Having said that, I think that we can still learn something from how the congressmen voted on the bill. It was interesting how the final outcome only differed by 5 votes. What’s even more interesting is that a handful of Democrats (39 I think?) voted against the measure even if health care is actually one of the flagship issues of Obama’s Democratic administration. There was also 1 Republican who voted in favor of the bill. When CNN reported on this, it was mentioned that these congressmen who crossed party lines voted in such a way because their constituents demanded them to do so. For instance, the lone Republican who voted in favor of the measure was a representative from California, a rather liberal (Democratic) state.

This is what’s different between the US Congress and our own House of Representatives.

Here, congressmen vote depending on the source of patronage they will get. That is why hearing stories about PGMA giving out paper bags filled with cash to congressmen especially before a crucial vote has become irritatingly common. The influence on voting comes from above rather than from below which, theoretically, is the source of power in a democracy. In a democracy, the sovereignty is with the people, not with those in government and especially not from the President. Why then are the principles of democracy taken for granted here? I think that maybe it is because we, the people, let it be so. The fact is that our society hasn’t reached the political maturity required to make a democracy successful. That, however, is not the problem. The real problem is that we are not being proactive in achieving that political maturity. Filipinos should realize that the power to rule the country really rests with us. And the most basic manifestation of that power is our power and responsibility to vote.

People should realize that their vote is very important for the country. There are those who say that their vote won’t matter because they are only one. That is wrong. There have been many instances throughout history where a single vote decided the outcome of an election and, consequently, the course of history. (Check this link for those 1-vote decisions) A vote is also a great equalizer. The vote of a rich man like Manny Pangilinan does not count more than the vote of a poor farmer in the province. That’s the beauty of the vote. That’s the power of your vote. Harness that power. It is what gives the people the power over the government. For as long as the people take the power of their vote for granted, the people in the government will take advantage over them.

There is also another difference in the way we treat our congressmen here and how they are treated by Americans in the USA.

If you have been watching CNN, you probably saw how the people talked to their congressmen and senators during the town hall meetings they held. Although they were a bit disrespectful towards the congressmen, they were able to say what they really wanted to say. More importantly, they were not intimidated by the congressmen and senators.

Here in the Philippines, it is very different. Whenever the congressman or a senator goes to a certain town, he/she is treated as if he/she was some royalty. Its as if he/she has to be pampered all the time. The worse thing is that the ordinary Filipinos seem to not be able to talk whenever a person of authority is in their midst. They easily get starstruck. As a result, they are not able to convey to them the real message they want to say. This just annoys me. Its very possible to not be starstruck when you see a person of authority. I know this because I’ve met people of authority already. I’ve met Mayor Binay, Mayor Ejercito, Sen. Drilon, Sen. Angara, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Rep. Edwin Uy (2nd District, Isabela), Justice Rene Corona, and other people in government. You know what? It’s actually interesting to get to engage them in a conversation because you can really learn a lot from them. That totally beats letting yourself be starstruck and not engaging them in a conversation.

The way we treat our vote and they way we relate to people in authority points to one thing: Filipinos still downplay their inherent power as individuals in a democracy. In other words, we still lack self-respect and self-recognition. If Filipinos recognize their inherent value in a democracy, they will see their vote as a valuable tool for improving their situation. If Filipinos respect their own selves more, they will not cower in false awe when a person of authority is in their midst and instead will be able to demand more respect from these persons of authority.

No one will respect you if you don’t respect yourself first. No one will recognize your dignity unless you recognize your own dignity first. You will not be able to exercise your power if you don’t recognize your power first. The power to change society is in each and every one of us. We can only unleash this power if we recognize that we are empowered. We can acknowledge that we are empowered only if we change the way we view our selves and start respecting ourselves.

Change the way you view yourself and you will surely change society. You have the power.

To some extent, I agree with Chairman Melo. Filipinos really have to change this mamaya na or saka na attitude. It doesn’t mean that we should wait for the deadline to come before we start doing things we ought to do. Deadlines should remind us that we have a duty to do and that the deadline is there to remind us of that duty. If that duty is something as important as registering to vote and to participate in the elections, which in itself is both a privilege and a duty of all citizens, then we shouldn’t just do it at the last minute.

However, I argue that the Comelec should also share in the blame. Why? Because they are very inefficient. For one thing, everyone already knows the mamaya na attitude of Filipinos. Everyone knows that the lines will get longer and longer as the deadline comes nearer. Comelec should have anticipated and prepared for this influx of people. Extending registration hours until midnight is commendable but I personally don’t think it will be enough. This then brings me to my next point.

In Operations Research, there is a whole branch of it called Queuing Theory which deals with long lines and how to remedy it. This is one of the things amusement parks especially Disneyland theme parks are really good at. To be honest, I haven’t really taken this topic up yet in detail so I can’t really describe to you the specifics of this. What I can tell you though is that Queuing Theory says that there is a way in order to optimize the output (in this case, the number of voters registered) in a certain system (the whole process of voter registration)  given a certain level of input (the number of people in the line). One way to do this is to increase the number of service providers (can be number of computers servicing the people) in the system as well as increasing the efficiency of these service providers. This, unfortunately is not what the Comelec has been doing. I experienced this first hand.

There was a voters’ registration station setup here in our village earlier this year. Our village is a medium-sized village which has a fairly large number of residents. Thinking that registering here in our village would be more convenient since it is nearer to us, a lot of my neighbors went. Unfortunately, there was a very long line. Why? There was only 1 computer operated by a rather slow typist. There were more than 200 of us lining up for the registration. It took me a little over 3 hours to register because of the really inefficient system. We’re just a village. What about those whole baranggays lining up to register? It must take them longer than 3 hours.

And by the way, having more computers won’t automatically solve the problem if the computers themselves are inefficient! Another reason why it takes so long to register is that sometimes, the computers crash! Sometimes, these computers also overheat. There are also reports which say that these computers can only accommodate up to 300 registrants each day. Another thing which concerns me about these computers is the way the data is treated. When I registered, I asked the computer technician manning the computer if they had a backup of the data they were entering into the computer. I didn’t see any external hard drive with which to sync the data with, nor did I see any networking equipment (LAN cables, WLAN cards, antennas, etc.) to sync the data to a remote server. The technician said that they just synced the data with the main office database when they return there at the end of the day. This is worrisome for some people, me included, considering that their computers are prone to crash. We all know that data can actually be deleted when computers crash. This is just not acceptable when you are dealing with data this important and sensitive.

However, I think there is also another party who has to share the blame. As my former Sociology teacher pointed out, companies, schools and other institutions which did not set aside a certain day to let their employees/students register are also to be blamed. There are some institutions which called off 1 day in the workweek to let their employees/students go out and register. They should be commended for that. The others should have followed suit. After all, how can employees and students register if by the time they come out of their work/school, the Comelec offices are closed already?

Voting is everyone’s right and duty to the country. Registration is a prerequisite for everyone to be able to exercise this. I hope everyone will learn to work together for the common good of the country.

Other notes:

• Chiz Escudero’s recent announcement is rather interesting. There are several possible scenarios which could result from his decision to leave NPC. Obviously, this allows him to ally with other presidentiables and potentially run as vice president. However, he has already said that he will never side with Gibo, since he (Gibo) is from the administration, and with Manny Villar because of the “things he [Chiz] knows”. (He actually said that in the past in relation to Villar’s corruption!) Being the VP of any other presidentiable (Gordon, Fernando, etc.) would just be absurd politically for him since he is more popular than any of them (save for Noynoy, Gibo, Villar and Erap). Of course, he can still run for president but I don’t think that would be a wise choice given that he doesn’t have the funding nor the political machinery given by Danding Cojuangco’s NPC. I think the next announcement of Chiz will be that he is withdrawing his bid for the presidency and will instead support Noynoy’s campaign in 2010. This would be politically beneficial to both Noynoy and Chiz since they can ride on each other’s popularity. But I’m not sure about that. Its just gut feel. Let’s see what happens.

Comments will be greatly appreciated!

The Disadvantages of an Elite Education

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Last night, I watched the news. One news item was about the proposed increase of the fare for the jeepneys here in Metro Manila. It sort of irritated me to hear another such increase because I think the drivers aren’t really considerate of the people who barely make enough to provide for themselves. A price increase of P1.50 will just make it worse. According to the drivers, they want an increase because they haven’t been earning enough due to the increase in price of cruse oil products. I don’t think this isn’t the only reason why they aren’t earning enough. There is one factor which can and should be controlled by the government.

Here’s my theory.

In mathematical modeling, we were taught how to determine the ideal number of items sold in order to attain the maximum profit. We use a parabolic curve facing downwards to determine this. The x-component of the vertex (maximum point) is the ideal amount to be sold while the y-component shows the maximum profit. Selling more or less items than the ideal quantity sold results in lesser profit. What’s more interesting is that as more items are sold, profit can actually go down.

We can apply this same principle to the jeepney problem here in Metro Manila. The x-variable can represent the number of jeepneys, more specifically, the density of jeepeneys for a given area here in Metro Manila. The y-variable is the profit. I think there are already too many jeepneys here in Metro Manila to the point that the market is already very saturated. There is only a limited amount of people in any given area which a jeepney services. The more jeepneys in a given area, the less people will ride in any one jeep because the number of people will be diluted and distributed.

Take this analogy. If you dissolve a teaspoon of salt in water, you will find that the water becomes salty. If you add more and more water, the solution will become less and less salty. That’s the same thing with the jeepneys. The water represents the jeepneys, the salt represents the people and the saltiness represents the profit of the jeepneys. Now, this problem would be too simple. The fact is that there are also other forms of transportation available such as FX taxis, trains and cabs. These only help in diluting further the available market.

The number of jeepneys here in Metro Manila are already beyond the ideal number required to maximize profit. We must reduce the number of jeepneys and maybe also other forms of transportation in the streets.

How to do this?

The LTFRB is the government body responsible for these forms of public transportation. They can restrict their granting of franchises to jeepneys in order to discourage more from entering into these businesses. The government can and should redirect these people into other jobs which are related to production so that they can help in increasing the country’s GDP. The government should also restrict production of jeepneys so they can reduce the number of jeepneys in the streets of Metro Manila.