Live Video Streaming for Security: Definitely Good but could Get Worst

COMELEC is going to ask the help of the public to secure the most complicated elections ever. Instead of letting people watch in person the printing process, they will provide live streaming. This simply means security will be given to those who have crazy enough to stay in front of the computer for hours. COMELEC is going to stream their 26 CCTV monitors (16 already installed and 10 more coming). Although no one knows when the live feed will be implemented, we'll be there when it happens.

This is definitely a plus for COMELEC and everyone else. We're going to get a good glimpse how the government is actually spending our hard earned taxes on something sophisticated. They could have chosen some security personnel but they might be paid off. If they stream this online, everyone can monitor how things are done.

Call me a pessimist but I feel some trouble brewing from these services. Unfortunately, the last thing I would rely when it comes to technology is the government. I'm sorry but they are not that advanced when it comes to technology. A good example is their websites. There are moments that these sites are down while others are just plain ridiculous.

Streaming videos for everyone to see requires money - a lot of money. There is a big possibility that the streaming will eventually crash and they might do something with the ballots while everyone is wondering what happened. This can easily become a scapegoat. COMELEC can just say, "no we didn't tamper the ballots. You were there watching in video streaming remember?"

It's a bold move for COMELEC but can be a sacrificial lamb to make the polls look clean. I just hope their live streaming is as efficient as the Big Brother shows online.

Drugs and Election: A Dangerous and Deadly Combination

Drugs and Election: A Dangerous and Deadly Combination

Before reading the article, here are my references:

QTV News Bit: http://www.gmanews.tv/largevideo/latest/55251/qtv-pdea-illegal-drug-trade-may-be-funding-election-campaigns

Sunstar News: http://67.225.139.201/network/pdea-told-intensify-drive-vs-illegal-drugs-219-pm

The fact that someone is trying to bring in massive amount of drugs during the election period scares me. The drugs that were tried to be sold or distributed in Eastern Samar is not just your walk in the park drugs - the content should be more than enough to fund a congressional campaign.

Friends, welcome to the dark side of the election. Aside from from killing your political opponent to win, this is probably the next worst thing a candidate can do. Selling drugs so that it can be used to print paraphernalia that only tarnish the parks, fool voters that they're godsend, spend millions on crazy tunes and pay people to vote for them is just plain dangerous to the country. The politicians selling drugs are not just eliminating one or two persons to win, the candidate is eliminating the community so that they can win. The term "narco-politics" is just a bad idea.

This incident should give the COMELEC and everyone else a wake-up call to do their job.

For the COMELEC: please, please do your job. The people are not asking you to grow wings and fly. We just want everything to be clear during the elections. It would also be nice to whip those candidates that allow their local campaign mangers to place posters anywhere. Your "OPLANS" and "Operations" to remove the eyesore is not really working well.

For the Political Candidates: if you're planning to sell drugs so that you'll have some campaign funds, I will not just wish for you to lose but also to go in jail. It doesn't even matter if you're one of the most powerful person in the country - you are no more than a crooked criminal with a slightly better clothing.

For the Voting Public: this gives me another reason why you should take the money and don't vote for the candidate that gave you that money. The money is already there so take it and note that the candidate is a scumbag who might have sold some drugs for vote buying. If you don't vote for the candidate but got their money, they will lose not only the election but lose big because the money they have spent didn't have any results.

For the Law Enforcement Officers: Kudos for the embargo but we want more - catch the guys behind the shipment and let them rot in jail.

A Look at the Senatorial Candidate's Website (Part 2)

We continue to look at the senatorial candidate's official websites. In this blog the hotseat will be on Franklin Drilon, Teofisto Guingona III, Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Guico.

Franklin Drilon (http://frankahan.com)

Information 5: This is a very personal site for Senator Drilon because it's a basic blog with a unique platform. He has so many things to say about various topics and he doesn't hold anything if he has some problems with some issues.

Interaction 3: Not much to do except to read the site and comment on his blogs.

Aesthetics 5: The best blog website I've seen so far. The iPhone like slides regarding his latest blogs is ingenious. You'll most likely browse through his articles and read what he has to say about various issues.

Highly personal, it's a recommended site for those who loves politics.

Juan Ponce Enrile: (http://www.jpenrile.com/)

Information: 5 - Everything you need to know about the very popular Senator is in this site. The site is not just on his previous roles as a senator but even when he is not part of the legislative branch of the country.

Interaction 2: Although the only interaction with has soem extra "forum" someone got the format wrong. A forum is composed of topics where every exchange opinion. The forum part of the site looks like a message board.

Aesthetics: 4 - The website background featuring his name in italics, official website and crimson red color is very unique. This really shows creativity on the site although that's the only thing that looks great in the site.

Pretty generic but well thought out although the forum in the site is a bit awkward.

Jinggoy Estrada: (http://www.senjinggoyestrada.com)

Information: 4 - There are so many things that you can read in the site but it's not updated. The "Jinggoy Speaks" page has very limited entry. Last entry in this part of the page was still in 2008.

Interaction: 2 - I may have missed it but there's no outside links that connects to various social networking sites. This is quite odd because most national candidates want to connect to Twitter, Facebook or Friendster.

Aesthetics: 3 - It's very generic and the borders are too wide. The green background will make you think you are visiting a boring website that didn't had a lot of changes.

The website is very generic and not updated compared to current candidates. Somebody do something about this site.

Ramon Guico (http://www.ramonguico.com/)

Information: 4 - because Ramon Guico is jumping from local to national scene, he has to use the internet to get his message across. Fortunately, he has provided enough information for those who wanted to consider him as part of their 12 senators. Photos and videos are not extensive but good enough. It's very good but the articles are not updated.

Interaction: 5 - Facebook, Friendster and other social websites are linked to this site. There's even a poll in the site where you can vote. There's even an area where you can sign up for the newsletter.

Aestehtics: 5 - The design looks great. Although not as great compared to Franklin Drilon, it's well thought out and time was spent designing the page.

Informative, the site offers a lot of things to first time users. They just need to update the articles for us to know more about the candidate.

Teofisto Guingona III (http://tgguingona.com/)

Information: 3 - Note to candidates: If you add a "blog" or any link to the page for unique information, make sure there's something in it for the readers. Mr. Guingona's site looks great but his profile is not extensive.

Interaction: 4 - links to outside sites and multimedia is very impressive in this site. Photostream and even tag cloud is in the site so that you'll know which topics are extensively discussed.

Aesthetics: 5 - The design is easy to understand and doesn't have that standard blog platform (like this site).

Great looking site but lacks additional information. Remove the blog or at least fill some articles on that part of the site.

Stay tuned for the next episode!