S1L51 – Overseas Absentee Voting
Mommy Dionisia! Fancy meeting you here in the mall! Merry Christmas po!” I was so happy to see my oldest student gallivanting around the mall, enjoying the holidays like everybody else.
“Merry Christmas, Prof! Are you here to line up with the kids to have their selfies taken with Santa Claus?” she joked.
“Nooo…last time I did that a second line of kids formed in front of me and I heard one of those little devils say to another, ‘dito na lang tayo. Mas mataba pa kay Santa Claus!’ So I swore never to come anywhere near Santa Claus again, especially when I’m wearing my red hoodie!” I said. The kind old woman laughed heartily, just as two little giggly children aged about 10 or 11 ran into her arms from nowhere.
“Prof, these are my two grandkids, they are fraternal twins, a girl and a boy, children of my eldest daughter Laura who is working as a nurse in Germany,” Mommy Dionisia said.
“Are they your grandkids really, wow! And twins, too. Just like your classmates Glad and Gladys,” I said. It’s a good thing that Mommy Dionisia clued me right away that one of them was a boy. Otherwise, I could have sworn they both looked like they could be either—both boys or both girls. In this day and age, how can anyone be sure? Boys now wear even more earrings than girls. Girls sport more tattoos and body piercings than boys. And as to their names, forget it. How will you guess the gender behind names like Avenger, Apple, Tron, Aquarius, Nimbus or Turbo?
“So what are your names, kiddos?” I stooped down and asked.
“My name is Denise, sir” said the little girl—or at least she SOUNDED like a girl.
“Well, Denise, you have such a beautiful girl’s name. Who thought of that name, your mom?
“No, sir, my aunt, my mom’s sister. We were born by caesarian section so our mom was unconscious.” The girl answered. Mommy Dionisia supplemented the information.
“I have two daughters, Prof. When Laura was in labor for these twins, she gave her sister Maria, my younger daughter, the discretion to think of a name for her baby just before they gave her anesthesia for the C-section. They weren’t expecting twins so when these two came out, Maria wasn’t ready with two names. But it just occurred to her that the baby girl was her niece, so she named her DENISE.”
“Oh, no,” I turned to the boy and asked him, “and what did your auntie Maria name you, young man?”
“DENEPHEW,” the boy said. I knew it.
“Well, you two kids two are wonderful!” I gushed, “I bet your mom adores you both, that’s why she’s working so hard in Germany, so you could both have a bright future.”
Mommy Dionisia was beaming, “the future truly belongs to my apos, Prof, that’s why I’m really rooting for Leni in this coming elections. I want my apos to grow up knowing a president who doesn’t cuss!”
“Oh, you’re for Leni!” I said, “your classmate Miss Deema is gonna love you. She’s helping run Leni’s groundwork operations in the city, or the whole region I think.”
“I know, Prof, she was the one who turned me on to Leni in class, after your lecture on political dynasties, I won’t forget that. Leni and the Android system hihihi,” Mommy Dionisia laughs still like a young girl herself, even though she’s pushing 60.
“Yeah, well I think she has recruited the whole class. Crazy girl even invaded my chalkbox and swapped my chalk with pink ones, can you believe that??”
“Hahaha! Yes, with Deema I can believe that, but would you please relay a very important message to her for me, Prof?”
“Of course!” I said.
“Please tell Deema I’ve grown white hairs seeing election after election and campaign strategies galore. But she must never forget the cardinal rule in campaigning, and I’ll say it in Tagalog because it loses meaning if you translate it in English.” Mommy Dionisia said.
“I can’t wait to hear it,” I said.
“Please tell Deema ‘sa anumang eleksyon maraming tumatakbo…meron ding naglalakad…pero ang nananalo parati yung GUMAGAPANG!”
“Wow!” I said, and spelled out the acronym WOW, “words of wisdom. I will be sure to relay that to Miss Deema. In fact, I think tomorrow, she’s scheduled to make ‘gapang’ to some drivers group, then after that I think she’s talking to a group of call center operators, she’ll ‘gapang’ them too. It’s possible she can convince them to change the greeting line in their call center scripts to something like ‘thank you for supporting Leni, may I help you?”
“Oh, yes, with Deema that’s definitely doable!” said Mommy Dionisia.
“What about your daughter Laura in Germany, has she made arrangements?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, Prof definitely. She’s availing of the overseas absentee voting privilege. She was able to register successfully before the deadline last October 14 at the Philippine embassy in Bonn. She took a day to travel to Bonn because she’s really based in Weisbaden. But she didn’t mind, she wants Leni to win too.”
“Did you hear that, kids?” I addressed Denise and Denephew, “see how much trouble your mom is willing to go through just to cast a vote for the one she believes is the right president to run our country and secure your future. And she has to go through the whole thing again a second time when she actually votes,” I said.
“Maybe not so much, Prof, she’s taking the option of mailed-in ballots. That’s why she had to be very careful and very specific when she gave her home address during registration. The embassy will send her ballot to that home address. After filling in the ballot, she has to mail it back to the embassy and it must be received before May 9, 2022.”
“Well it’s a good thing overseas voting starts a month before our own election day here,” I said, “that gives Laura plenty of time to do her mailing.”
“Oh, for sure. Even if its just to drop her mailing, my daughter said she would still take the day off, just to make sure her mailing is done just right!”
“Did you hear that kids? NOTHING is going to stop your mom from voting for Leni. I hope that kind of tenacity by your mom inspires you,” I said.
Mommy Dionisia hugged her two grandkids, “Oh, they are inspired alright. Ask this little girl what her ambition is.”
“Let me guess. You’re so encouraged by your mom I bet your ambition to become like her, huh? You want to become a nurse too?”
“No, sir.” The little girl said politely.
“No? So what IS your ambition there, young lady?” I was puzzled.
“I want to run for President!”
Whoa! Well, what do you know. Little girl punches way above her weight division.
This IS the next ‘Leni’!
About the Author
The author is a writer and lawyer based in Baguio City, Philippines. Former editor of the Gold Ore and Baguio City Digest, professor of journalism, political science and law at Baguio Colleges Foundation (BCF). He is a photographer and video documentarist. He has a YouTube channel called “Parables and Reason”
About Images: Some of the images used in the articles are from the posts in Atty. Joel Rodriguez Dizon’s Facebook account, and/or Facebook groups and pages he manages or/and member of.