Photo Gallery

November 9, 2004

Embassy holds 2004 U.S. Election Watch
in Manila, Cebu and Davao on Nov. 3

Hundreds of Filipino and American guests attended the 2004 U.S. Elections Watch held at the U.S. Embassy ballroom in Manila (top photo), the Marriott Hotel in Cebu City (two photos on left) and the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City (below) on November 3. The event gave the Philippine public in the three cities an opportunity to monitor the ongoing vote count in the U.S., cast their votes for President Bush or Senator Kerry in a mock election, and discuss with Embassy officials their questions about the U.S. elections.

		U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone (above) welcomes guests to the election watch in the Embassy in Manila, while Deputy Chief of Mission Joseph Mussomeli (left) opens the event in Cebu City, and U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Counselor Ronald Post (lower photo) answers questions from the media in Davao City.

In Manila, guests included Philippine Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos (above, on the Ambassador’s left) and other COMELEC Commissioners. Additional guests included Senator Pia Cayetano and Congressman Alan Peter Cayetano (above right photo), Cavite Governor Ereneo Maliksi and Senator Alfredo Lim (photo on right), Far Eastern University students, Manila Mayor Lito Atienza and former Manila councilor Kim Atienza (middle photo below),and American businessmen John March Thomson and brother John Thomson.

	Deputy Chief of Mission Joe Mussomeli greets (photo above:) SM City Cebu Vice President Marissa Fernan, Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia, and Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia. He also discussed the elections with students from Cebu’s St. Scholastica School (photo left). American Consular Agent John Domingo (in white shirt below) and former Cebu governor Lito Osmeña (in red shirt below) joined Mr. Mussomeli at the event.

 

	Ambassador Ricciardone casts his vote in a mock election, a feature of the events in all three venues of the election watch, where guests voted either through a ballot or by a computer. Senator Kerry won in Manila, but large margins of votes in Cebu and Davao gave President Bush the overall victory in the mock polls.

	Guests from all over the Philippines participated in the election watch events. A Muslim woman casts her vote via a computer in the mock election at the U.S. Embassy in Manila.

Ambassador Ricciardone (photos on left) and Ms. Lyssa Taganas (right, photo below) of the Embassy’s Public Affairs Section pose with crews of some of American food and beverage establishments who sponsored the events in Manila, Cebu and Davao.

	Clockwise from left: Deputy Chief of Mission Joe Mussomeli talks to the media in Cebu; ANC 21 broadcaster David Celdran provides updates of the elections from the Embassy in Manila; Cultural Affairs Officer Bruce Armstrong shows a special election watch t-shirt at stake in a “trivia question” contest in Cebu; DXOW announcer Sonny Joaquin receives a prize shirt from Deputy Economic Counselor Cleveland Charles; a student casts her vote in the mock polls at the Embassy; and Thomas Jefferson Information Center staffers in Manila preside over a table of reference and handout materials on the elections.

 

 

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