Duty and Context of Remembering

For former Ambassador Henrietta de Villa, the snapshot of images from the May 26 special polls in Lanao del Sur remains clear in her memory, kept alive by a conscious telling and retelling and one that she returns to constantly like a pilgrimage in her mind. “Sample ballots strewn like carpet on the floor, secrecy folders thrown to the winds, wads of envelopes with money brazenly handed to voters, youngsters of 16 and 17 casting ballots.”

It is with a voice of passion and quiet restraint that De Villa, chair of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting PCRV), recounts in a dream-like sequence the images that still sear her memory. “And oh, the pandemonium, shouting, pushing, fist fights inside the polling precincts, gunshots.”