Poll inspectors use nicknames to spice up random audit

Tallying votes at three in the morning after an exhausting day of poll duty is no easy task. But not if you use nicknames for candidates during the random audit. Which is exactly what the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) did while conducting a random manual audit at a precinct of the University of the Philippines Integrated School (UPIS). The members of the BEI in the school’s precinct 1211 formulated monickers for national candidates to spice up the task of reading their names and tallying their votes. Nacionalista Party standard bearer Senator Manuel Villar Jr. was called “Ang Bilyones" because of his wealth and seemingly bottomless campaign kitty; his running mate Sen. Loren Legarda, “Ang Halaman" because of her tree-planting projects. Vice presidential bet Jejomar Binay was called the “White Horse," because of his lead and an ironic take on his dark complexion, while former President Joseph Estrada was called “My Shining Star," owing to his previous career as an action star. Quezon City vice mayor and mayor-elect Herbert Bautista was called “The Bistek", his nickname during his younger days in showbusiness. Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, who is a congressional candidate for Quezon City's 4th district, was called “The Old Guy." For reasons known only to members of the BEI, they call out "I pity you, guy" whenever referring to Bagumbayan presidential bet Sen. Richard Gordon. His running mate, former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando, was called “The MMDA" for obvious reasons. Poll front runner Sen Benigno Simeon Aquino III was called “Yan ang kandidato" while Liberal Party vice presidential bet Sen. Manuel Roxas III was called “Yan si Korina" referring to his wife, broadcaster Korina Sanchez. The teachers shout “Ang Lupa" when counting votes for Rep. and mayoralty candidate Annie Rosa Susano — known for her substantial real-estate assets — while Lakas-Kampi presidential bet Gilberto Teodoro Jr. was referred to as “Ang Kawawang Nilalang." The teachers also tried different ways of saying the names of the candidates just to fight sleep and boredom, if only to continue the tally. No one is interested The BEIs lamented the people’s lack of interest in the RMA, pointing to the departure of poll watchers after the automated results of the voting were transmitted and printed out. “Ay wala nang nagbabantay sa atin dito. Ayaw nila tayong samahan?" one of the teachers said when they noticed that only a Namfrel volunteer was present in the room. The teachers believed that this was because RMA will not affect the declaration of winning candidates. The random manual count is required, under Republic Act 9369 or the Automated Elections law, to test if the poll machines have accurately counted the ballots. Five precincts in each of the 229 legislative districts — or a total of 1,145 polling centers — will undergo the random manual audit. On Monday morning, the Commission on Elections chose the precincts to undergo RMA through a tambiolo. [See: Comelec chooses precincts for random manual checks] The automated poll results showed Aquino with the highest number of votes (318), followed by Estrada (152) and Teodoro (124). Villar received only 12 votes. Interestingly, presidential candidate Senator Ma. Ana Consuelo ‘Jamby’ Madrigal got zero votes while disqualified Vetallano Acosta received one vote. Binay also won with 311 votes followed by Roxas with 266. In far third was Fernando with 78 votes while farther behind was Legarda with 23. Local candidates Belmonte, Bautista, and vice mayoral bet Joy Belmonte also won in the precinct. Of the 843 voters registered in the precinct, only 699 cast their votes. It took the BEI at least six hours to manually tally the votes. There were variations between the automated result and manual tally. Ramon Armenta, chairman of the BEI, said this was because they recognize even a dot on the ballot which the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine does not recognize. Melitaa LLacar, BEI member, said the taxing duty to tally the votes makes her appreciate the automated elections more. "Mas gusto ko na itong automated, mas mabilis," she said. - LBG, RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV