My COMELEC Registration Adventure

I have finally registered to COMELEC last Sunday for the coming 2012 national elections, and at the age of 26 this is just my first time to participate in an election. During the past years when I became eligible to vote I disregarded the importance of exercising my rights to choose a leader for our nation, probably because of being a little immature and I seemed not to care about what's happening in our country. But this time I've had enough, I went out and register to save the youth's future. I was awaken and started to think that this is our nation and no one could save this but we the people ourselves.

But going out to register was never easy specially now that the deadline for registration is nearing, a lot of people are rushing to the COMELEC branches in their respective cities and municipalities to beat the deadline.

Being a first timer I was'nt aware about the COMELEC's procedures for registration and I don't have any idea the COMELEC office near the LRT's Central Terminal Station is for the voter's in the city of Manila alone. And besides I saw an article in a tabloid saying and I quote "ang mga nais magparehistro ay magtungo sa COMELEC offce na matatagpuan malapit sa Central Terminal Station ng LRT", that caused th confusion so what I did is I woke up as early as 4 am to reach the COMELEC in Manila at 6 am. But to my shock people were advice to fall in line according to their district and it was then that I found out that applicant voters should register in their designated city/municipalities so I immediately went to the City Hall of Quezon City where I am currently residing. I arrived their at past 8 am and during that time just in photo copying my valid ID as a requirement ang haba na ng pila! and that cost me a lot of time and the funny thing is when it was my turn to have my ID photo copied, the machine malfunctioned luckily the operator had it fixed. Afterwards I proceeded to the first line in the verification where applicants have to submit a photo copy of their ID to get a form. What I did'nt like was the COMELEC announced that registration forms for new voters can be downloade in the internet, so I went to COMELEC's website to download a form but that form which I downloaded was useless because I still had to fall in line to get a new form.

After I recieved my form I sat down in the gutter to fill it out, and then I proceeded to the biometrics section where the applicants image will be captured, but to my regret I should have fall in line while filling out the application form, dahil pagdating ko dun sobrang haba na ng pila, it's like the snake road in the anime "Dragon Ball Z", I had to go through 5 u-turns before I reach the first line. It was already launch time but no problem because food vendors were all over the place, I bought a ham sandwich and pancit palabok and bottled juice for drinks, I did'nt drink too much because the portalet was too far, I don't wanna leave the line although there were generous people whom you could ask to keep an eye on your place while you are in the comport room, mga pwedeng tumistigo na dun ka nga nakapila para hindi ka mapagkamalang sumingit, meron nga dun guy and a woman na nag-away dahil sa pila, dala siguro ng gutom.

palabok for my launch

Hours past by and I started to fear that I will not reach the first line before the 9:00pm cut off, lalo na when I noticed that the line takes up to 10 to 15 minutes before it moves. It was already 6:30pm when I reach the first line at kahit kaunti nabuhayan ako ng loob, pero my kaba pa rin na baka kung kelan nandun na ako sa bungad saka sabihin na cut-off na, that would be very dissapointing, but I saw a little light of hope when the officiators of the registration noticed that there are still a lot of people so they created another line and they took 50 people to accomodate that line and guess what I was the 50th, it's like basketball buzzer beater. Finally I reached the hot seat, meron kasing mga silya dun papasok na sa image capture at thumb mark, kapag tinawag na ang name mo papasok ka to have your image captured in a computer. When my name was called I was asked to complete the info about my birth place, nilagay ko  lang kasi dun Manila, kailangan pala specific kung saan sa Manila, but that's just a little problem, I had it fixed and finish the image capture and thumb marking. I finished at exactly 8:30pm and finally went home.

Wow! what I went though just to register for the 2010 election was no joke, I did'nt know it was like that, I started to think that I should have registered the moment that it started and not during the last minute. But that's fine, If we wanna change this country a little sacrifice is needed, and at the end of that day I felt complete, finally I am  a real Filipino and I'm gonna live up to that on May 2010, and who knows, maybe my one vote could change the harsh reality of our nation.

P.S.  I would like to personally thank my former teacher in social studies during high school, Mrs. Palma, I already forgot your first name but I'll update this post as soon as I remember. I would like to thank her because I met her in the jeepney on my way home during that night and she paid for my fare, thank you very much Ma'am.