No drama (updated with Election Postmortem)
It’s not perfect: in many places the voting took too long, and there were still outbreaks of violence. But the speed of the count! I think we can work with this.
P.S. I love the Star Wars-like holograms (“Help me, Obi-Wan, you’re my only hope”) and iPads in the GMA-7 election coverage.
P.P.S. Politicians conceding! An amazing development. A faster, more efficient election count makes people civil.
Here’s Boboy’s Election Campaign Postmortem.
1. Maybe it’s not wise to overspend on advertising. Erap didn’t even spend half of what Villar spent and yet he’s running second to Noy. At a certain point, the massive war chest becomes suspect. You must be gunning for a high ROI since everyone knows that the presidency would make you richer than working in real estate. If you say you’re doing it out of altruism, out of the kindness of your heart, you better look the part of a caring person. Pinoys, a sceptical lot, could see through the fakery. They may be humming the jingle, but not necessarily loving the man.
2. The message may be consistent, but is it genuine, unassailable and own-able? In the first few months of the campaign, Noy’s messaging was all over the place. That was worrisome because it violated one key rule in communications: singlemindedness. Villar’s I-was-poor-like-you-and-I-can-help-you-out-of-your-misery was enviably coherent across all media channels. Even his spokesman would end up with the same theme when asked what his favorite color was. Yet, it made him vulnerable with the road project and stock exchange scams hounding him. It took the original and still-popular pro-poor politician Erap to nullify all that.
3. When things are not going your way, shift the messaging, and go on the offensive. Villar stuck to a message that became increasingly doubtful. And he spent the last weeks of the campaign defending it, and looking cranky with every attack on his supposed philanthropy. Di ba ang pikon, talo? And must you bring in your blind, ailing mother to fight your battle? That did him in and made him all the more look like a beaten crybaby.
4. Villar shouldn’t shift his eyes too much during interviews. Again, he was not looking sincere.
5. Trust the surveys. Pulse Asia and SWS are reputable research firms. The people running these firms are men of integrity, contrary to what you read in your spam folder. They employ scientifically proven polling methods, patterned after the best in the world. Noy’s camp took their cue from Pulse where corruption was found to be the issue foremost in the voters’ minds. It was the most relevant. Incorruptibility was an Aquino equity. So he played it up with much success.
6. Chiz Escudero will be a force to reckon with in 2016. He was the most influential endorser, making Binay happy in the process. By the way, who did Binay’s “Ang bise-presidente ko may B” campaign? That was one stroke of genius. Sadly, Mar was awfully quiet in the last two weeks of the campaign, and didn’t have anything as catchy to say.
7. Oh, Gibo. Poor Gibo. He had potential. He looked great, spoke well and drew a lot of fans. I thought his campaign lacked groundwork, especially in terms of consumer research. If he’d like to win next time, his messaging should be sexier than “galing” at “talino”. In the surveys, those attributes didn’t really matter to the majority. His green army was potentially as formidable as the yellow one but it happened too late to attract people who didn’t have Facebook accounts. Should he choose to run next time, he should consider dropping the “I’m keeping it clean, sans negativity” for that won’t win him votes amongst voters who embrace the imperfect (like Noy’s legislative record and Erap’s drunkenness). Besides, that was actually untrue because his followers did the mudslinging for him. The “I think therefore I’m for Gibo” smacked of intellectual arrogance. Mustn’t do that again, Gibo.
8. Now it’s my turn to be arrogant. What were my provincemates thinking?! The Kampampangans are a strange lot. We elected the most unpopular president in our nation’s history to a Congressional seat. We stink like our famous buru. Macabebe Troops redux. We badly need more active participation from the Pampangan civil society.
9. We really are getting older. The young are clueless about the sins of the now-victorious Marcoses.
From the NYT: Imelda Marcos listens to Here Lies Love by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. Photo by Jes Aznar.
10. Automation worked. The Philippines has finally entered the 21st century. Everyone’s sure to be excited about how much more hi-tech (and organized) the next elections will be.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 11th, 2010 at 07:43
i give the comelec a grade of 85 since it took me almost 6 hours to cast my vote when during the last elections, it only took me less than an hour. the problem in yesterday’s was, they accommodated more voters in fewer clusters. next time, they should add more PCOS machines to distribute the great number of voters presently assigned per cluster.
May 11th, 2010 at 11:41
yes indeed. for me, the speed of the count more than made up for the fact that I had to queue for 3 hours just to vote.
May 11th, 2010 at 11:54
Yey, I know!
My sister and I are watching the news last night and the acnhor said, that the national canvasser or COMELEC received a transmission from a school in Samar….we were excited. Previously it will take a week or so before it reach Manila!
And I heard, large turn outs of voters!
May 11th, 2010 at 12:24
In semi-related news, were we not taught in school that ‘presidentiable’ is not a word? What’s with gmanews.tv?
http://www.gmanews.tv/eleksyon2010/nationalcount
May 11th, 2010 at 18:10
It moves me to see all those people waiting for their turn to vote under the heat of the sun for as long as six hours! We Filipinos really take our right to vote seriously. After we choose our leaders we no longer care if they cheat or steal or screw us night and day.
Hope Nonoy will make a difference.
May 11th, 2010 at 21:32
It only took me 25 minutes to vote. Except for having to travel for almost 12 hours from Abra to Laguna just to vote (two buses, two tricycles, one motorcycle, one train (MRT) and one jeep), nothing really happened.
May 12th, 2010 at 08:32
all it took was a book, two glossies, a bag of Lay’s, a bottle of Gatorade, a large hanky, larger sunglasses, a broad pamaypay, cold meds that kinda zonked me out, forty winks, hard candies, a kodigo and queuing in the wrong clustered precint before being directed to the right one to cast my vote.
May 12th, 2010 at 11:57
Conspiracy Theory: Was the competition really between Noynoy and Manny. I don’t think so.
With the masa vote split between Manny and Erap, Noynoy’s win was ensured. If Manny wasn’t there, Erap would have won. Yes?
In the first place, I don’t think Manny was there to win. I mean, he makes a commercial about his dead brother and voila, papers that refute his claims come out of nowhere! Would he allow such a commercial to be made knowing that there are documents (which can be accessed by the public!) out there that can disprove it?
With the automation and the Ampatuans in jail (no more Maguindanao!), it would have been difficult for the forces-that-be to make Noynoy win and Erap lose, through old school means, just like what they did to Da King.
The only way to defeat Erap was to create another Erap, a man for the masses clad in orange.
May 12th, 2010 at 18:37
I’ll make sure I’m part of next election na. 2016. Handa na akong bumoto.
May 12th, 2010 at 19:20
Wow,politics really is a family affair around here. Mothers,sons,daughters,dads,cousins,aunts and uncles get elected simultaneously,some merely switching places while the other “moves up” the ladder. And Lucy Torres…. Manny Pacquiao are now members of congress….Lito Lapid…..Bong Revilla–I heard this guy didn’t even finish high school……..in Pampanga, the infamous midget wins by a landslide,along with her jueteng mistress kumadre lilia pineda……..whatever next?
May 13th, 2010 at 00:49
My mother(72 y/o) and I took only about 20 minutes (inclusive of verification and the stairs we took to go up a floor, I, assisting my mother who has arthritis). This was before 4 pm. In Quezon city.
Remulla’s visit to Andal(?) Ampatuan was so disgusting I think this turned a lot of Villar’s supporters off.
The palakpak of Mar’s made a lot of impact as its timing was precise even if Binay’s camp allegedly did “cut and paste” on some parts of the commercial.
GMA’s kiss of death delivered by Binay on Mar.
Erap would have won again if he was able to secure INC’s vote. He did announce a few days before INC’s official announcement “Prepare for the surprise of your lives” when he thought he would get their vote.
I voted Noynoy but Gibo is my real choice (The GMA connection prevented me from voting him).
May 13th, 2010 at 12:03
“…Pulse where corruption was found to be the issue foremost in the voters’ minds” – what then was foremost in the voter’s mind when they voted for ERAP? he he
May 14th, 2010 at 19:33
Ang bise-presidente ko, may B…as in babae :P