Final Week for Voter's Registration @ The City COMELEC Office (Cagayan de Oro City)

Last week was the final week for the voter's registration period nationwide. So it has been expected that during this time, the place (City COMELEC Office) will be crammed with a lot people.

I went to the office to register myself here in Cagayan de Oro City. And the place was packed! People from outside the office were crammed in a line which I don't understand what kind of line they were trying to form. There was one door, and the people outside were forming lines like it were the rays of the sun as drawn in the Philippine flag. Clearly, it was just the lack of staff to manage the crowd which gave the yearning voters this kind of experience.


I went to the City COMELEC Office (which is located at Burgos-C. Taal St.) around 9:00 in the morning, and got myself registered finally only in the afternoon, right after the lunch break which is from 12:00nn to 1:00pm. The whole time was spent standing outside the office on the street under the scorching heat of the sun, waiting for my name to be called. The heat was really intense. The umbrella wouldn't be of any use. A better option would be to find a shade under a tree or a wall perhaps. It was so hot that even during lunchtime, when I went to Jollibee (Lourdes College branch) to cool myself off, I still feel feverish. When I touched my head, I can still feel that it's hot.

As you can see, people are crammed on the street just outside the office. This one is taken from the right side of the office. This is the line where people would get their registration forms. And the line moves slowly.


Also here are the people scattered, waiting for their names to be called for the picture taking and the thumb printing.


Outside the office, one can see a lot of stalls selling different varieties of food and drinks. A good sight to see there is the buko juice vendor under the shade of the tree. Out of the current circumstance as of that moment, that was the only sight that neutralized the heat of the sun. Other vendors one will see are the ones which sell tempura, fishballs, kwek-kwek, peanuts (both cooked, and the one with it's shell still intact), and even spaghetti. For the local treats, there were also shakoys, buchi, and the local maja. Along with those, mineral water are also scattered within the vicinity. And there are always mini-stores around the area if you want cold softdrinks or other usual stuff found in mini-stores.



Here's one boy (locally known as the takatak boys) just sitting his time away waiting for people to buy cigarettes or candies from him.


There were people here reported to have collapsed due to the very hot temperature in the area. While I was already inside the office, I saw one woman taken to another part of the office, layed down on the chair, and was given water to drink. Some people outside couldn't bear it anymore and broke away from the line. People there are shouting. One staff at one time got mad and shouted at people to move back because people are pushing in, hoping they could get their registration forms passed. With this situation, people inside find it very difficult to go out. One alarming scene there is seeing women carrying infants and the senior citizens trying to get registered on a scenery like that. If people who are in the primal age find it difficult and very uncomfortable in this kind of situation, how much more people in the extremes of the age bracket?

Some of the elders in the area commented that, why not make the registration available on every baranggay? Why do they have to do everything in just one location? It does make sense. Every baranggay has an office, so why not make the registrations available there instead of pushing every people in the city inside one office? I don't know the reason why the people in the COMELEC office in the city never implemented that. But I hope next time, they will try to implement that.

These I noticed: There were only two computers available inside the office; they lack staff--there was no one outside who could manage to make the people fall in line; there was one security guard though who was standing near the door; and I think they are still resorting to the stone age process of handling files with the use of paper. I have seen bulks of paper inside the office in which I think are the registration forms. Not sure though what other files are included in the pile. Why not make everything computerized? The government could set aside a budget for computers inside the office. And they could always hire people to manage all the relevant data. There are a lot of capable people in the city who could do that. But we don't really know; maybe it's that hard for the office to request a budget for that goal. Also, to be able to get a registration form, you should fall in line first to get a priority number. But what happened was, once you get your priority number, there was no staff who would be calling the numbers. What people did there, was they went in line again leading to the office door to get their registration forms. In other words, the priority number was of no use. It just added up to the burdens of registering. It was pretty stupid actually.

I'm waiting for the time when voter's registration and voting perhaps will become a luxury that every people will enjoy. One day, I hope it will come to that.

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Unwind . . Get a Dose of Music @ Gigs

Music—the language of the world. No city in the world (or any place for that matter) can do away with it. This would neatly bring me to one of my pastimes here in the city.

Nights could never have been more boring (for people around my age bracket, that is) without getting that dose of escape brought about by immersing oneself into music. And nothing could be more enjoyable than to sink into the sound around all those lights, drowning volume, and a lot of other people who seem to be enjoying it as much as you do.
Are you in to bands? Do you occasionally go to local gigs in your hometown to check out what some of the bands there have to offer for that night? Well, if you enjoy doing that, then you're never going to miss home when you're here in Cagayan de Oro City.

Cagayan de Oro City occasionally gives birth to young talented local individuals who form a group out of nowhere, with their own sets of reasons, and contribute to the flame that's sparking up the city's life. Some of them form bands, and those bands yet form another group which we know of as a Music group. Lucky for me, for I am a music lover, they give me yet another reason to stay alive at night.

Gigs—in the local lingo we call it tukar. Gigs aren't new in the city's premises. They have been in existence for as long as 8 years ago, as far as I can remember. But I'm pretty sure it dates back farther than that; I have witnessed that part of the city's scene only 8 years ago, and I was amazed at what I saw back then.

Gigs that happen in the city don't follow a fixed schedule and they don't have a fixed venue. What usually happens is people get information by word of mouth. Some would also distribute flyers or post posters about the upcoming event usually a week before it happens. Lately, some of these local music groups put up websites that contain information about that group and their schedule of gigs. Two of the groups I know that have done this include Corridor Music Group and SLAM (the last time I checked, the latter doesn't seem to be that active anymore). On their websites, you'll see on their friend's list the bands that are regularly performing for them.

Some of the bands that made it to the mainstream started from these small gigs. And I tell you, how they play prior their way to the pop scene isn't much different compared to when they were still playing at these small gigs. And before you get me wrong, these guys still play at local gigs. (I was afraid I might give the impression that those guys are bloated enough for them not to play at local gigs anymore). Almost all the guys I know of who play at local gigs play without a charge. The organizer most likely give them free beers and stuff, but fees other than, you won't hear that from any of them. Those guys are pure music enthusiasts; they perform because they love to play music.

Here are some of the notable bands that made it to the mainstream: (Click on their names to open a window directing to their homepages)

• Tabularaza,
  



• Gasulina,
  



• Fayeed Tan,
  



• K9,
  

and a lot more.

So if you are somewhere around the city, watch out for the events happening for the night. You won't regret spending P50 - P100 for a night floating on music. These guys are just amazing.

*First, second and fourth photos in courtesy of Pancho Trinidad.
*The rest of the photos in courtesy of Corridor Music Group.

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Cooling Down at The Malls in CDO

Of course, how could a city be a city without a mall? There are a few exceptions though, but a city just doesn’t seem to be complete without a mall, right? Anyone beg to differ?

Scattered around the city are the malls people in the city herd in order for them to do the usual activities that people do in any mall on any country—activities such as doing the grocery, shopping, watching movies, conducting business meetings, or anything on their to-do lists. There are currently 3 major malls standing around the city. This was formerly 4, but unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, it is now reduced to 3 because one of the malls (Ororama Mega Mall) got burned down last year. The first mall built in the city is Gaisano City. Now it has an annex just across the street where Gaisano City was built, joined together by an overpass. And they named it Gaisano Mall. The next mall stood up was Limketkai Mall. Formerly, this mall used to be open air. Only the outlets inside were airconditioned. Now, the whole mall is fully airconditioned. Moving on, the third mall that sprouted on Cagayan soil is the ever present SM City Mall. As being the mall on top of the hill, people who are headed towards the airport or people who just came from the airport make this their pit stop. And last but not the least, the latest mall (which is really more like an extension to Limketkai Mall) that made it's way in the city, is the young Robinsons Mall, the mall that houses one of the largest grocery store in the city. It also has a number of outlets inside its premises. These outlets range from cellular phone stores to stores that sell shirts and jeans, and from fastfood diners to coffee shops.

On a Saturday, you’ll typically see groups of teenagers scattered about inside the malls. There’s this, sort of, schedule on who goes to the mall on a particular day in a week. On Sundays, this would be family day—the scene inside the mall would most likely be groups of families strolling around. From Mondays to Fridays, malls would have from a few people to moderate people—mostly college students and businessmen.

Back in high school, I and my friends used to go to malls on a Saturday to go “bird hunting.” By bird hunting I mean spotting cute and gorgeous girls coming from different campuses, tossing their hair like shampoo commercial models, putting that glow on their faces as if each of them are actresses from different TV programs. They would just melt our hearts out. But of course, that was before. I barely do that now, or maybe, I might not have even done it anymore. It’s not appropriate for my age anymore. Today would be younger generation’s time to do that. About what my generation does now, that would be the content for one of my next posts on this blog. Going back to the topic, yes, I don’t do it anymore, and neither do my friends, but the same rule still applies. At times when I go to the malls on Saturdays and see all those young teenagers scattering about in the mall, I get reminded of those days when I still do those stuff.

Nowadays, every time I feel stressed from all the headaches that school gives us, I would think of having a stroll at one of the malls. A sip of coffee would be fine. Or they have these pearl coolers sold around the mall. That would be a good choice, too. Doing this for about an hour or an hour and a half would be enough to cool down my brain from thinking too much about school work.

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