Aquino happy with turnout of midterm polls

HACIENDA LUISITA, Tarlac City—Despite having to reset the precinct count optical scan  machine four times in almost two hours after 65 voters had voted on Monday in his precinct, President Benigno Aquino III said he was happy with the conduct of the elections.

Aquino said he was happy because there was a big difference between the 2010 elections when he was elected president and Monday’s polls.

“[In 2010] hindi nagamit ang PCOs, pero ngayon mabilis (In 2010 many PCOS were not used, but now the process is faster),” he said.

The President arrived at the Central Elementary School in Barangay Central here at 9 a.m., together with his sisters, Ballsy and Pinky and his nephews. They waited for about 30 minutes for their turn to vote at Precinct 175A.

Aquino was in a relaxed mood as he exchanged pleasantries with his village mates while awaiting his turn to vote. Occasionally, he would use his phone to check messages.

In a press briefing after he cast his vote,  Aquino said this year’s elections were essentially peaceful as “halos hindi tayo nakarinig ng (we hardly heard) reports of violence in places identified by the Comelec as areas of concern.”

He said he voted for the administration’s senatorial candidates and made sure he did not miss anyone.

He said the first in his alphabetical list of senatorial candidates whom he voted was Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara with last being former Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar.

But as the names of his candidates were interspersed with other candidates, Aquino said he had to check his ballot well so he would not miss anyone of the 12 administration bets.

The President was the 115th voter in this cluster of five precincts with 796 voters.

Lawyer Elaiza Sabile-David, acting Tarlac election officer, said there was no need to worry about the PCOS machine after cases of paper jams.

“The machine was able to save the data when the paper jammed it,” she said.

In Pampanga, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not vote on Monday, a contrast to the five previous elections where she voted as early as 7 a.m.

“She’s detained, that’s why,” her husband, lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo, explained when the INQUIRER asked about her absence and her failure to vote.

She is seeking a second term as representative of Pampanga’s second district in the House of Representatives.

Three of nine areas placed under the police’s election watchlist–Sasmuan, Guagua and Lubao–are in the district.

Diagnosed with a degenative bone disease, she has been under detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City since October last year after she was charged with plunder in connection with a P325-million intelligence fund of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

She is Voter No. 76 in Precinct 0001A where her husband also voted for the first time.

Mike Arroyo said the former president “feels bad and depressed” that she was not able to vote this time.

Arroyo’s main rival, Liberal Party’s Vivian Dabu, said Arroyo did not request to leave the VMMC.

“If [her families and her allies] show her to the people, this is going to confirm that she is sick and weak and could not serve us in the second district,” Dabu told reporters in Barangay San Pablo 2 where she cast her vote.

Arroyo’s husband denied this, saying she has friends and supporters who help her serve her constituents.

Asked if Arroyo had made a request to at least avail herself of detainees’ voting, he said: “She’s detained, she’s sick.”

He said Arroyo needed another surgery to correct two surgeries on her spine. He rued that the Aquino administration did not allow her to leave the country to avail of medical help abroad.

Mike and his son, Ang Galing Pinoy Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, arrived at the Lubao East Central Elementary School in Barangay San Nicolas 1 at 11:15 a.m. to vote.

Mike, 66, availed of the senior citizen priority lane, enabling him to vote shortly after he arrived. Because the queue was long, Mikey decided to leave after his father cast his vote. They proceeded to their house beside the church in the same village.

Former Vice Gov. Cielo Macapagal-Salgado said she did not know why her sister did not vote.

Salgado said she met her on her birthday on April 5. “She lost weight. She’s thinner,” Salgado said of Arroyo.

In Barangay Concepcion, also in Lubao, reelectionist Gov. Lilia Pineda, said she wanted a law against political dynasty so that, once and for all, it is defined. Her vice gubernatorial candidate is her son, Dennis.

She said her family was not building one in Pampanga only that people were clamoring for them to serve.

In Minalin, Pampanga, former priest and governor Eddie Panlilio expressed hope that voters in Pampanga would follow President Aquino’s request to bring good governance in Pampanga.

In Olongapo City, Ang Kapatiran senatorial candidate John Carlos de los Reyes said the Commission on Elections should do a parallel manual count or the results of the elections would not matter.

De los Reyes, who stood in line for more than an hour waiting to vote at the Nellie Brown Elementary School in West Bajac Bajac, said the Comelec had to do the manual parallel count “to verify theresults of the elections to give it credibility.”

De los Reyes’ uncle, United Nationalist Alliance senatorial candidate Richard Gordon, who voted in Barangay East Tapinac, said the Comelec was not prepared for this election.

This was because the Comelec had failed to provide the country with credible elections due to the many questions raised by the source code used in the PCOS machines, he said.

“I don’t even know what source code was used for this election. Was it the same one used last election? Was there another one?” he asked.

Another UNA senatorial candidate, Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros Magsaysay, voted in Barangay Cabalan in Olongapo City at 2 p.m.

In Bulacan, Bangon Pilipinas senatorial candidate Bro. Eddie Villanueva, accompanied by his wife, Dory, voted in Barangay Bunlo Elementary School in Bocaue town at 9 a.m.

Villanueva, leader of the Jesus is Lord (JIL) Movement, said he was confident that he would win due to the support of overseas Filipino workers and their families who endorsed his bid.

“I strongly believe the innate goodness of the Filipino people will prevail. I am very confident that they will express their love for the country, especially so if they included me in their choice and they make me win,” he said.

In Ilocos Norte, reelectionist Rep. Imelda Marcos and her son, Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. arrived at their polling precinct at the Mariano Marcos Memorial Elementary School in Batac City at 7:20 a.m., a short walk from the Marcos home in the city.

Marcos, who was wearing a red dress, finished casting her vote at 8:04 a.m. while Bongbong finished earlier.

In Cagayan, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile cast his vote at the Aparri East Central School amid tight security.

Enrile, who arrived in his hometown on board a helicopter, greeted voters who lined up in the school compound before he went inside the polling precinct.  Reports from Jo Martinez-Clemente, Tonette Orejas, Robert Gonzaga and Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon, and Cristina Arzadon and Melvin Gascon, Inquirer Northern Luzon