Clavel Asas-Martinez, when told she might lose in the race for vice governor, said she didn't care: She presented herself to the people and if they didn't want her, she couldn't force them.
Tingting was exaggerating for effect, which is what a hyperbole is and does.
Of course, there were elections. Surely not the kind foreign observers had in mind, what they have back home: honest, orderly and quick (a Japanese national was stunned by Comelec's crawling count).
But the elections held last Monday were of the same kind Tingting knew and won in the past. Not much difference, except in the going rate of votes, which like other commodities succumb to inflation and supply-and-demand law.
Tingting may not buy votes but with more money in his war chest he could've waged a more efficient campaign. He lost, aw, he's losing, because he'd been away for so long, lacked money and network, and had little time.
Cold, cold heart
While Tingting is hanging on, Clavel doesn't give a hang about losing in the vice-guv contest.
She can't coerce voters. True. Love cannot be forced on a heart that remains cold: I read that somewhere in an English lit class. People's trust can't be exacted by violence.
And she doesn't care, she said. Not true. How can anyone not care about one's hopes being dashed and losing the fight to a hated rival, Gov. Gwen Garcia? Gwen, whose politics and persona largely prompted the opposition plot on Sugbuak, beat Clavel's spouse Junie in the 2004 derby for governor.
One says "I don't care" often more out of pique than apathy. Of course, Clavel cares. So do thousands of people who wrote her name in the ballot.
