By RIZAL S. OBANIL
He woke at 4:30 a.m., took around an hour to prepare himself unassisted, despite his condition, then took a 20-minute grueling hike to the polling precinct just so he can exercise a sacred right that many take for granted.
What’s more is that he hasn’t missed exercising his right to suffrage since turning 18, some 20 years ago.
Do you still have an excuse not to vote?
He is Pastor Sanchez, now 38, a registered voter at precinct no. 5329A, 5330A, 5330A of Ramon Magsaysay Cubao High School, a part-time poll watcher and full-time cook for an eatery which he owns and manages in New Orleans Street, Barangay Pinagkaisahan, Cubao, QC.
“Dapat hindi maging tamad, dahil para naman ‘to sa ikaaayos at ikauunlad ng barangay,” Sanchez says candidly without the preachy tone.
Sanchez’ condition, he narrates is inborn. His two legs are bent inwards forming a C-shape which makes it very difficult for him to walk.
Still, despite his condition, Ana Marie Mahayag, Sanchez’ neighbor and fellow poll watcher say that her friend never misses an election.
“He has never missed voting for any election ever since he was allowed to vote,” Mahayag said in Filipino.
Sanchez says that it is partly because of supportive friends and relatives that he does not find it too difficult to exercise a right which many would not avail of out of sheer laziness or worse apathy.
“Hindi porke’t PWD ka wala ka nang magagawa,” Sanchez says he believes in this and this is sort of a code which he tries to live by.
In fact, despite his condition, he has actually helped send his nephews and nieces to school, many of which have already earned degrees.
He says that he earns a living by managing his eatery in Cubao which earns around 2,000 on a good day depending on the amount of capital they put in.
Aside from supportive friends and relatives, it has been very helpful he says that nowadays all the PWDs and senior citizens have been assigned to polling precincts that are located on the first floor so they don’t have to climb the stairs to cast their vote.
Curiously, despite actually voting on the first floor Sanchez after granting an interview, he has to actually negotiate the same hurdle, the stairwell, as he is currently watching for a local candidate.
Sanchez says that someday he hopes that polling precincts will be more accommodating to people like them, like providing handrails and ramps that they can use to aid them in accessing areas of the school buildings that they find most challenging.
For now though, he is comforted with the fact that he has the support of neighbors like Mahayag and the friendly teachers of Ramon Magsaysay Cubao High School in exercising a right that he truly deems “sacred.”
