7 hours 30 minutes

I took this photo from my iPhone a few minutes after I joined the long line of voters at the poll center in Merville, Paranaque. I estimate that I must have captured about 1/5 of the line at that time.

“The things Filipinos endure for their politicians!”

Yes I know that is a very cynical way to look back at the just concluded elections. Let me take that back and replace with this…

“The things Filipinos endure for democracy!”

I am referring to my very own personal experience last May 10. I posted my 7-hour-30-minutes record challenge in my Twitter and FaceBook accounts but I am yet to hear from anybody who would say they’ve clocked in more.

I actually know several people who endured a lot more than my 7-hour-30-minutes but they are probably not in Twitter or FaceBook. They are the people who were in the same anaconda queue I was in on May 10. I joined the queue at around 7:30 that fateful morning. It was already approximately a quarter of a kilometer long! And only later on did I find out that there were actually 2 such queues, one on each side of the Belvedere Community Center in Merville, Paranaque, where I was fated to cast my vote.

I had the chance to chat with some of the hapless folks in our line. And why not? We had plenty of time to waste under the scorching heat of the sun! Everybody was eager to cast his/her vote. Some arrived at the polling center as early as 6 o’clock! Like me, many of those people did not eat breakfast assuming that it will be all over in an hour or so… 3 hours at the most. I just realized that there may be truth to the old Filipino adage, “Maraming namamatay sa maling akala.” (Many perish for assuming wrongly.) I could have died that day from starvation… or more likely from heat stroke. I have my sun-burnt arms, nape, and face to show for it. My “charbroiled,” dead skin are still cracking and peeling more than a week after.

Progress! After about half an hour I have advanced about 20 meters in the queue. I was very much still in the anaconda's tail, with the head nowhere in site. Several nuns fully dressed in their habits were in our line, many of them endured more than my 7.5 hours.

Much has been since said about how successful the Philippines’ first ever automated election was. And I don’t disagree. It could have been a disaster but it wasn’t. The naysayers predicted the worst. And it turned out quite well. A lot of people would swear on their great grandparents’ graves that it took them longer to vote in this election compared to previous ones, but then the lightning speed in which the votes got counted and the winners got proclaimed are more than enough to negate that stigma.

My 7-hour-30-minutes experience is probably more of an exception than the rule. From the tweets I’ve got, I would put the average voting time to 2-4 hours, which is not exactly bad. The people responsible for the poll center in Merville just f*d up, that’s all.

What I believe should be of real concern are the people who were effectively disenfranchised because of the long waiting time to vote. Within 5 meters in both directions from where I was in my queue I could count at least 2 “fall outs.” I guess they’ve decided their politicians were not worth all that trouble. If only they’ve instead thought that they were doing it for the sake of their country and democracy.