candidate is in panic mode, thinking of the many ways he can convince you to vote for him: Guns, goons, gold, rice issues, winning the debates, leading in survey polls–the candidate is already thinking of what you’re not thinking yet.

The easiest way to win in any Philippine election is allegedly supposedly reportedly to have the Comelec as your BFF. But most probably those days went pfft along with GMA’s “Hello, Garci” scandal. In case you weren’t born yet when Garci became synonymous with Hello, the GMA there refers to a former Philippine president and not the TV network that has AlDub.

Comelec is now allegedly supposedly reportedly honest and trustworthy, thus, assuring all Pinoy political candidates that the votes meant for them will be counted, tabulated, computed, reported, announced, and so on and so forth, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, until all the votes are bursting out of your pores.

The secret to winning in a Philippine election is to be sincere in your promises to do your duty for God and country. Any discerning voter could see sincerity from miles away, even if that voter is filling up a ballot in either the North or South Pole.

There’s one challenge, though, with sincerity once desperation leads the non-sincere candidate to extreme measures such as seeking the help of people who can still make “Hello, Garci” phone calls.

Between a sincere candidate whose votes won’t be counted and a non-sincere candidate whose non-votes will be “counted,” guess who wins?

But how to measure sincerity–that’s the question. Is it through handshakes, the kind that the candidate washes away with a tidal wave of antibacterial sanitizers? Or kissing a cute little baby, which assures photo ops galore that can end up on the front page, above the fold. Or delivering campaign speeches filled with promises that go on and on and on like the Energizer Bunny sans the drum.

A sincere political candidate is as rare as a blue moon. Or a true friend. Or a John Lloyd Cruz lookalike–I did find one, and one means rare, seldom, which brings us back to once-in-a-blue-moon and the sincere political candidate. How about that for a full circle in, what, a minute? A second?

That’s why it’s advisable to vote for your friends–at least you can distinguish between their press and praise releases. You already know them, no need to convince you of what they’re made of.

The yellow incumbent mayor is I guess my friend since he’s the only one among the mayoralty candidates who knows my first name. Hehe. The yellow color continues to shine brightly in Cagayan de Oro. It’s the only color that’s pleasing to the eyes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should vote for anyone in yellow.

I switched to wearing dark colors–black, navy–when the body weight didn’t look cute and cuddly anymore. Now that the jeans’ size has dropped from 38 to 32, I wore this flowery top to a meeting where we had photo ops that I posted on Facebook. Well, I looked like a flower vase in that top, and I’m back to wearing black and navy again.

The closet has this bright yellow top, a remnant of the fatty days. I’ve not worn it for the longest time, and I don’t know when I’ll wear it again. This has nothing to do with the yellow political party in CDO. It’s simply clothes and nothing more.

City hall’s color may change on July 1, 2016. From yellow to… the hot hot hot orange? Hmmm. The kind of heat that makes you wear shades to protect your eyes from all that orange.

The violet mayoralty candidate did win in at least one survey, inspiring his fans to look forward to victory on May 9. But violet is not hot–it’s cool. As cool as the ube ice cream in your halo-halo. This has nothing to do with the violet political party in CDO. It’s simply food and the way it can help us escape from the summer heat.