A politician I know

His name is Anthony Miranda. He came form the political clan of the Mirandas from Santiago City, Isabela. His father is the former mayor of Santiago City and was killed in the 1980’s. His older brother Pempe, likewise is a former mayor of Santiago City. Anthony followed in the footsteps of his father and brother. He was elected as councilor of Santiago City duing the term of Pempe as mayor. Then he ran for congressman of the 4th District of Isabela Province in 2004 and won defeating Giorgidi Aggabao. He however lost to Aggabao during the 2007 elections. No I’m not writing about his political convictions. I'm not writing about his accomplishments or lack of thereof. I’m not gonna touch the issues he got involved in. I don’t know anything about that. I’m writing about what I saw during the 2007 elections.

I had to opportunity to get to know the guy when one day in January 2007. I received a text message from him asking me to meet him in Annabel’s in Tomas Morato. I said what the fuck? Why would a politician be interested in meeting me?. At that time aside from my regular job as an IT officer in a remittance company, I also work as a part-time IT instructor in Informatics at SM North Edsa. Apparently, he asked Informatics for an IT person capable of working with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). I was the one they referred. So I met the guy and he contracted me to work on a GIS project that he can use to monitor where his PDF goes and to profile his constituents. He also plans to use it for analyzing the voters in his district. The guy is a big believer in technology.

In the 5 months that followed, I was traveling weekly to Santiago, Isabela for continued consultation on the project. Eventually I became close to his family, as election period draws near, I learned and personally saw the practice of the Miranda family. The Miranda family never spent a single cent buying votes. They never used goons to intimidate voters. This I personally saw during the 2007 elections. As I grew close to Anthony’s family, I also became involved in the campaigns. Their practice of not buying votes has always worked for them. Although not all of them wins, a Miranda is always in position. His brother Pempe lost to Amelita Navarro as mayor of Santiago City in 2004 but Anthony won as congressman, Sadly though, the Miranda family’s luck ran out in 2007. They lost due to massive vote buying, voter intimidation and vote rigging of their opponents. Their opponents have put vote buying stations early on during the campaign but the Mirandas never did. While the Mirandas have in fact bodyguards, they never hired goons. In fact while their opponents are using goons and committed murder, and cheated their way to the final canvassing of ballots, the Mirandas never did try to cheat in any way during the 2007 elections. I know this for a fact, I was there.

They lost the elections. But they lost the elections gracefully. And nope, I don’t have anything invested in this. I’m not a voter in his district. I don’t know how honestly he performed his job when he was congressman, but I know he honestly campaigned and never tried to cheat during the 2007 elections. And for that, my hats off to the Miranda family, especially to Anthony. And may you have better luck this coming 2010 election.