The Nellie Banaag Elementary School of 2008, Taysan, Batangas

On this site, the ashes of all of our folly, will rise the Nellie Banaag Elementary School, a monument of the bravery of ordinary folks everywhere, of schoolteacher Nellie Banaag and pollwatcher Leticia Ramos, and a testament to the insatiable greed for power of the few who rule this country (photo from ops.gov.ph) and know no bounds, no law, not even the sacredness of life. The five armed men, two now identified as members of the PNP Calabarzon Regional Special Operations Group, who barged into the schoolhouse, could just have snatched the ballot boxes, it was what they were after, a failure of elections, as they poured gasoline on the ballot boxes first. But they didn’t do just that, they torched the entire place. Because teachers, pollwatchers, ordinary toiling men and women in this country, have been known to fight off tanks, bulldozers, armed goons, when their lives, homes, and liberties are being taken away.

A witness said the armed thugs blocked the doors with tables to stop everybody from escaping (ANC interview, Ces Drilon). The SOCO-Rizal team that examined the charred remains of Nellie Banaag and Leticia Ramos found soot particles in their respiratory tracts, concluding that the cause of death was smoke inhalation, the particles in their air passageway — evidence that they were still breathing while the fire engulfed them, or that they were burned alive (ANC interview). The Inquirer reported that the President was tearful as she walked with the principal on the pathway leading to the burnt classrooms.

The Nellie Banaag Elementary School is a reminder of that guilt, the guilt of all of those who had the means to modernize the electoral system in this country with the use of computers, fiber optics/ satellite/ electromagnetic waves, a technology that had been made available to us for more than a decade now, two presidents ago; the President never bothered, no president ever bothered, when she/ they had the time, no one cared about the plight and safety of schoolteachers, least of all her, preoccupied in 2004 with making intermittent phonecalls to her pet Comelec commissioner to bag her one million.

The day after her reported tearful visit, she announced that computerization of the elections would be a priority of her administration.

The Nellie Banaag Elementary School, every schoolhouse, every broken classroom, every rusty and fractured ballot box, is a symbol of abandoned promises and orphaned dreams, as we continue to plod our way and consent to this government, as we continue to hope without seeing, believe without learning: when will we ever decide to take the next step?