2016 Philippine National Election : Festive and Colorful

Juan Luna Elementary School ,  830 G. Tolentino Street,  Barangay 397, Sampaloc, Manila-Philippines

traffic is light along Nicanor Reyes Sr. Street ( Morayta ) and Lerma street intersection

I am a voter at  Juan Luna Elementary School for the past 3 election period. The first was held at mid-term or  2013 Election .  Then , it was the barangay election held last October 2013 and now the 2016 Philippine national election. The mood is very festive and there were a lot of colorful buntings and posters near the polling place.

barangay help desk or information desk

Taking a cue from previous election experiences , I tried to get some updates from friends and barangay officials who would give the latest update on the number of people at the polling precinct .  The polling precinct was jam packed at around past 5:30am with hundreds of people lining within the polling district . The school is just one of the several designated places by COMELEC where the registered public can vote .

festive buntings

The streets near the polling places have a lot of colorful buntings with the faces of local candidates.

I arrived past 1:00 at the polling station and quickly went to the barangay help desk which is composed of several barangays within the polling area.  I saw a barangay volunteer seated at the information desk and i gave him my Comelec issued ID for instruction . The barangay kagawad  quickly gave the the correct instruction and I quickly went -up to the third floor of the school . This time, the precinct is located on Room 319 3rd floor.

posters and sample ballots which littered the street near the polling precinct

It took me about 10 to 15 minutes from falling in line to  the casting of votes.  There were 4 to 5 people falling in line and the Board of Election Inspectors ( BEI )  were also very fast in giving us the election voting sheet. This is one of the fastest duration,   from finding my precinct, falling in line to casting of my ballot ( less then 15 minutes ).  Since the automation of the election with the help of PCOS ( Precinct- Count Optical Scanner ) in 2010.  ( It took over 2 hours in 2010 , 30 minutes in 2013  and 25 minutes in 2013 barangay election )

After i finished shading the voting sheet , i went to the BEI inspector to submit the shaded voting sheet and inserted the sheet to the Vote Counting Machine ( VCM ) then i got a receipt . One of the BEI had put a drop of indelible ink on my index finger which serve as a proof that i have voted .

Paaralang  Juan Luna

While going down the stairs , i saw an old friend , a Sampaloc resident and now teaching  at the Lyceum of the Philippines . We had a souvenir photo with our index finger pointing  as a proof that we have voted ,done our civil and moral duty to elect the new leaders of our country.

posters at Sergio H. Loyola Street

Observations– I have seen several campaign posters all over the walls and near the polling precinct . It seems that there are violations of campaign posters. There were some people ( particularly children) giving away sample ballots and campaign posters near the polling station.  There were also some senior citizens and people with disability which were not able to vote because they have difficulty climbing the stairs .

I hope that the next election would be better and Manila will be cleaner city .

Note : all photos are taken by the author.

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