PIT OF SNAKES

The entrance of Intramuros in Manila is grandiose. Turning right upon reaching the first road stands the Manila Cathedral and to your right is the renovated Palacio del Gobernador. A few meters away from the back of the Manila Cathedral is a worn-out wooden building painted with white, the edges of which are beginning to worn-out showing the various coats of other paints.

There are about four steps going up in the building. I needed to pass through narrow corridors as you get deep inside the halls. And I felt like I am inside a dungeon as I get through a room with a signage, LEGAL OFFICE.

The faces inside the office did not seem to welcome anyone. They don’t care nor bother. This is the COMELEC office. After getting out, it feels like I had just freed myself from the pit of a snake.

This is the office that proclaims victory for all leaders of the land. An office that refuses to modernize our electoral process. An office that refuses computerization of balloting and counting of the will of the people.

The big debate rages on either to computerize election or not.

In a country where dishonesty thrives and cheating as the means to assume power, the people are held hostage by the leaders who find it convenient to deliberately curtail any electoral reform that may come at hand.

Well-meaning persons who aspire to become leaders often think twice in presenting themselves as they know they will be subjected to dirty tricks that may along the way.