Status: Still Traumatised
Music: A Song for You – Elliott Yamin

Thinking of the most dignified way to kill yourself? Try volunteering for PPCRV as a Poll Watcher.

But surprisingly, I’m still alive. (But I didn’t intend to kill myself, I just wanted to help.) Yep, believe it or not, the ever arrogant Yoshke made a humble and noble choice of volunteering this election season. And after almost 30 hours of no sleep and sagging eyebags and new sets of pimples, I was completely a different person. My mum asked me when I got home, “How was it?” And all I could reply was, “Traumatic.”

I knew it was gonna be tough and rough but I never expected it to be that chaotic, dramatic, and violent. The last sound that a diplomat wannabe wants to hear is the sound of a gunshot. And hell, in that volunteering stint, I got the last thing I wanted. Though it was just a warning shot, for a peace-loving creature like me, it was just too much.

May 14, 6:30am, my first stop was the church to meet the priests who would give me specific instructions. As a PPCRV volunteer, the most important duties were to fill in the Certificates of Votes (COVs) they handed me, and to pick up the 6th copy (Namfrel copy) of election returns from the precincts and drop them off at the parish hall. Other tasks include looking out for cheating incidents and other irregularities.

I was assigned to a Barangay infamous for cheating — Brgy. Bagong Pook in Lemery, Batangas. The people there has a reputation of trying to change the election results for their supported candidates. But I didn’t know that. So when my superior told me I’d be assigned to that place, I gladly accepted it. But I never expected I’d be alone in that post. Having an entire school (five precincts) under me, and being the only non-partisan volunteer there, it was really a no-joke job.

1. The pollwatchers from two opposing parties (LAKAS and KAMPI) were all over the voting place — beside the ballot box, behind the voters (whispering stuff at them), etc. It was hell. But it was my job to inform the chairman about it. I did. She told those watchers to stay at just one place but after the chairman left, it was back to hell. They were all over the place again. That was when I decided that I had to do something better than informing the chairman. I personally asked the watchers to back off. They were very stubborn but I managed. After all, I was representing the Church and they really respected that institution. Thank God. I was able to keep them at their respective spots. But as I sat there, I texted Leo, “if tomorrow I’m dead, know that it’s politically motivated.” The watchers’ eyes were all on me as if saying “who are you, nosy arsehole?”
2. Privacy was really violated. Privacy folders were on the floor. Some people reminded me of high school, looking at each other’s “answers.”
3. The official complete lists of candidates weren’t distributed. All the voters could find on every seat were a folder and in it was a sample ballot with the names of all the candidates from just one party on it. Of course, I did something. I asked where the official list of candidates were and they gave them to me. Their excuse, they’d just forgotten to distribute them. I didn’t buy that.
4. There were marked ballots. We didn’t know what to do so we had to consult Comelec. After almost an hour, a representative came and told us to just continue counting and that those marked ballots were all valid. Valid, they said, so alright, we went on.

It was 9am the next day when the counting in all five precincts finally ended. I was as exhausted as I could be. It took the teachers a couple of hours to finish signing the tally boards and election returns and all that jazz. At 11am, we were all ready to deliver the ballot boxes to the municipal hall to be canvassed. The ballot boxes were all in a jeepney filled with a mayoralty candidate supporters. To be honest, I knew that people there were capable of cheating, and that jeepney was a perfect place to do that. But I don’t think they were able to do that.

Less than two minutes after we left the school, one volunteer (from the incumbent mayor’s side) shouted, “Huwag nyong paghiwa-hiwalayin ang mga papel! Huwag n’yong paghiwa-hiwalayin ang mga papel!” And then he began beckoning to some people behind us. Until now, I still can’t figure out whom he was beckoning to. The police? Could be. Another group? Perhaps. The whole situation was so chaotic and confusing, I didn’t know what to think exactly.

All of a sudden, the police approached our jeepney from all directions asking us to step aside and stay away from the ballot boxes. Nakasabit lang naman ako sa jeep so it was very easy for me to back off. But the teachers and the other volunteers wouldn’t. And then, suddenly, the policeman in front of me (as in 2 feet away from me lang) fired a warning shot.

That warning shot made my body lose all the remaining energy I had. It was my first time to see an actual gun at work. The teachers and other volunteers were all shocked. Some were crying and panicking. A few passed out in fear. But only a few stepped out of the vehicle. Two policemen hopped in and off they drove to the municipal hall.

As for me, I was adopted by a private vehicle. The family inside the vehicle I was now in saw exactly what happened but still continued to ask me questions. I couldn’t answer. I was still in shock. And my body was still shaking. They dropped me off in front of the municipal hall. When we arrived there, the teachers were all crying. They said they were being alleged of cheating. After consoling the chairman, I walked my way to the Parish Hall to deliver the things I was asked and ordered to. I stayed there for a while until I pulled myself together again. And then headed home.

When I got home, I still couldn’t forget the scene I was just in roughly an hour before. I received a call from my superior informing me that people from the municipal hall were looking for me in the Parish Hall. It turned out, they said, they just wanted to ask me if I could state what exactly happened as I experienced it.

The votes from the five precincts, I was told by my mum, were not counted. I’m not so sure of that, though. But if it was true, that’s too bad. As far as I am concerned, the counting went well and there were no cheating that happened. The teachers were all doing their jobs well. The issue here though was what happened inside the jeepney. But I couldn’t say anything about it. I didn’t see anything. I was not inside the jeep. There was no way I could see it.

Ang masasabi ko lang, saludo ako sa mga teachers sa Bagong Pook Elementary School. All the allegations were not true. There were delays, yes. But they weren’t their fault. They did their jobs well.

I have my theories on what actually happened inside the jeepney (or if something really happened in the first place).

1. There really was something going on inside the jeepney that made the LAKAS volunteer call the police behind us (thus the signalling).
2. It was a frame-up. There wasn’t anything going on inside the jeepney but the LAKAS volunteer made it seem like there was some cheating happening so the ballots in those boxes be declared void.

But these are only my speculations based on the first-hand experiences I had.

True. It was traumatic. But honestly, I felt good that I had the chance of doing this — the volunteering thing. I feel proud until now that in a very little way, I was able to serve the state, and by that I mean the people.

Asked by my mum if I would do it again next elections, all I could say was, “We’ll see.”

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