Palace urged public to vote

MALACANANG has called on the public to take advantage of the recent move of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declaring May 10 as special non-working holiday so that all registered voters could vote.

Deputy Presidential spokesperson Charito Planas in her weekly press briefing said everyone should not waste their right to vote and elect whom they think is the best person to rule the country.

“We all need to vote because it is the right of everyone of us,” she added.

According to her, it is only through voting in the national elections where a country could elect their leader and deny whom they think does not deserve to be elected.

“Voting could depose a leader or extend the ruling of a sitting president,” the Palace official noted.

Planas opined that she considered her vote as her life, which she entrusts to someone who could value it.

“I do not vote straight (slate) because I consider my vote as my life and I give my life to someone I can entrust my life,” she said.

President Arroyo has declared May 10 as special non-working holiday for the first-ever conduct of automated election in the country to encourage Filipinos to exercise their freedom and right to vote.

Planas said that although the Philippines has higher voter turnout compare to other countries, more especially new registered voters should still use their right to suffrage.

Malacanang has been repeatedly denied a no-election scenario in May 10.

Planas reiterated this is impossible, saying even as the automated election will fail the Commission on Elections (Comelec) could always go back to manual voting if necessary.

“Failure of elections never happened and it will not happen,” she said.

President Arroyo has said one of her greatest legacies is to ensure honest and clean automated election.

She recently encouraged international observers to monitor the new way of election process in the country.

Prelate’s appeal to voters

The top official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) appealed to the public not to be fascinated by promises made by politicians who are running in the May 10 elections.

“We have to be mature enough as voters. We have to be wise in our choice of candidates,” said Tandag, Surigao del Sur Bishop Nereo Odchimar, in an article posted on the CBCP website.

The CBCP head noted that if all promises given by politicians were fulfilled, he is assured the country and the citizens are in a better position.

“If candidates (in the past elections) only have the political will to comply with their promises, the Philippines would have been in a better position now,” Odchimar said.

He added that what the people need to hear now are viable proposals and not false promises from candidates, who are seeking government positions.

But despite this, the Catholic prelate is optimistic that the scheduled polls will give hope for the country and the people.

“One of the things that give us some vision of brighter future is the opportunity of this election year that there will be change of people in the executive branch and also the legislative.”

At the same time, he called on the people to participate in the coming polls.

“This is an opportunity that we should not miss. We should vote according to our conscience and not be swayed by promises,” he said. (Jill Beltran/FP/Sunnex)