Indelible: Chronicles of my Election Adventures - Part Two

But if TV series have books 1 and 2, my abruptly abbreviated election lawyering got a reprive when, at nearly midnight of May 16, a Wednesday, while I was leisurely chatting with a friend on the phone, another friend sent me a text message asking for reinforcements for the canvassing of votes in a municipality in a province in Luzon which is under COMELEC control (read: election hotspot). Without batting an eyelash, I said yes and even volunteered another friend who was also part of my original legal team for my candidate friend. In a few hours, on May 17, I packed my bags and trooped to the hotspot. Work started at 8am and the day ended at 11:30pm. It was grueling and contrary to earlier representations of our friends whom we relieved, the canvassing of the remaining 30 election returns wouldn't be a breeze and as it turned out, it would be our task to exclude a couple of questionable election returns, thus causing delay in the canvassing. While being at the receiving end of hurls and accusations of employing "dilatory tactics" (read: delaying unreasonably the canvassing), and after engaging in exhausting verbal tussles with the chairman of the BOC and the opposing counsels, inside a room where a few feet away are armalite-toting soldiers, the canvassing was successfully railroaded by the Chairman of the BOC towards the end. We argued, we pleaded, I even played good cop to no avail. We retreated back to our candidate's headquarters, but not without wading our way through dozens of soldiers and members of the anti-riot squad. Our candidate lost by a mere 21 votes.

I didn't know how lucrative election practice is until I actually accepted an engagement. Well, even if I had known, I would still have rendered legal service to my friend for free nonetheless. In the case of my second candidate for this election, I felt that I had to bleed myself dry for every peso I earned. And in fact, the money that was paid to us literally came from each and every grain of rice sold at our client's store for the day. It was back-breaking, emotionally excruiciating and morally challenging. Probably one of the remarkable events of the day was when the villified Chairman earnestly told me, during recess, "maiipit ako" in response to my pleas for him to simply follow the rules set forth in the COMELEC resolution, after admitting that I was right about the rules I was citing. Imagine, what he was really telling me was he knows we are in the right in insisting on a certain rule but he cannot follow the COMELEC rule because "maiipit" sya? And the naive me even asked him why. Later on, my candidate's campaign manager pointed out that during the canvassing, the goons of the incumbent mayor, against whom our candidate is up against, were already inside the small canvassing area, apparently intimidating the Chairman.

It again broke my heart to realize that in order to be successful in protecting my client's interest during canvassing against cheating, there is no other way but to question the integrity of the BEI - the teachers. My heart goes out for them and in this particular case, specifically for the teacher who, when called by the BOC to explain, I was able to make her admit that she wrongfully opened the ballot box after counting but before reaching the premises of the reception and custody group inside the municipal hall. I know that no matter how much I apologize for it, as in fact I couldn't even do that, she would not understand that I was just doing my job, that it wasn't personal. A friend pointed out, and he is so right - nothing is not personal during elections - everything is.

And so I survived the 2007 elections. After my friend lost and conceded, I told his other friend that, seeing how elections was actually conducted in the Philippines and finding out what winning entails - it was like waking up from a dream. He has long been awake, he told me. As for my actual experience at canvassing, it was like a nightmare - and the ghosts were all inside me. If there was something which brought out the worst in me, morally that is, it was this experience. I wouldn't dismiss it as unnecessary or something I actually regret - it was enlightening, it was like passing through fire, it made me open my eyes to a lot of things about the world, Philippine politics in particular, and about myself. I gained new friends and rediscovered the value of the friends that I have.

Indeed, I will be more ready next time.