Perlas casts vote in Pasig

Independent presidential candidate Nicanor Perlas cast his vote Monday at the upscale University of Asia and the Pacific in Ortigas Center, Pasig City with his son, Christopher Michael.

Perlas went to precinct 445-A a little before 7 a.m. and, after a bit of waiting in line, voted himself for president.

Voter number 132 voted for no one else, as it took him all of 10 seconds to cast his ballot. "Wala akong masyadong binoto [I didn’t vote much]," he joked.

"Hopefully, it got recorded," he said, adding that other voters might have trouble shading the oval. "Although the machine said it was successfully registered, I'm really worried," he said.

"I have my doubts [about the process]. We'll be waiting to see if the machines will work well. I'm cautious, but I want to honor the process," Perlas told reporters.

Aside from the media attention, Perlas attracted little from the other voters, as he sat, with his son beside him, inconspicuously on a chair waiting for his turn to vote.

Perlas said his experience with the new process was fine, with the precinct count optical scan machine (PCOS) registering his vote.

But he expressed concern about the conduct of elections in the other parts of the country. He previously asked the Commission on Elections to postpone the polls by three months because the system had too many defects.

Perlas, who ran on an environmentalist, reformist and anti-poverty platform, remained upbeat about his chances despite consistently lagging in the polls.

He lined up in a queue of voters and waited his turn in clustered precinct number 137.

Voting at the UA&P was generally orderly with people lining up for their turn to cast their electoral picks. Most of the voters in this precinct are upper-to-middle class, with many living in high-rise condominiums.

But some had trouble locating their precincts. A help desk set up by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting assisted them. A total of 2,701 voters were registered in the polling place.

Each clustered precinct was housed in a makeshift booth made of wood and blue plastic sheets in the covered court of the UA&P. Inside each booth were three tables and monobloc chairs with voters' folders and markers.