MY last good memory of this 2022 election was the photo of Leni Gerona Robredo, standing in line to vote. To non-Bikolanos, the public school where her precinct was located looked similar to the other voting places—nondescript, low-roofed buildings, unused for some two years because of the pandemic. But journalists both local and foreign noted how she became once more this ordinary citizen, dressed in a blue, simple blouse, demanding no privilege at all.
And yet, Magarao hides its expanse. It spreads to the west and reaches a tributary of the Bikol River, where the water is deeper. Out there, the epic,comes alive with Ponong, where the three-necked monster resides. Are these the other smaller bodies of water flowing from the main one and traveling back to the land?, which uses coconut oil in abundance in the area. This is also the town of the famed poet, Luis Cabalquinto, New York-based now but still engaged in many local cultural projects.
But fate can play tricks upon us. If the science of politics can be seen as a game, then can we aspire to a miracle when events do not turn out in our favor? Can the supernatural be categorized as strategy? Online, there were splendid photos of the sky at dusk the day before the election. The haze of the horizon had by then produced the gentlest of pink, the clouds were old roses. The grays were on the lower part of the sky, down where the mountain ranges began. People were divining the universe, anything at all to bring change.