"Cory magic" to pull Noynoy through

CEBU, Philippines - The supporters of presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino and his running mate Mar Roxas believe “Cory magic” can still win the day for Noynoy.

“Yung Cory magic kasi eh nasa heart ng bawat tao at naniniwala akong hindi ‘yun nawawala, but we can’t deny that our poverty situation is worsening because what should supposed to be provided for social services, more than 50 percent of it is corrupted, ‘yung active citizenship is there but people are just too busy looking for their ways of living… naniniwala ako na people will surprise us and they know kung ano’ng tama at mali,” said former Social Welfare secretary Dinky Soliman.

Soliman was joined by lawyer Democrito Barcenas, chairman of Aquino-Roxas Volunteers in Cebu; Florencio “Butch” Abad, former secretary of Education; and the general campaign manager of the Aquino-Roxas campaign, former National Defense secretary Avelino Cruz Jr. when they held a press conference regarding their “Bantay Balota” Voter’s Education Series.

Cruz said over 200,000 volunteers for the Liberal Party will be working on May 7 for final testing and sealing for the Precinct Count Optical Scanner machines.

From May 7 to 10, ballots will be tested through the PCOS machines and will later be compared to the manual basically to check whether the machine has the correct counting.

“For three days, dapat bantayan namin yan 24 hours, kase ‘pag di mo binabantayan ang makina ang nakakatakot kase sa Automated Elections ay yung internal reading kung saan pwedeng may pandaraya within”, Cruz said.

Soliman said Bantay Balota chooses not to implicitly trust in the Commission on Elections as a failure of elections scenario is very much possible.

“Ang Bantay Balota ay nagpapakita na ang tiwala namin sa Comelec ay mababa, so kailangan bantayan ang boto lalo na ngayon na it’s the first time to have an Automated Election. The scenario of a failure of elections and no proclamation is a very real scenario kaya for us, mahalaga na bantayan at bilangin ang boto ng tama because we can’t afford and we will not allow a no proclamation on the national level,” she said.

To strengthen the Aquino-Roxas tandem, the group in Cebu started to form a group composed of youth which will basically compliment the LP and are planning for a torch parade, media programs and tying yellow ribbons on trees in the cities.

Basing on the latest PULSE Asia survey, the panel claimed the Aquino-Roxas tandem is the strongest in the Visayas region yet they have to work more in Mindanao and Luzon. — Antoniette Parce/BRP    (FREEMAN NEWS)