As a Filipino,

I ask the favor of the Almighty One
To allow us to have successful and peaceful day
On this day, when the public servants are to be chosen
And this day begins on the 10th of May 2010.

Voter or non-voter, I pray for rthis day
To be respected and to be chherished
This is the day for every Flipino voter's voice
Let respect of each others' choice and opinion reign.
This I pray, Our Almighty Being!

As a voter,

Guidance,light and strength

Oh My Dear Almighty

Is what I ask of Thee.

Please guide me,

Please give me light

Please let me have strength

For a righteous choice

Let this act of voting

Be fruitful

And maybe someday

Will lead my dear nation

To a better condition.

Please guide and let this big day

To proceed in a successful and peaceful way.

As a candidate,

Allow me Our Almighty One

To Accept the fate of this big day

I volunteered to be one of the servants of this nation

But if my fellow Filipinos choose someone else before me

Give me strength to accept this reality.

I always have wanted to serve my fellow men;

It is a gigantic honor from my side

This sense of honor can be sometimes misleading

And can change my views and approaches at times.

My Dear Almighty please help and guide me.

My God! I live here in Netherlands! Yes, where Amsterdam is and I could have been in this event. This is rediculous and at the same time sad and really a thing to think of or to think about. What happened? I actually read this happening from, as usual, La Repubblica, the Italian newspaper (online). There is a video there as well of what happened. Today, I am at home as it is holiday here in Netherlands (whose capital city is Amsterdam, while administrative capital is the Hague, where I worked). Today, the 5th of May is Independence Day, and yesterday, the 4th of May is the Day for remembering the dead of world war two.

The panick is really something. This means that most people are so conscious of the unsafe environment around! If you want to see the video, see it here... It was during the speech of the "burgermeester" (mayor) after the two-minute silence for the world war two victims/deads that someone screamed so loud and long and then screaming that there was someone screamed "Bomb! Bomb!"and then the panick begins. That was it... and also the Dutch Queen Beatrix, who's present during the event,had to leave her post as well. It was stated that there were 30 people wounded caused by this panick.

One of the victims after the heavy panick...

The queen being lead away from the vicinity...
What can we conclude from this? The world is getting rotten,allow me to say it. Yes, we don't have freedom anymore. Anywhere is unsafe. That is why people are anxious and conscious that there might be bombing during this event because I think, the following reasons count:

• The recent Time Square attempted bombing (you can click this and read the story)
• Some group(s) in Netherlands are so obvious against somereligion and/or race
• The Queen's Day Disaster in 2009
• The general anxiety of public when it comes to safety (after of what we see in the news daily)

Whether we like it or not, this world is heavily sinking... Now who can still enjoy public events and feasts like this? Now who can live in total anxiety? We will be all prisoners in our own houses if this is the case. Sad to think of but this is reality.

Vote for a Better Philippines, One Vote Can Change the Future, Invest on the Future: Fellow Filipinos, let your voice and sentiments be heard: never miss to vote and vote wisely! Ang inang bayan ay hindi natin minana mula sa ating mga ninuno kundi utang natin sa ating mga anak! Ingatan, respetuhin at alagaan natin siya, huwag nating abusuhin at huwag nating lapastanganin.

Why Should I vote? It is only a single count after all! Who’s to vote? Maybe I vote for my cousin?

1. No, it is NOT a single count but millions. Our public servants (supposed to be) are in position courtesy of a single vote- YOUR single vote, my single vote, my mom's single vote, your mom's single vote and soon! Yes, a single vote from a lot of Filipinos. Do not think in minuscule but paint the bigger picture. Your vote will never be wasted. Practice your right. Not all have it, you know.

Voting time for Filipinos is near. Six (6) more days and the big day is there. I am sure most of you, my beloved fellow Filipinos, have your own candidates in mind already. I know in some cases it is not very simple to exercise your voting rights as I heard before that there were cases of threats and intimidation to force voters in choosing a certain candidate. Thus, for those who can do the voting freely, without problems but an hour or two to spare, it’s a wonderful thing to do.

2. My candidate is not number one in the surveys, why should I vote? My dear brother or sister, the survey is only statistical. They pull out a few thousands of people out of millions. Your candidate deserved your vote. Let the whole nation know that YOU voted your candidate, that you prefer his/her style of government

3. “TV says… radio says… I read in newspaper that… “Don’t think that way. If you are very sure of your candidate, go for it! Don’t forget that media entities get paid for advertising or for making propaganda moves against or pro a certain candidate. I don’t think media entities can be 100% trusted of what they tell you.

4. He is from my province, I vote him! That is why Philippines is being left behind because we have this sympathy votes. We vote by feelings and in the end, we take all the pain. If you are sure that a person governs not go good, even if that candidate is from your area, vote for the correct one!

5. I will vote for A as he is nice and he is handsome or for B because she is sexy, young and beautiful and she shook my hand during the candidate. My dear voter, this is not the way to have our nation should have its fate. Smiling is not enough, facial value is nothing. What we need for our country is someone strong and with a good platform of government and who surely can manage to follow that platform he/she’s presenting.

6. “Politician A promised this to me… politician B, said he’d give me…” My dear brother and sister, if you think like this, do not complain about corruption. You’ve just been corrupted in broad daylight and you don’t know it! Never trust politicians who do personal promises. They will only waste your taxes later on. Can you imagine how others like you he/she promised to? And you know what? What he or she would spend to fulfill that promise is the money of the public! What a shame!

I think I have said enough. I just hope you are guided with your choice and not clouded with doubts or biases. God bless the Philippines. Hopefully a good leader can be chosen this time.
But you know what? Still to make our lives better depends mainly (99%) upon us, and does NOT depend upon any promising corrupting politician. Vote wisely. Your children need it. Philippines need it. Vote for your children and for the Philippines!

Can you imagine if the New York Times Square is blasted to pieces? Just I read from La Repubblica, the Italian newspaper(online), I was appalled by the news. I suddenly opened the New York Times new website. Here's what I read from there: “A crude car bomb of propane, gasoline and fireworks was discovered in a smoking Nissan Pathfinder in the heart of Times Square on Saturday evening, prompting the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers on a warm and busy night. Although the device had apparently started to detonate, there was no explosion, and early on Sunday the authorities were still seeking a suspect and motive.”

Can you imagine if Americans woke up on a Sunday morning with all the Times Square blasted and lots of fellow Americans dead and wounded? And of course, the same fate for tourists within the vicinity? SInce the attempt failed, the mayor himself, Michael R. Bloomberg felt that they are "very lucky". I have to agree with that. Indeed lucky and blessed! This would have been another disaster just like September 11 attack (9/11) if it had succeeded. The mayor further noted that, "We avoided what could have been a very deadly event." That's a good thing, mayor. No one got hurt and a lot of lives were preserved. I am sure there are fellow Fiipinos (or even relatives) there as well, and I am very thankful that it is safe now and nothing really as serious as bombing happened... (sigh....)

Although there was a disturbance to the natural way of living in the vicinity, such as having several theaters and stores, and the South Tower of the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel, being evacuated, doing everything for the safety of the people always justifies the means of what the authorities have done. Congratulations for the success, on having prevented the blasting of such bomb.

“It appeared it was in the process of detonating, but it malfunctioned", Mr. Browne said as reported in NYTimes. And you know what? Sometimes there are very strong natural forces that do not allow bad deeds to succeed. But still, the sad reality is, there is no safe on earth. We can just die. Can you imagine strolling hand-in-hand with your sweetheart after exiting the theater at Times Square and a bomb will just blow both your body parts off in pieces in a matter of few minutes and before you know it, you're both facing Saint Peter? That's really a scary thought, not to add the fact that your body parts may not be completely found anymore...

Today, I stumbled over a blog with an article about the results of February 2010 pre-election survey for the Philippine presidentiables (2010 candidate for Philippine president). It was mentioned that the basic information was from the results of the survey conducted by the social weather station (sws) in the Philippines. Since I cannot vote as I live here in Europe (though I could have registered but I was not aware then), I am indifferent to the results of that survey. I have to see the program of each candidate todecide which one to vote. However, I have to admit that I became curious of sws so I went entering the website. There were a lot to learn there, especially that this sws is an authority when it comes to survey in the Philippines. I still have to see the ideas of the COMELEC (commission on Elections) though.

One of the surveys that caught my interest is the “Planned Activities of Registered Voters”. Quoting sws:

The special SWS Pre-Election Survey conducted from February 24-28, 2010 found that registered voters have varied planned activities for the May 2010 elections: 26% plan to watch the counting of votes, 23% attend political rallies of candidates and 20% serve in organizations that will help in having an orderly and clean election.

Other planned activities for the May 2010 elections are: be a watcher for a political candidate (15%), put up posters for politicians (11%), actively campaign for a political candidate (9%), and be a member of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) (3%).

In three pre-election surveys of 2007, to watch vote-counting and to attend political rallies were also the top planned activities for the May 2007 national elections.”

I left the Philippines when I was 22 and that was 3 years ago. I was not that mature enough to understand a lot of things about politics and I was not also exposed to the outside world and external politics… unlike now.

Looking at the results of that survey about planned activities, it seems that the voters are quite apathetic. I mean, it was not mentioned (or I have not read) that the choice in the poll/survey is mutually exclusive (if you choose one option you cannot choose another) but the percentages of participation is quite low. I mean, I can also misunderstand this survey but if only 26% of the voters wish to watch the counting of votes, does it mean that the rest are not curious enough what have become of their respective votes? Anyway, again, the sws article did not elaborate on a lot of things. The way the article is presented is very broad and confusing.

Readers like me, who are not into the world of surveys, will surely be confused. Sws put on a lot of numbers or percentages and graphical presentations and their variables but it did not explain what those variables mean. In this modern world, if you tell “watch the counting of votes”, it can also mean, (1) watch literally on voting centers, (2) watch the counting on television, (3) watch the counting through live streaming online and a lot of other ways. So which one is the meaning of that variable “watch the counting of votes”?

Information that is clear is not information at all. As I mentioned, sws is supposed to be an authority onpolls but it doesn’t seem to be in this very particular case I am presenting. If an information (it is merely a raw data in fact) is very broad and vague, it is easier for the presentor of that information (sws in this case) to confuse the public and/or manipulate them if the presentor wishes.

Please, sws personnel, make your articles/publications a bit clearer. We would like to understand things and not to be more confused. I appreciate reading in your “Survey background” how you did the survey and what is your sample size (so small for the whole population) but please, I am still asking the same thing: please elaborate/simplify/detail your variables to the reading public. Thank you.

If you have seen this post here, I can say that this post now is quite relevant. You may have notice that most of the articles in this blog are kind of negative but that does not mean that my intentions are negative. I would like my fello Filipinos to wake up in their deep slumber. Only through acceptance of our shortcomings we will be able to irradicate that shortcoming(s), right? It's just like cancer, how can you cure it if you don't even acknowledge its existence?

Living here in Europe for almost three years, I have meet some people around. From these people, I learn a lot of stuff,and I also learn from fellow Filipinos or half-Filipinos I meet in various places. I hear their ideas,opinions and experiences and from their, I compare what is it in the Philippinesan/or I hear their opinions about Philippines or Filipinos.

Last December, I was able to speak with a newly-wed couple friends who just had their honeymoon in a cruise. Theirexperiences was that there are a lot of Filipinos on board the cruise ship. Although this couple are both Italians, they became awareof stuff considering they have a Filipino friend: I! After their cruise, they can only appreciate theFilipino service thay received:

Following are their comments that made my heart really skip with excitement andmade me proud to be one Filipino:

1. Why are you Filipinos so educated? No screaming, no nervousness towards customers/clients, etc?

2. You are all respectful and soft-spoken;

3. The cruise ship'sFilipino crews never missed a "Buon giorno"(good morning) and "Grazie" (thanks) whenever the situation is correct;

4. The service they give is very good.

Whenever I hear things like these, it makes me happy. I am very contented. This means a big honor to the country/nation and to the Filipino nation. Lovely reaction/feedback, right?

I need not raise my hand and say "I'm Filipino too!" in this ocassion. The fact that I know that my fellow Filipinos are in good situation, and receive good feedbacks such as this story in this article, is very fulfilling.

How I wish I hear more stories like these and more positive posts in blog will be published here rather than most of the rants of the bad stuff. Time to improve, time to be known for the good side (if not for the best) . Go Filipinos! Be the pride of the world!