Candidate protests his poll victory

To those who didn't make it in the last election -- some of them friends of mine -- I want to share this line I stumbled on in a book given to me by Dr. Darcy Tabotabo (where are you now Darcy?):

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“There are defeats more triumphant than victories.” This is attributed to Michel de Montaigne, a French essayist and political philosopher.

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It says here that every election -- midterm or presidential -- countless Pinoys would try their luck at winning a seat in Congress (especially the Lower House). “Many of them don't even know the duties of the congressman,” said a political columnist. Aside perhaps from collecting their salary and pork barrel?

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Congress is an interesting place to while away one's time. “In Congress,” says Robert Phillips, a journalist and author of many human interest books, “a man gets up to speak, says nothing, nobody listens, then everyone disagrees.”

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A candidate for mayor in a Mindanao province is filing a protest -- do they call that electoral complaint? -- with the Comelec. Why? The news says he won but only by a little over 50 votes. That's the beauty in a free country. Politicians complain win or lose.

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First it was China who kept bullying us. Then -- now -- it's Taiwan doing the bullying. We're not hitting back at the provincianos from the Chinese Mainland. Which is not bad, says one of our top-level diplomats.

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Hon. Lauro Baja, Jr., our retired permanent representative to the United Nations, lauded the Phl government's “peaceful reaction” to Taiwan's saber rattling. Sir Baja said: “Let us not stoop to the Taiwanese level... Taiwan is behaving like a neighborhood bully and it is not surprising since it is a province of China.”

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OVERHEARD. Some amateur political analysts were discussing the result of the local polls. One of them said: “Rampant kuno ang vote-buying adtong miaging election.” Reply: “Buanga oy, wa may namalit lagi didto sa amoang barangay.” Another response: “Huwat nalang sa 2016 kay presidential election mahal-mahal tingali ang pinalitay.” Reply: “Puwede bang ibaligya ko in advance ang boto ko? Wa nay bugas sa bay.”