Dear Gabby,
Today is a historic day for all Pinoys for we’re given a chance to observe suffrage using PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machines. You’ve been hearing these stuffs from local news on TV, right? You even uttered such acronym first before I knew what it means, haha!
Since I am registered with your lolo and uncles in Pasig City, and your mom, Tina is a voter of Quezon City, I left the house this morning while you’re still sleeping to be early in the polling place. Excited is an understatement to describe how I felt to vote via this very expensive automated election. It’s the first time to be done in our country, anak! Like your mom and the rest of the voting public, I am eager to know how efficient those machines are and how organize the flow of everything in voting places.
I arrived in our house in Pasig around 7AM to meet your Lolo Ben, then off we went to Manggahan Elementary School. My excitement diminished when we found out that the school was still closed at 7:20AM when in fact voting should have started exactly at 7. Look at the scenario a while ago…
Then several minutes after, the gates of the school finally opened…
Thank God there was no stampede!
Our polling precinct was at the fourth floor of this school; imagine the effort of those geriatric population including your Lolo Ben with this disorganized election.
When we reached fourth floor, someone distributed numbered cards from 1 to 100; I got # 76, your Lolo Ben had 60+… He and other senior citizens were asked to vote first; irregardless of their numbers. There was a holding room beside the precinct but it lacked someone who should govern the public who waited more than several hours…
I nearly went ballistic with the lack of system; more than 2 hours of waiting without a required queue was so unbearable and unexpected!
Because I am prepared of who to vote and how to shade my ballot, it only took me less than 5 minutes inside the voting room. My experience with PCOS machine was effortless, however don’t we all deserve discipline, systematic, smooth and honest election? Every inch of the process still screams IMPROVEMENT!
By the way, I did a little good deed this morning before I left the gates of that school. I noticed a young lady about the age of mid-20s who became nearly unconscious and was being carried by her mom. I pulled a chair, positioned her comfortably and asked her mom if her daughter was pregnant. I got a negative answer and next things I did were to request the mom to buy her anything sweet–juice or softdrink while I checked her daughter’s pulse. I suspect hypoglycemia, if not electrolyte imbalance. Some people with radios were calling for an ambulance to no immediate avail; luckily for the patient, she suddenly became alert again after sipping soda. A kind lady who were also helping out offered her sandwich. I left them when I knew that the patient was already OK. Things like these are inevitable when it’s too crowded and authorities aren’t ready with people-support like paramedics who should be stationed nearby.
This is the day, Gabby, that I am proud of my “DIRTY FINGER”….This one’s for you, anak!
You will have to wait for 3 more terms or 12 years before you cast your own.
Love,
Tatay-doc 
————————————————–<@
Kind readers, how’s your own experience ?
OPINION COUNTS…