Miriam Grace Go

BAGUIO, Philippines – Students in Baguio are hoping for a more livable city, but they have a rather long checklist of problems for the local government to tackle before things get better.

For political clans that dominate local politics, the tactics to keep the capitol, the seat of power for local political kingpins, are almost the same nationwide. Sitting governors seek reelection and max out the allowable three terms for a total of nine years. If they are not seeking reelection, they are swapping positions with their relatives or are running for higher or lower positions.

First things first: The number of views and likes on the official YouTube channel of The Voice USA does not always translate to actual votes. If we go by social media metrics alone, Filipino contestant Sofronio Vasquez would be the runaway winner. His six-digit views and thousands of likes are several times that of his closest rival among the other four top contenders — that would be teenager Shye, fellow team member under swing/standards star Michael Bublé.