AHAY…but it did seem like an exercise in futility as all the glaring symptoms were there.
Perhaps it was just a defense mechanism, a not well-thought of desperate attempt to salvage one’s deflated ego.
Maybe just your usual sour grapes i.e. Leni Robredo’s much ballyhooed so-called drug report that turned out to be a dud.
From a benevolent point of view, perfectly understandable. In fact most people’s reaction when they learned of it was more on pity rather than ridicule.
And before you get lost in translation, an “exercise in futility” is something that is pointless, an action that achieves no end or goal, a totally pointless endeavor.
So what sort of exercise in futility are we talking about here? Excerpts from the Feb. 4, 2020 issue of Panay News:
Comelec ditches Biron poll protest
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) dismissed the election protest filed by defeated Iloilo gubernatorial candidate and former congressman Dr. Ferjenel Biron against Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr.
Biron claimed there were irregularities in the May 13, 2019 midterm elections and that 99,899 votes were unaccounted. He thus sought a manual recount of votes in 2,184 clustered precincts all over Iloilo province.
But according to the Comelec, “the allegations in the petition and in the appended evidence failed to convince us that an examination of the ballots and other election paraphernalia for purposes of a recount of votes (was) warranted.”
“The Commission (Second Division) hereby deems the instant election protest to be insufficient in form and content,” read part of the Comelec decision dated Jan. 14, 2020 and signed by Presiding Commissioner Luie Tito F. Guia, and commissioners Socorro B. Inting and Antonio T. Kho Jr.
If you remember, Ferjie a.k.a. Ferjenel Biron, the losing candidate for governor of Iloilo Province, filed a protest about a week after the elections were done and dusted the results of which he himself accepted when he publicly announced that he conceded defeat.
When news of the protest he filed in the Comelec central office in Manila reached Iloilo, a lot of the natives were quite surprised and were saying what happened to his so-called congratulatory message of unity.
Excerpts from the May 16, 2019 issue of Panay News:
“We recognize ang result sang election kag I take this opportunity to thank all our supporters, ang tanan gid nga nagbulig sa aton,” said Biron over DyFM Bombo Radyo Iloilo yesterday.
He urged them to move on, too.
“Importante natabo na ang election and Toto Defensor won this election. We wish him well sa iya nga pag-assume bilang gobernador sang probinsya,” said Biron.
He assured his supporters he would continue to help people in his private capacity.
“What defines a champion is not winning but rising after defeat,” said Biron.
Well and good. In fact, quite sporting of Ferjie.
So what brought that on, the protest, if we were to base it on the statements that Ferjie said over the radio and newspaper that he had accepted the fact that he lost the elections and had moved on?
Apparently, Ferjie had not accepted defeat and had not moved on, hence the protest he filed at the Comelec.
The question now political pundits and the coffee shop habituates are asking is: Will Ferjie again not accept the fact that his electoral protest was junked and he lost once more?
Perhaps the bihon did not work. Who knows, maybe next time pancit will do the trick.
For all we know the voters of Iloilo are quite discerning in their taste of noodles. Fettuccinior pennepasta with pesto and pine nuts sauce sautéed in olive oil with chopped garlic and onions might be more to their discriminating taste.
It seems that Ferjie failed to take note of the fact that the voters in Iloilo have already leveled up long before “I Am Iloilo City” mayor Geronimo thought of making “level up” his mantra.
Really, bihon is so proletariat, in poor taste with absolutely no class.
And what happened to, “What defines a champion is not winning but rising after defeat”?
Just lip service, I suppose. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
