Back in college, I found myself active in many and diverse organizations (I seem to count eight thereabouts). The most memorable and fantastic one was being in the student Commission on Elections (COMELEC). For some reason or another I seem to find myself in intriguing and controversial clubs.  

I began as a volunteer, then a core member (working closely with the Commissioners) then groomed eventually as a Commissioner (with the specific task of Election Day Ops the hardest of them all).  

To say that school politics is a microcosm of Philippine politics is an understatement. Surprisingly, some students who ran for the student council also came from traditional political families and have to this day followed their clan’s footsteps. Others on the other hand found their student council experience worth scaling up, entering directly and/or indirectly the field of politics/ public service/ government after college.  

The arena was not only among opposing camps. Battling abstain votes was crucial because a lot lost to this. Candidates had to win 75% of their batch and/or their block/course population. Even if there were two contenders for the position, if abstain gathered more votes, both lost. At least the pain in losing was shared. Imagine if you were just the sole candidate and you lost to abstain that said a lot about you and your batch.

I remember one freshman guy coming up to us, whining, blaming that it was the COMELEC’s fault for his loss. My batch student council then called it a failure of elections and requested us to hold another to fill-in the positions. We stood our ground saying that we abided with the results and constituent sentiment.

For a while, the students thought that reason for abstaining was because of student apathy. The student COMELEC has since then pulled all sorts of tricks to convince the students to vote – from what was perceived as “threatening” and “coercive” messages to delivering ballots and conducting voting in homeroom classes to multiplying the number of polling stations to walking around the college grounds a few hours before closing time with the ballots, violet pens, student lists and ballot box asking each student if they voted already to extending the voting hours in each polling station. It was hard, exhaustive, stressful yet largely enjoyable work.

During one of our mobile polling rounds on campus, I came across a freshman and asked if she voted. She said no. I asked if she wanted to. She declined. I asked why. The girl said, “I don’t know who is representing my class and I don’t even know what their platforms are. So why should I bother voting? I’d rather abstain.” She had a point.

Because of the so-called “failed” freshman elections, a group of Ateneo students decided to embark on a no-to-abstain campaign. In the last election season I was around, they were encouraging the student body to abstain from choosing “abstain” in the ballot. It might have worked as more seats were filled in the succeeding freshman council elections and increasing block/ course representatives. I am not sure if this is still carried on up to today.

Anyway, I made a reference to my student COMELEC days in light of next month’s activity. Imagine if Ateneo students’ abstaining was scaled up to a national level, I wonder what the scenario would be? Will this bring the nation down into utter anarchy or knock much-needed sense into our constituents? The scenarios are fascinating to think about and scary at the same time.

The slew of political campaign paraphernalia cluttering TV, media, radio, streets, national roads, subdivisions and houses are things I want over and done with soon. Talk about noise pollution, garbage and not being transparent in campaign financing. Mudslinging has also upped its activity with each camp’s dirty tricks department on a rampage; it can even be comparable to the mudslinging my friends and I witnessed during our student COMELEC days.  

Initially, I was set on voting for one of the underdogs. But my mother keeps on telling me that if my late father were still alive, he’d tell me to not waste my vote on the underdog and rather give it to somebody who will likely win. Really, the option then to abstain is very tempting.

Is it to preserve the sanctity of my vote? I don’t know. Even with the automated process and other election watchdogs, it is still possible to manipulate the results. Maybe it is to spare me from settling for the lesser evil choice mindset. Then again, who said that Philippine reality, Philippine life was purely black and purely white? At the end of the day, there are so many grays – and in different hues – here in our backyard. With our choices, will we see a lot of light or a lot of dark days ahead?