Hold That Cup!

(original post from karenderya.tumblr.com)

I don’t exactly know how 7-11 is coming up with the survey rating of the most sold presidentiable cups. You see, this convenience store chain, in cooperation with GMA 7, has joined the election fever by getting the pulse of their consumers on who’s their presidential bet for the May 2010 elections by having their Gulp cups printed with the faces of the presidentiables. They will be counting who’s the candidate with the most number of sold cups.

Each week, they update their scoreboard with how the sales are going and who’s face got the most sold cups. But what bothers me is that, Perlas, Villanueva, delos Reyes and Madrigal and even those who abstain share one cup—with all their faces printed on it. How do the 7-11 guys count it? And surprisingly, the four folks I’ve mentioned actually have sales percentages in the convenience store’s tally.Hmmm.

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I went to Landmark Makati earlier to buy a purple shirt for a dress up thingy at work. But since I wasn’t able to find a purple shirt that i wanted, I ended up buying a white shirt and a purple shawl. i just realized how regal the color purple is. But then I digress.

On my way to the Ayala-Pateros queue infront of Landmark, I decided to drop by the Food Court because I was craving for something cold to drink. I saw someone holding a cup of Fruitas so right then I knew what I was going to buy. So i headed to look for their stall. It was a task to do because their stall was quite hidden by the Bibingkahan and other bigger stalls but then I was able to find it anyway. I was glad when I saw they have avocado, which is not always in season unlike mango and banana, so immediately I ordered 16oz. When it was done, I paid and the vendor handed me the cup.

I noticed that the face printed on it was Villar’s, with the orange background. By the way, did I mention that this fruit shake chain was doing the same thing as 711? Yes, they too have it. So I politely ask the vendor to change the cup because I wasn’t rooting for Villar and that he did not ask me whose cup I wanted to have. He replied by saying, “di po pwede mam kasi nalagyan na…” to which I retorted back, “eh di mo naman ako tinanong kung kaninong cup yung gusto ko eh”. But then I knew I was fighting for a senseless battle so I just told him, “naku, Im gonna blog about this and I’m gonna tell that your survey is rigged naman pala”.

Hence this blog.

I just think, that this may seem trivial but I think it holds truth about how we run things in this country. And until we consumers and voters become fed up and decide to cease from being passive and do something about it, it will continue and become part of our culture-- legal because we do it with our permission.