DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 09 May) — The campaign of Maria Victoria “Mags” Maglana came full circle on election day when she rode a trisikad from her house to the polling precinct at the Manuel A. Roxas Elementary School. On March 25, the first day of the campaign period, her team of volunteers organized a trisikad caravan nearby.
Around noon, she posted on her personal Facebook page a short video of that trisikad drive from her house. “Nagtrisikad papuntang voting center. Malapit lang kasi sa bahay. Pero medyo maputik. At kahit makulimlim, nakakapaso ang init. Kaya heto. Nakakakonsyensya kasi 77 years old na daw si Tatay pero kailangan pang kumita.”
“May suot-suot siyang BBM-Sara na cap at may Tambi Sarenas na tarp. Tapos ang hinahatid niya ay isang babae na, kagaya ng maraming taga-Davao, ay naghahangad ng pagbabagong kapaki-pakinabang sa nakararami kaya nakigkumbati sa bugnong lugayon. Pwedeng sabihing snapshot ng Davao economy, polity, environment, culture, and society sa ngayong panahon ano?” Maglana asked.
Maglana arrived alone at around 11:20 a.
m. “They’re all busy monitoring the elections,” she said of her team of mostly youth volunteers.
Anticipating a long wait, Maglana brought a book to read, ‘Mga Lumadnong Sugilanon nga Mahinuklogon’ by Melchor Morante, pen name of Brother Karl Gaspar.
Maglana entered the waiting area at 11:45 a.m. and was done voting by 12:20 p.m. around 20 minutes after her opponent, presidential son Paolo, cast his own vote at his own precinct at the Catalunan Grande Elementary School. Paolo is seeking a second term as Representative of the 1st congressional district.
The vote culminates her months-long campaign to, in her words, slay the Duterte political dynasty.
While Paolo endured a three-hour line at Catalunan and was accompanied by his wife January, chair of Barangay Catalunan Grande, Maglana fought a more uphill battle in the campaign, her candidacy supported by friends in civil society and youth volunteers.
Wearing a rainbow mask, Maglana looked for the end of a short line, some of those around her in the line a little bewildered by the media coverage.
During a mobile miting de avance in Puan in Dumoy last Saturday, Maglana spoke to an audience of passersby and reminded candidates and voters alike in Cebuano, “Who should advance? Is it the candidate or the people?”
Maglana filed her certificate of candidacy on October 8, the last day of filing, incumbent Paolo and said it was time for someone else to represent Davao City’s densely populated first district.
“Kailangan nang itapon ang lumang governance playbook ng Davao City na siyang ginamit for 35 years. Itinatali tayo nito sa mga sitwasyong an interes ng iilan ang nangingibabaw (We need to throw out Davao City’s obsolete governance playbook that has been in effect for 35 years. For too long it has trapped us in situations where the interests of a few are gratified) at the expense of people’s rights and welfare and good governance,” she said then.
Before his election as Representative in 2019, the presidential son started his political career in 2007 as barangay chair. From there he became a Councilor and was elected Vice Mayor for two terms.
While waiting for her turn to vote, Maglana alternated between posting content on her own Facebook page and reading paragraphs from the book she was reading.
While Maglana’s voting was without fanfare, her last gestures were methodical, almost ritualistic.
With her votes counted, Maglana took her time to stand near a final table in front of the classroom of her voting precinct, looked at her vote receipt, and once she was sure, dropped it slowly into a designated box.
“I have to go back to the headquarters,” she told reporters. “Ang dami pang gagawin.” (Yas D. Ocampo / MindaNews)
