EDITORIAL - Preventing another 'Hello, Garci'

With just 15 months to go, preparations should be in full swing for the general elections next year. After the still unresolved “Hello, Garci” vote-rigging scandal, and the questions raised over the results of the senatorial race in 2007, every effort must be made to ensure that there will be no doubt about the legitimacy of the mandate of the next president.

The other day Malacañang announced the appointment of Marawi City prosecutor Elias Yusoph to the Commission on Elections, filling the last vacancy in the poll body. The appointment reportedly caught Comelec Chairman Jose Melo by surprise, although he reserved comment on the qualifications of Yusoph, who was a member of the Comelec board of canvassers in Marawi during the 2004 elections. That assignment has triggered alarm bells in Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who heads the Senate contingent in the Commission on Appointments. Lacson said he was checking whether Yusoph had links with former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

Whatever the action of the CA on Yusoph’s appointment, the commission should decide quickly so that a replacement can be named in case of a rejection. Though Melo has said the Comelec can function with just five commissioners and a chairman, the workload will still be easier if a sixth commissioner is installed. There is still a lot of work ahead to ensure the integrity and orderliness of the 2010 elections. Voters’ lists must be cleaned up within the limited time and resources. The government is rushing to push through with poll automation, but the way things are shaping up, the best that can be accomplished is partial automation, which means ballots will still be used in some parts of the country in May 2010.

This brings us to another key concern: the selection of a new head of the National Printing Office. Malacañang has backed off — for now — from installing retired Navy Vice Admiral Tirso Danga as head of the office that produces ballots. Danga headed the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines during the 2004 elections when ISAFP agents allegedly tapped phone conversations between a man suspected to be Garcillano and a woman believed to be President Arroyo.

That scandal remains unresolved, but the nation has seen the damage that accusations of vote-rigging in the presidential race can do to the nation. By now all concerned sectors should be working in earnest to ensure that the next general elections will not be marred by a similar scandal.