ON lunchtime Monday, I was roaming around SM City CDO Uptown after gym, looking for non-carb snacks that I could take home, when I saw a long and winding line of people. That line was snaking around the ground floor. The first thought that came to mind: food! New resto! New cafe!
I was curious as usual, so, I asked a stall’s sales staff what those people were lining up for. Her reply: voter registration. Oh. That Monday—September 30—was the deadline. The Pinoy’s last-minute habit has become a tradition. Or perhaps it took the political candidates that long to “convince” voters to transfer to another barangay. Hmmm.
Esep-esep pud ‘pag may time. The voter should ask himself if this is how his voter’s life would be from hereon: always transferring to the barangay that has the most “generous” political candidates.
As of this writing, Cagayan de Oro’s opposition has yet to reveal its team members. Their theme song should be Bjork’s “It’s Oh So Quiet”: “Shh, shh/It’s oh, so quiet, shh, shh/It’s oh, so still, shh, shh/You're all alone, shh, shh/And so peaceful until.”
Until one of them can fulfill his “mission to unseat Klarex.”
Unseat does sound like the Trip to Jerusalem parlor game, grabbing chairs to ensure he would remain in the game and eventually win.
The former mayor did try to reenter Misamis Oriental’s political scene in 2022 but lost. I thought that would make him retire from politics since his daughter won in CDO as a city councilor, which could be his family’s ticket to a higher position in the future.
But here he is again and if given the chance to win in 2025, the Cagayanon can say goodbye again to the vendors and night markets that have been occupying the city’s streets.
CDO’s uptowners avoid going downtown as long as they could unless their offices or businesses or their children’s schools are located in the downtown area. The traffic, floods, and street vendors only mean stress, and who needs that?
I remember a friend who looked tired when I arrived at the gym in time for the Zumba’s morning class. So, I asked her if she already had her boxing session. Nope. She had just survived through traffic while driving her son to his school downtown, and then rushing back to the uptown area for our Zumba class.
That’s how bad the traffic is in CDO. There was that time when I and some friends were talking with two city councilors about the traffic, and one of them justified it as part of the city’s progress. That prompted me to never discuss the city’s problems with any local politician. We’d be better off discussing the weather, which can lead to discussing floods. Oh, no.
The reply I was hoping for from that city councilor was, We’re working on solutions for the traffic problem.
Since these politicians will only be replaced by their parents, siblings, wife, and children, expect similar “progress” answers from them when asked questions. In case you haven’t noticed it yet, politics has become a family business in Pinas, and no need to go outside of CDO to realize that.
