“I am writing you in order to address my concern regarding the upcoming concert of Philippine Superstar NORA AUNOR this 29 August 2010 in Sydney.

“As we all know and as it has been broadcasted in the Philippine News including the Filipino Channel and Channel 7 Kapuso, Nora Aunor can no longer sing due to complications she had when she underwent plastic surgery. (more…)

We are now in London exploring the area. By Saturday, we will go by train to Paris, France, and by next week, to Rome and Italy.

In China, our third daughter was our portable ATM, while in London, we have the fourth daughter as our portable ATM, while in going to Paris, Rome & Italy, we will have our travelling ATM in the person of my youngest daughter. We have not even touched the “pabaon” (travel funds) given by the two daughters (whom we) left in Sydney. My wife and I are truly overwhelmed by what our daughters are doing for us. (more…)

I am still in the Philippines, till mid-September. The election has come and gone. Being a ‘foreigner’, I was unable to participate; instead, I just observed in one of the public schools in Los Banos, Laguna. The first automated election was a success, but, with the glitches common in newly- introduced technology.

I hope these will be refined in the forthcoming elections. I did not take photos as cameras were not allowed inside polling precincts. The newspapers would have the news as they happen and when they happen.

By the way, the Sentinel is well read by the Filipino community. I left (a copy of) the March issue in Cebu when I was there during the Lenten week. I heard it’s still being circulated.

Aldo (by email)

It seems that the random manual audit of the May 10 election returns is confirming that the automated results tally with the actual information in the ballots cast, based on returns from 30 polling precincts. This is great news and indicates that the PCOS machines have not been tampered with, particularly the scan and tally programs.

The automated May 10 polls are indeed something that we, all Filipinos, could be proud of! In less than 24 hours from the closing of precincts, some local elected officials have been proclaimed and three aspirants for President have conceded. The US and the European Community have sent their congratulatory praises to the Filipino people. The peso has strengthened from P45.53 to US$1.00 last May 7 to P44.76 to US$1.00 yesterday, an appreciation of 1.7% within a period of one week.

Butch Travinio (by email from Manila)

Referring to your query on the Overseas Absentee Voter (OAV) ballot form for the 2010 Philippine national elections:

On the matter of the complaint of the OAV in Sydney: It was the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) that mailed out the ballot forms. The ballot forms were mailed directly by the COMELEC to all registered OAVs worldwide. The ballot form mailers were not handled in any way by the Consulate. The Consulate only received the accomplished ballots submitted by the voters.

There is no anomaly that the serial number of the envelope does NOT match the ballot’s: they are supposed to be different. I suppose that this is a feature to make the identification of the voter impossible once the ballot is removed from the envelope.

On the matter of ballot form: There is no anomaly that the ballot forms for OAVs in Sydney are not PCOS-readable. Only two Philippine foreign missions employed PCOS machines (the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong SAR and the Philippine Embassy in Singapore), because these two states have a very large number of registered OAVs, conducted a personal mode of voting wherein voters came to the embassy or consulate to accomplish the ballots and cast their votes, and do not require visas for Filipino technicians who may need to be flown in to service the machines should the need arise. The balance of the Philippine embassies and consulates worldwide used the traditional election ballot form, where the voter had to write the names of his/her candidates. The canvassing of the election ballots and tallying of votes by the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney was manual.

COMELEC has not advised the Department of Foreign Affairs when the canvassing of the votes of OAVs will become automated or electronic.

J. ANTHONY REYES
Consul, Philippine Consulate General, Sydney