Reasons why I will vote for Jojo Binay:

  • I’m officially going to be a Makati resident soon, and I believe that voting for Jojo Binay, former mayor of Makati City, will somehow be beneficial to me in the long run.
  • All these things he’s saying in his political ads — such as Makati offering free hospitalization and education (targeted to its less fortunate residents), and giving away free movie passes to senior citizens — I believe them to be true. It is indeed admirable of him to have done these for Makati residents.
  • Makati is undeniably a progressive city. I give Mayor Jojo Binay credit for that.

Reasons why I will not vote for Jojo Binay:

  • For a ‘progressive’ city, Makati has one of the worst waterways and drainage systems in Metro Manila. In the area alone where I lived (and will be moving to), a certain amount of rain is enough to flood it. You can just imagine how bad it was when Typhoon Ondoy hit Metro Manila last year. I wonder why Jojo Binay never prioritized fixing this problem.
  • He gave really stupid answers and sleazy comebacks at the recent Vice Presidential debate and got his ass kicked nice and good by Bayani Fernando. He says there are no squatters’ areas (oh sorry, I mean “informal settlers”) in Makati? Heck, there’s even one just behind our office building.
  • The Binays’ campaign efforts had stooped down to the level wherein they send anonymous texts to badmouth the candidates they’re running against, referring to Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado as “matanda na, may sakit, at naoperahan pa sa ulo.” I know cos I received this text, and I personally consider it a below-the-belt move.
  • The day after my father’s death last year, I went straight to Makati City Hall to claim his death certificate which is a requirement to transport remains via an airplane. I discovered that the employees at the Makati City Hall are just the rudest set of people you will ever meet. It took me five hours just to get the thing processed because their photocopier wasn’t working (for a progressive city with a city hall that has more than 20 levels, this sure is inexcusable) and they keep saying that I should have been one of the people they sent home that day. I didn’t give up without a fight – getting my hands on that death certificate that day was a must. Yet how insensitive of the Makati City Hall staff to tell me “bakit ngayon ka lang kasi nagpunta dito para kunin ang death certificate?” when my dad passed away just the day before! Jojo Binay, is this the kind of staff you trained? Is the kind of “service” you’re proud of?
  • This one is also related to my father’s death. The house we rented in Pasig City before was just a few meters away from the border of Makati, so naturally, we brought Papa’s remains to the nearest funeral home located in Makati. While there, the employees of the funeral home informed us that if we wanted to avail a discount, they’ll have to ask permission from Mayor Jojo Binay. They also told us that their kindhearted mayor comes by every Wednesday to offer his condolences to the families of the deceased. True enough, Mayor Binay came on a Wednesday to visit every family. However, he skipped ours and did not even consider giving us a discount, simply because we were not Makati residents. I bet things would have been different if he was already planning to run for Vice President then.

So am I or am I not going to vote for Jojo Binay? It’s not hard to believe that he’d make a good Vice President like he has been a good Mayor, but I take my father’s death — and everything that happened then that’s related to it — really really personally.

Also: 3 reasons < 5 reasons.

Note: The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of any former, current or future employers, my family, and my friends. LOL.

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