Manual polls? Why not borrow the US machines?

When Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) has unilaterally although not formally quit from its consortium with Smartmatic, the winning bidder for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) automated counting machines virtually threw a huge monkey wrench into the coming 2010 elections, because it just might “force” Comelec chairman Jose Melo to go back to that old, tried and very well cheated manual or “mano-mano” counting system that produced the dirtiest politicians we’ve ever got!

Chairman Melo has already begun talking of going back to the old system and this just gives me the creeps. Mind you, we’ve already tried using a computerized voting machine when the US Embassy installed a few of these machines to major cities in the country during the last US elections that produced Pres. Barrack Obama. Those machines were very simple to use and let me say it here that you have to be a complete idiot not to be able to vote through those machines.

So now the Comelec is in a quandary on what options it has left. They can either become the partner of Smartmatic . . . if that’s possible or let Smartmatic get another partner if this is not too late . . . after all, the bidding has already been won. But never should we agree for the return of the old manual counting for the simple reason that it is prone to not just simple cheating, but massive cheating and fraud and we’ve all heard this from the 2004 election scandals and we no longer want this back!

Allow me if you will to suggest that if Chairman Melo runs out of options, he can always place a call to the US Embassy and ask US Ambassador Kristie Kenney if at all, it is possible to “borrow, rent or steal” the election machines that they used in the last elections, anyway, there are no elections slated to be held in the US from now up to May. Call this suggestion farfetched or even call it stupid, but this is still a better option than returning back to the old ways. I hope Amb. Kenney would look into this.

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Last week was a busy one for Cebu, as we held the 3rd Philippine International Tourism Fair at the Marco Polo Plaza, while at the same time, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (CCCI) was having the Cebu ICT 2009 Conference and Exhibition at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC). I joined the ICT because Cebu has been dubbed by the Tholons survey as the No.1 Emerging Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) for the year 2008 and I wanted to see where we are for the year 2009. I didn’t go to the Tourism Fair because this market has already “matured”.

Last Friday, I was invited to a luncheon at the CICC with Tholons Chief Executive Officer Avinash Vashistha and Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (BPOAP) Pres. Oscar Sañez, CCCI Pres. Sammy Chioson and Boni Belen, Cebu’s foremost guru for Information Communication Technology. Cebu only joined the ICT industry in 2002 and in just a short time, you will see numerous complexes of BPO buildings in AsiaTown and many parts of Cebu City.

Avinash couldn’t give us a peek at the results of Tholons Survey for the year 2009 because they are still collating this information worldwide. But for me, it was enough for the New York based Tholons CEO to come to Cebu for the first time to a look and see what we are doing here. I’m sure that Oscar Sañez and Boni Belen gave him the full details of Cebu’s growth in the ICT Industry, while Chamber president Sammy Chioson gave him a full tour of Cebu. As for me, I just gave Avinash a little history of Cebu and the various cultures that comprise the Filipino people.

Though I didn’t join the Tourism Fair, I did join our friends from the Department of Tourism, Usec. Phineas Alburo, Usec. Edu Jarque and DOT Regional Director Aurora “Dawnee” Roa during their farewell dinner at the Marco Polo Plaza’s Grand Balcony, which to me was a great dinner show. Hans Hauri, Marco Polo’s General Manager and top honcho Rey Villar outdid themselves with a sumptuous meal and a great show to boot that gave an unforgettable entertainment to the international delegates.

Marco Polo, the co-sponsor of the dinner show brought in the Air Dance Studio under Avel Bautista who had a graceful acrobatic dance ala Cirque de Soleil and Jay Cayuca, whom I consider the greatest violinist I have ever heard. These two shows organized and directed by Cebu’s own Ritchie Mendoza brought the house down with long standing ovations, which no doubt made for an unforgettable evening. This is why I always say that our Tourism Industry has already matured, that’s because we already know how to “wow” our tourists and keep them coming back to our shores!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.