Dick Gordon: 'Failure not an option'

You can imagine the consternation and embarrassment, but, would you believe, continued optimism is what Sen. Richard “Dick” Gordon is experiencing right now. His victorious battle to have the automated election law passed is marred by the glitch — or strange behavior — of the PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machines subjected to testing in several parts of the country. Some candidates for local posts have angrily protested that their names were not reflected in the ballots coming out of the PCOS machines, but the names of their rivals did. It’s no fault of the machines, however.

As Smartmatic president for Asia-Pacific Cesar Flores explained at a televised press conference, the technical error can be solved by replacing the four gigabyte compact flash CF0 memory cards installed in all the PCOS machines assigned to each of the 76,000 polling precincts in the country. No need to panic, he assured apprehensive viewers, including this columnist. There is enough time to change the flash cards and testing for all the PCOS machines to be used on May 10.

So we keep our fingers crossed, and, of course, pray that all will be well as we troop to the voting precincts and cast our ballots on Monday — by automated voting.

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 How does he feel about this development, I asked Dick by telephone during a break in a meeting with factory workers in a Metro Manila suburb. The fiery senator (though quite likeable if you get to know him) said, “Failure is not an option”. He had already been asked questions on the credibility of the PCOS machines.

“Focus and get to work. If it is necessary to move the election date by a week to ensure reliability of the machines, then do it. Work on the solution.”

“These are tough decisions but they have to be made. Any CEO knows that problems arise at the last minute but panic is pointless because it does not solve the problem.”

“I hate to say ‘I told you so’ but that seems to be the case. I pushed for partial automation as proof of concept from the time we started committee hearings in 2005 until 2007, and if we had done so in May 2007 in two provinces and two cities as required by the law, or even during the barangay elections in October 2007, we would have caught these glitches sooner.”

But in the Senate, he said, “I was practically alone in my advocacy.”

The Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the automation law in December 2006, and the law was passed in January 2007. No pilot test of automation was done until the ARMM elections in August 2008.

“All that is in the past. Now we need to fix the problem, not fix the blame. I’m calling on the Comelec, the automation Advisory Council, and Smartmatic to step up to the plate. Stay the course, solve the problem. Failure is not an option.”

The senator sees that with the automated election system, he hopes “to leave our people with elections that are clean honest, fair and credible.”

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 My heart goes out to Dick, a long-time friend, who is running for president of the Republic under the banner of the Bagumbayan Party. He is so qualified to lead this country, considering his administrative and legislative experiences. He likes to say that with the help of his kababayans, Olongapo City was rebuilt from the ashes spewed by Mt. Pinatubo, and turned Subic Bay into the country’s showcase for economic progress, bringing in billions in investments, and creating 100,000 jobs. World leaders like Margaret Thatcher, Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, US President Clinton and other 18 APEC heads of economies who went to Subic for the 4th Leaders’ Summit, saw the miraculous transformation of the former US military installation.

As tourism secretary, Dick kept the tourism industry afloat with his “Wow Philippines” campaign. As Philippine National Red Cross chair and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, he has helped victims of calamities rise from their sad plight.

As supporters see him, “Senator Gordon is a leader with a vision for the future of his people, and a clear strategy to get them there. He is a leader who has made change, and change for the better. He has brought dignity and hope to his people and motivated and inspired others to go in the right direction. In everything he has done, he has seen for his people a new country — a Bagumbayan.”

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On another front, you must have seen Ramon “Mon-mon” Mitra on television — a fairer version of his late father, Ramon “Monching” Mitra, who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Mon-mon trained to be a soldier at the Philippine Military Academy, graduating as a member of Maringal Class of 1988, then served as a captain in the Philippine Marine Corps.

 Mitra the son, 46, lives by the tenet that if one treats all Filipinos like heroes, one becomes a hero too. If elected to the Senate on Monday, he would like to lead, and be inspired, by the 90 million Filipino heroes.

Having served as a director of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC), he is convinced that his program of action prioritizes providing people with cheap and clean energy with the expansion of jathropa plantations for processing into bio-ethanol, and exploiting local sources of energy like biothermal, wind, solar, gas-fired and hydro-powered plants. He also wants to put in place agricultural modernization projects.

As a soldier awarded the Distinguished Conduct Star for gallantry, he says he will carry the fight to bring lasting peace, “but this time not through military force but through the legislative process.” He will bring that “rightful fight to the halls of Congress because I believe every Filipino deserves a peaceful sleep every night and peaceful mornings thereafter.”

Above all, change can come about with “less talk, more action,” he says.

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