The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do.
— Former USSR prime minister Joseph Stalin


MAYPAJO, Caloocan City — At nearly 70 years of age, I've exercised my right to suffrage for more than 5 decades already and I admit even after so many years of queueing in my polling precinct to choose the leaders I want elected, I still find it difficult to find the right politician who I expect would really serve the country and our people.
Somehow, I learned a thing or two from my venerable 'lolo', Pasay City mayor Pablo Pablo Cuneta Sr., who served for more than forty years—even longer than the 20-year rule of strongman' Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr., the father of our current president.
If there is something I noticed with my Lolo Ambo (he's second cousin to my other granddad, Cipriano Andaya Cabrera, Sr., who became my father when he adopted me after I was born), he was someone with an exceptional memory. In fact, I often saw this during the times we campaigned for his several reelection bids because he would remember a face amongst the crowds and would then mention the person's identity and even his parents and other details.
So I learned to use this surprising trait to help me in choosing a candidate I would vote for. My logic was that if he remembered, it would follow that he would not forget. Keeping this in mind, in this upcoming midterm elections scheduled this month of May, again I decided to go by this quirky way of deciding who to vote.
Just recently, I met reelectionist senator Francis Tolentino while I was eating at a favorite lugawan at the Maypajo Public Market when the good senator came by to campaign. I greeted him and asked if he remembered who I was. After mentioning I was once a regular attendee of the Kapihan sa Manila Bay at Cafe Adriatico in Malate, I saw recognition in his eyes. That was when I decided I would vote for him.
However, my encounter with former senator Antonio 'Sonny' Trillanes IV, who is now running as our mayor in Caloocan City, was far different. He failed to recognize me, so you would expect I wouldn't vote for him and neither would I choose his opponent, incumbent mayor Dale Gonzalo 'Along' Malapitan.
But going back to Sen. Tolentino, I just read from a news article that he is offering his services to help his colleague in the Senate, reelectionist Ronald 'Bato' Dela Rosa, by giving the former Philippine National Police chief legal advice should an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) be issued against him.
That changed things. I have to backtrack from my decision to vote for Tolentino because I simply do not like 'Bato'.
Being Duterte’s former top cop, Dela Rosa was the one who issued Command Memorandum Circular No. 16-2016 when he assumed power as PNP chief. The memo was the basis for Project Double Barrel which started Duterte’s bloody anti-drug war.
Former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte may be considered the 'mastermind' in the killing of innocents, but it was Bato who was the driving forced behind the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) that saw many sons, brothers and fathers slain without due process.
So, mindful of all of these, I guess I have indeed a very short list of whom to vote as senator on May 12 and these would be our People's Champ and the only senator who has never been late or absent in his entire political career.

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