BOTO MO, iPATROL MO: AKO ANG SIMULA!

ABS-CBN will launch its campaign with the aim of encouraging Filipinos to play an active role in the upcoming 2010 Presidential Election. The campaign targets young Filipinos to proactively participate and initiate change as early as possible by registering to vote. The TV station encourages voters from here and abroad to report their respective concerns and observations regarding the election. Several voters booth were stationed in Metro Manila and in the provinces of Pampanga, Cebu and Davao .
So how does this campaign actually work? The volunteers who registered in the booth set up by ABS-CBN in different provinces will serve as their allies in delivering news to the people all over the Philippines on how the campaigns and the elections were conducted and held. They will report anomalies, pay offs and other illegal activities of people who are seeking elective positions. It is geared to implement the election code on a national level through the aid of young Filipinos via internet and mobile technology, cable TV, and radio services.

It is a long shot for this multi-media conglomerate to aim for fair and peaceful election but who can tell if it is going to be successful or not. The end result will be revealed on May 11, 2010 when the votes are cast and the winners are proclaimed. Until then, we hope that this endeavor could at least alleviate the election-related crimes and occurrences.

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MAGUINDANAO MASSACRE – THE KILLING FIELDS

The country was stunned and in grief after the news breaks the brutal death of several people including the wife of Buluan Vice Mayor Ismael Mangundadatu, his sister and some relatives, who will file on his behalf his Certificate of Candidacy for Governor of Maguindanao province. They were accompanied by press people and lawyers in a convoy to Shariff Aguak town, where the election office of the province is located when a group of about 100 armed men abducted them. They were killed and some were buried alive along with their vehicles in a land owned by the Ampatuan clan.

The killings are the first major election-related violence in the May 2010 elections, which are still several months away. Most of the victims are women. Mangundadatu believes that the killings were politically motivated. Mangundadatu and Ampatuan are rival political clans in Maguindanao. Mangundadatu is going against the older Ampatuan for the gubernatorial posts of the province. Seeing him as a threat to the political posts that he wants to hold, the older Ampatuan ordered for the liquidation of the people who will file for Mangundadatu’s Certificate of Candidacy.

After seeing the news on television and reading the accounts of the deaths in newspapers, I come to thinking that there is really no good politics. Politics will always be dirty as long as there are people who want to stay in power so much that they would walk the extra mile of liquidating their opponents. Philippine politics is a shame!

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