Wiretap’s wakeup call: poll reforms

"The irony of it!" former Comelec chair Harriet Demetriou reportedly chuckled after listening to the "Gloria-gate" wiretap tape. In it, a man called "Senator" phoned a man called "Commissioner", supposedly at 10 p.m. of May 26, 2004. "Senator" related that Comelec field men had offered to rig, for P2 million, certain Mindanao canvasses of the May 10 election. "Commissioner" promised to check their reliability first. Several follow-ups were made by "Senator". At 1:39 p.m. of June 3, he phoned "Commissioner" again to beg for at least 70,000 votes to beat a certain "Biazon": "Sige na, pare, patotohanin mo na. Wala nang pag-asa ‘yan. Kung ano mang konsiderasyon, sabihin mo na lang sa akin. Pare, pakisuyo lang, pakitapos na lang, para ‘yun na lang alalahanin ko sa ‘yo. Pero marami pang natitira; puwede pang dagdag, e, ha?" On June 4, "Commissioner" instructed "Senator" to deliver P2 million to his executive secretary at the Comelec, a certain "Ellen Peralta".

Demetriou apparently believed it was the voices of ex-commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and ex-senator Robert Barbers she heard. She proceeded to narrate the juicy ironic twists.

Sometime in early 1999, Demetriou recalled, Barbers phoned to decry Garcillano’s participation in "fraudulent activities" during the 1998 election. She had just been confirmed Comelec chief by the Congress Commission on Appointments, and Garcillano was the long-reigning director for Northern Mindanao. Barbers had run and won for senator, his son Ace and mother Regina for congressman and governor, respectively, of Surigao del Norte, and another son Robert Jr. for councilor of Manila. Regina lost, and Barbers blamed it on Garcillano. Demetriou ordered him back to the head office for a confrontation. Garcillano vehemently denied any scam. Demetriou asked if Barbers wished to press charges to pave the way for formal investigation. "Huwag na lang," she quoted him as sulking. After the senator left, Demetriou said, she grilled Garcillano anew, and the latter reiterated his alibis. "I glowered at him," the feisty ex-judge recounted, "Huwag kang loko-loko, Garcillano. Tandaan mo, kung totoo ito, ipakukulong kita."

Garcillano has denied it was him in the wiretap tape, and so has Ace for his dad. But it hasn’t diminished common knowledge that dagdag-bawas (vote padding-shaving) thrives. Worse than that, politicians alternately condemn and condone it.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel had led the opposition to Garcillano’s promotion to commissioner just before the 2004 balloting. To this day he avers personal knowledge of the man’s cheating for the highest bidders, particularly as Mindanao officer in 1995, when Pimentel won by the skin of his teeth. And yet, Pimentel, a former law school dean, has not filed appropriate charges. Stranger still is the revelation of his Commission on Appointments secretary Eddie Tamondong when Pimentel was Senate President in 1999. The aide recalls being called one day to the boss’ office, where he saw Garcillano. Pimentel instructed him to prepare Garcillano’s papers, for he would recommend to then-President Joseph Estrada his nomination as Comelec commissioner. Aware of Pimentel’s keen interest, Tamondong promised Garcillano speedy work for the very post that his ex-boss now opposes.

Presidential and senatorial bids are won and lost with dagdag-bawas, mostly in Mindanao. The cheating involves not only greedy Comelec men but also weak-willed police-military generals. Canvasses for entire towns are altered to give paying candidates hundreds of thousands of fake votes, deducted from the honest or the cheapskate. Contending parties do it, accounting for 10 percent of the vote. In senatorial runs, party mates may do it to each other.

The authenticity of the wiretap tape may still be in question. But it nonetheless has brought to fore once more the need to reform the voting system – to prevent any more thwarting of the electorate’s will. Former national security adviser Jose Almonte says many things need to be fixed in the Philippines, but electoral reform must come first. More so since the 2007 balloting is just around the corner.

To avert large-scale fraud, the Comelec once and for all must automate the balloting and counting. The Supreme Court had voided the contract for such before the 2004 polls, but only because it was rigged. The Solicitor General has yet to recover the more than P1.3 billion already paid out by the Comelec. The balloting-counting machines are gathering dust in Comelec warehouses. Authorities must decide soon whether to use them, or have Congress appropriate new funds for later-model equipment.

Automation is expensive. But no cost can compare with the price of democracy, which begins and ends with the people choosing their own leaders. Alongside automation, stricter law enforcement is needed against vote buying, electioneering, coercion, and overspending. Awaiting passage by Congress too are parallel bills filed by Speaker Jose de Venecia and Sen. Edgardo Angara. One would prohibit turncoats by barring candidates from switching parties within a year before and after an election; another would give fund subsidies to qualified parties. Still lacking are laws against political dynasties, and for the breakup of large electoral districts – both of which would entice newcomers to aspire for public office.

Still other reforms are being mulled, but no one seems to be moving.

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They’ve interviewed many eyewitnesses and traced the getaway car’s owner. Yet the police is "having a hard time" identifying the killer of television director Luis Santiago in a Makati bar last week. Is it because the gunman is the son of a former Cabinet member?

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