Pert Toga

This time, it’s the Taiwanese who had to be on the defensive, their erring media has to apologize to Filipinos being victimized by erroneous reports by their own journalists making up false claims in their print media outlet. The Taiwanese president himself had to make assurances that no such negative stories happened and that they would not tolerate such false claims.

These apologies only goes to show that the Taiwanese themselves are taking advantage of the adverse effects that the diplomatic impasse has been taking place not only in the disputed seawaters between China and the Philippines and lately, between the Philippines and Taiwan, but also in the streets and corridors of the two Chinese territories, victimizing Filipinos right in their jurisdictions where they used to be allies being workers in their factories and industries.

In an apparent show of military might and superior force, Taiwan conducted a military exercise Thursday in the waters near the northern Philippines, in response to the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman after having rejected repeated apologies from Manila.

President Ma Ying-jeon of Taiwan has reiterated his view that the Philippines should take formal responsibility for the death of the 65-year-old victim, shot dead by the Philippine Coast Guards who claimed that his vessel intruded into Philippine waters.

Amid outrage in the island, Taipei has recalled its envoy and slapped sanctions on Manila, including a ban on the hiring of new Filipino workers, a travel alert urging the Taiwanese not to visit the Philippines and the suspension of high-level exchanges.

Fifty-two million registered voters are expected to vote for candidates that will fill 18,053 elective positions in the May 13 national and local elections.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said this number is higher than the 50,653,828 voters that registered in 2010.

In the run-up to Monday’s midterm polls, both national and local candidates were scrambling to woo voters that are expected to troop to the 77,829 clustered precincts on Election Day.

Candidates doubled their efforts in the final leg of their campaign, especially in areas with a big number of voters. Data from the poll body revealed that Region IV-A composed of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon (Calabarzon) and Region IV-B composed of Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan (Mimaropa) has the most number of registered voters at 8,757,587.

In fact, Cavite is the second vote-rich province with 1,789,438, next to Cebu’s more than 2 million voters.

Next to Cavite is Pangasinan with 1,651,814; Negros Occidental, 1,574,784; Laguna, 1,525,522; Bulacan, 1,497,873; Davao del Sur, 1,491,806; Batangas, 1,444,249; Rizal, 1,382,825; and Nueva Ecija, 1,363,633. All in all, these 10 provinces account for 16 million voters.

It’s just a week before balloting day, four days for candidates to campaign, and with a number of disturbing incidents that appear to be worrisome and deserving serious consideration and analysis for voters to ponder upon, as they prepare for a trek to their polling places to cast their votes next Monday.

Apart from knowing and mastering all the basic steps how to vote with the use of the Precinct Optical Scan (PCOS) machines and finding the location of where you are supposed to cast your ballots, there are things we ought to ponder upon, namely, being vigilant on your way to the voting precincts, feeling safe, secure and bear in mind the many possibilities of unforeseen or unpredictable circumstances on the wake of what had happened the past few days.

Take for instance, those violent and near-violent incidents that we all have to be wary about, namely, the threats to an honest, orderly and peaceful elections (HOPE).