Automated Election: Good or Bad?

Philippines will be holding an election on May 2010, which will be the most expensive for our country because of the automated elections which uses machines instead of the paper and pen type of voting.
There are lot of problems that we have to deal with on this automated election thing.

First is the COMELEC are still cleaning the old registry and listing up new and returning voters, but the rough estimate is that there will be more than 40 million ready to cast their vote on May 2010. Secondly, the time of the teachers who will guard the machines. They have to undergo orientations to practice the new procedure and it takes time. According to DepEd, teachers are not yet ready for using the counting machines.
Third, are these machines can ensure clean voting? accurate?
Fourth, is this easy to use because we all know that not all voters especially in the rural areas knew how to use computers.In some parts of the Philippines, there are many voters who have not seen even a typewriter, much less used a computer.In the name of automation, they now have to deal with a new-fangled machine. Even in the filling out of Lotto bet cards and in the similar shade-the-circle answering mode in college admission tests, many lottery and test cards still get invalidated. Will the computerized voting procedure be any easier?
Fifth would be the financial problems. These machines costs big prices. As I've heard, it costs less than 7 billion and 7 billion is a big money. There are many projects that we can use of it; in education, food and shelters, poor.
There would be more problems but I'll focus on the major problems.
As you can see, I'm not that "yes" on these automated election thing. I'm not saying that this is bad, what i want to say is when you decide on something, think twice; the positive and negative effects and what would be the contributions of that decision in the country, society and in the people.

ISLAND OF SIQUIJOR ESCAPADE!

Last summer, my family decided to go to Siquijor; hometown of my father. My brothers and sisters got very excited because we've never been there before even if it's the hometown of my father and we have never meet the relatives of my father. So when my parents decided to go there, we're very glad. We woke up at dawn and rode the bus together with my aunt and uncles via Ozamiz. We we have our pack lunch at the boat and it's very relaxing. It's just a day trip so not so scary.(hehe)While at the boat, i can now see the beauty of the island upon arriving. The white sand beaches, the massive acacia trees, the mountains, the clear waters, it's just perfect. As I've learned, Siquijor is the magical and mystical island of the Philippines used to be part of Negros Oriental. Siquijor is said to have magic potions, shamans, sorceres, and witches and a lot of filipinos will not stay overnight in the island because of this superstition. For me, i have no worries because my father is from Siquijor and a person will not be bewitch as long as you'll not do any fool things to the place and the people. It just makes my trip more exciting.
We arrived in Siquijor around 5:00 pm, my uncle accompanied us to their home, to the town of my father and frankly, as we arrived there, i realized that i came from a big family. It's my first time to see my aunts and uncles, my cousins, relatives in the side of my father so normally, me and my siblings were quite. We kiss the hand of my aunts and uncles and they kissed us back asking us their names. I was very blissful at that moment.We almost slept over because of the non-stop talks and laughs.
At the morning, it was very invigorating, so cold. It was fiesta, so we attend mass at the San Antonio Chapel then after the mass, eat, eat, eat. In our third day, we went in Salagdoong beach resort, a perfect resort found in Maria, Siquijor. Crystal clear beaches, white sand, the sceneries, it's exquisite. On our fourth day, we went in the simbahan ng Lazi, the oldest church in Siquijor and in the front of simbahan ng lazi is the old convent. I missed Siquijor, I missed my relatives, the beaches. Our stay in Siquijor was very remarkable, hope i can go there again.