Elections






 In the Philippines, elections only happen once every three years. The president is in office for 6 years and is elected every other election cycle. Senators and mayors are elected every 3 years. Elections will happen on Monday May 12, 2025. The next elections will be in 2028.

Most people need to go back to their home area to vote. In some ways, it reminds me of Christ's birth, "every one into his own city." The missionaries are often asked if they are going home for the elections.

Politics seem to run in families. In the Tacloban area, the Romualdez family is very prominent. In Baybay, it's the Cari family.

In some areas the elections are very contentious. There has already been one shooting of a political party killing the daughter-in-law of a politician. They had thought he was in the car as well. Especially in areas where the elected officials are corrupt and don't want to lose power, the unrest is real. We had to moved foreign missionaries out of certain areas to keep them safe during the election. The mission president has provided the following guidelines for this election:

A. Safety and Security:

  1. Be vigilant with activities and events going on in your neighborhood, or the areas you frequently visit or pass through.
  2. Avoid crowds, especially those associated with political campaigns, meetings, or activities.
  3. Politely refuse any offers to offer you any campaign materials, gifts, etc. (even if the candidate may be a member of the church)
  4. Do not expose yourself or greet campaigning candidates from your apartment doors, windows, balcony, or veranda.
  5. Missionaries purchase their groceries and other food on Thursday morning, May 8. Do not purchase a lot of fresh food items stored on refrigerators in case of power outages. Store enough drinking water and water for cleaning/flushing.
  6. Report to your ZL/STL any unusual activities in your area (confrontation, violence, reported threats, etc.)
  7. Apartments must be secured with sturdy door locks.
  8. Prepare for power outages. Make sure that your cellphones are well charged.
  9. Generally, missionaries in most areas will plan to go out on Tuesday, May 13, except the missionaries in the ff. areas: Calbayog, Sta. Margarita, Calubi-an, and San Isidro, who will remain in their apartments. They resume regular proselyting activities on Wednesday, May 14.
  10. Missionaries from the following zones/areas shall observe curfew by 6:00 PM starting Monday, May 5 to Tuesday, May 13 Samar: Catbalogan and Catarman zones (all areas) Leyte: Calubi-an, and San Isidro (identified from Carigara zone) All other missionaries shall observe curfew by 6:00 PM from Friday, May 9 to Tuesday, May 13 Stay safe.

We see signs on the roads and on the back of trikes and pettycabs all the time. Missionaries tell stories of people seeking election coming to church and trying to speak to the group. We are seeing many more police checks as we drive.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fjordlands

Image
 We spent the day cruising through Fjordland National Parks. It's a series of fjords accessible mainly by the sea. The scenery was gorgeous. They get a lot of rainful here and today was not an exception. It made the many waterfalls so much more impressive. We were outside on the deck for a bit, but it was chilly so we came inside to watch the scenery go by. We managed to see some penguins from the distance and an albatross up close. Didn't get pictures of any animals. Just to prove that it is us here, even with our colds.
Read more

Noumea, New Caledonia

Image
 This small group of islands in Micronesia were discovered by the French. It helped me realize how bad my French still is. I had a few short conversations with people, but between my deaf ear on the right side and my lack of memory, the conversations were very brief. The water here is beautiful blue. Approaching the island, there were some cool coral reefs that caused the water to do some weird beach waves in the middle of the ocean. It was pretty awesome to watch the water break and roll in over the water. The pictures don't do it justice.  The port was a protected cove with lots of hills. We walked uphill through the Plaza de Pais. From the viewpoint, we got a great view of the harbor and the area behind us. They also had a statue of a woman praising God at the viewpoint.  Jack had to do a Touchdown Jesus pose with the Hail Mary. We also visited the Catholic Church, or as Jack called it, the Church of Barry Manilow. The priest's picture did look amazingly like him. Love...
Read more

Auckland Temple

Image
 On our "shortcut" home, we are seeing many temples. The first stop on our temple trip is Auckland. Jack and I went Friday night to do some initiatory and catch a session. We then went Saturday night with former Tacloban Missionaries. Only Sister Nau made it. We had hoped to see former Elder Fruean, Sister Lolohea and Sister Fue, who had recently gotten married.
Read more