Man with no legs climbs four floors to vote

A man with no legs climbing four floors, an old man dying after voting, a peaceful atmosphere at a notorious jail, a daughter of an action king leading a race and a disgraced former president having a political turf again.
 
These are some of the scenarios that stood out in Monday’s Philippine midterm elections, which were “generally peaceful and organised”, according to the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel).
 
Niño Aguirre, 30, who has no legs, climbed up to the fourth floor of Pembo Elementary School, in Manila’s business district of Makati to cast his vote.
 
Aguirre climbed alone, helped only by a skateboard, although he was seen by millions of TV viewers as a GMA Network news crew was following him.
 
76-year-old Luis Manalo, meanwhile, died of a heart attack after casting his vote in the municipality of San Pascual in Batangas province on the southwestern part of the Philippines’ largest island of Luzon.
 
He was at a polling place in Barangay Hilerang Kawayan when he collapsed and died while being taken to hospital, according to reports quoting Senior Superintendent Rosauro Acio, director of Batangas Police Provincial Office.
 
At the first special polling place set up at the dreaded New Bilibid Prison (NBP), in Metro Manila’s Muntinlupa City, what had been expected to be a riotous historic moment turned out to be quiet and peaceful, owing to a three-hour delay in the delivery of voting equipment.
 
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told reporters that only NBP inmates with cases on appeal and whose conviction “have not attained finality” were allowed to cast their vote.
 
This means that only 1,985 out of NBP’s 22,000 inmates were able to participate in this political exercise. Those who voted consisted of 191 inmates from the medium security compound and 1,794 from the maximum security compound.
 
In the 2010 elections, only detainees at city and provincial jails were allowed to vote as their cases had not yet been resolved.
 
Former government censors chief Grace Poe-Llamanzares, adopted daughter of the late action king Fernando Poe Jr and the legendary actress Susan Roces, has continued to top the initial canvassing for the senatorial poll.
 
“I never even dreamed of this,” she told journalists. “What I wanted was to enter the Top 12 in memory of my father. That’s what I prayed for.”
 
The late Poe, known as the king of Philippine movies, ran for president in May 2004 but lost to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in an election that was allegedly riddled with cheating and massive vote buying.
 
In Manila, former actor and president Joseph Estrada, a seasoned politician who was pressured to give up the presidency in 2001 over charges of corruption, defeated re-electionist Mayor Alfredo Lim, a former general and senator.

 

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