THE ulan-ulan and payout are now so over, it’s back to reality for the Pinoy voter.
But to the Election 2025 winners, it’s yay! Congratulations! Much-deserved after all the garapalan and kamang moves in delivering ulan-ulan and payout to the voter—allegedly, supposedly, reportedly. Di lalim.
The Cagayan de Oro voter allegedly had the most fun in transferring from one payout to the next, from one candidate’s payout venue to his major political rival’s payout venue, from CDO’s west to east and from north to south, causing massive traffic jams that the uptowner Cagayanon endured for at least two hours as he travelled from downtown to his uptown residence. It was fun to the one who received thousands of pesos from the city’s major political rivals.
As for the Cagayanon who realized he was not in any political candidate’s list and, therefore, didn’t receive a single cent, it wasn’t fun at all as he waited for nothing.
Oh, I received nothing. Not a single cent. But I had fun at Centrio Mall where I voted. This was the first time for Mindanao to have mall voting and I was one of the lucky ones to be voting at Centrio. Malling while voting. Yay! I started Election Day with happy thoughts.
But dark clouds began to kick out the happy as I went carbo-loading for the rest of the day at the Namfrel-CDO Misamis Oriental Command Center: chocolate cookies, sandwiches, banana cake, iced tea, even some of the rice for lunch and dinner.
Carbs have that effect on me: dark clouds, rhinitis, skin allergies, knee pain, hypertension. I shouldn’t have indulged. But there’s something about checking out the carbs that were displayed on a table, while thinking if this particular brand of cookies — my most favorite during my carbo-loading days — still taste as yummy as it did. And does tuna taste better with bread?
I was snacking and eating the whole day while trying to fight off sleep and replying to media interviews about vote-buying and -selling.
How to convince the Pinoy not to sell his vote? P6,000, for example, can already be half of his monthly salary.
When rich people mention the number six, they don’t mean 6,000. They mean 6 million, 6 billion, 6 trillion. The zeroes add up on the figure’s right side. And their rich-people problems are also adding up as the number of zeroes increase. That’s how it is. It’s a given they can now afford anything and everything although there are precious things that money still can’t buy.
The 2025 Election winners may or may not have rich-people problems in the future depending on how they play the political game.
Another given in Pinas is for a winning political candidate to morph into a typical Pinoy politician, presumably corrupt and always eager to steal from the national treasury — allegedly, supposedly, reportedly. I have to add those three words because I remain hopeful that there are politicians who do want to serve the country with all the love they can give.
Even the candidate who ran for personal reasons may end up serving the country after all once he wins. Change of heart and all that jazz.
