Another dire scenario

Any certificate duly issued and signed simply means that the person issuing and signing it attests to the truth and correctness of its contents. So in order that it can be accepted and used for the purpose it is issued, only the authenticity or genuineness of the signature of the person issuing it must be determined or established. This is the basic principle applicable to all kinds of certificates including the Certificates of Canvass (COCs) issued by the Boards of Canvassers of Provinces and Cities (BOCs) throughout the Philippines that Congress will use in tabulating the votes for President and Vice President for the purpose of proclaiming the winners.

It is not the function of Congress as the canvassing board to look beyond the COCs and find out whether the returns tallied by the BOCs reflect the correct number of votes cast in the respective precincts or whether the counting machines have been tampered with or manipulated to favor certain candidates. The primary role of Congress here is simply to sort out the COCs, set aside the ones which do not appear to be genuine on their face and tabulate the rest. If after tabulation of the genuine COCs, a winner can already be proclaimed as the questionable ones will not materially affect the results, Congress should immediately proclaim the winners.

Any and all contests relating to the manner and conduct of the election, the correctness and accuracy of the returns and whether the President or Vice President should be disqualified for election-related offenses, is not within the jurisdiction of Congress but of the Supreme Court as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

It is not necessary for Congress or the joint canvassing committee it has created, to look into the various exposes and revelations coming out now regarding the possible manipulations of the machines allegedly done to alter the outcome. As a canvassing body, Congress is not required to find out whether Smartmatic has fully and duly complied with its obligations in the automation of our election last May 10, 2010. Neither should Congress examine the compact flash or memory cards of the PCOS machines or open a predetermined number of ballot boxes, read the ballots and count the votes. These are functions of the PET as the sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns and qualifications of the President and Vice President.

If at all, the only additional function of Congress as Canvassing body under an automated election system is to determine whether a random manual audit (RMA) has been conducted in one precinct per congressional district randomly chosen by the COMELEC in each province and city (Section 29, R.A. 9369). For this purpose it can simply require the submission of the results of the RMA or the holding of an RMA if none has been made pursuant to law before tabulating the corresponding COCs.

Therefore, the current developments and moves unfolding in Congress acting as a Canvassing Board not only run counter to its Constitutional mandate but also indicate that something fishy is going on. Somehow the “no proclamation” (no proc) scenario keeps on recurring in the minds of many people. The plot seems to be thicker and deeper than meets the eye. It revives the lingering fear and suspicion revolving around the previous failure of election plot (no-el) to prolong the stay in Malacanang of its present occupant. This time it is “no proc”, no longer “no-el”.

It will be recalled that about one week before the election, Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Norberto Gonzales came out with a report of alleged bribe offers to COMELEC officials and to some military officers in exchange for assistance to two presidential candidates. Now revelations are coming out about certain person or groups including some COMELEC officials approaching losing candidates or their representatives offering to rig the elections in their favor for very valuable considerations. These two revelations have one thing in common: they tend to cast doubt on the COMELEC’s credibility and/or put it in a bad light.

With the COMELEC’s credibility shattered, and the “no-el” plot no longer feasible, the “no proc” scenario comes into the picture. Under this scenario, the elections will push through and the results will be more or less true and correct as they are in accordance with the peoples’ preference based on poll opinion surveys. The plotters believe that in view of the almost overwhelming sentiments of the voters, they could no longer manipulate the outcome to favor their candidates for President and Vice President. So they will just allow the favored ones to really emerge as the apparent winners. This time the results are more or less accurate but they are still placed under a cloud of doubt because of the utter lack of credibility of the very government agency that produced and reported such results.

Actually this emerging scenario looms larger because of the reported glitches in the Smartmatic machines and the many other loopholes in the automated election system that some IT experts are now pointing out. Had all these glitches been properly and timely remedied by COMELEC and Smartmatic, and the loopholes plugged by strictly following the procedure under the AES particularly the RMA, the proclamation proceedings now happening in Congress would have been less stormy and more expeditious and smooth.

Of course, some will say this scenario is just pure speculation and the product of fertile or wild imagination arising out of fear or paranoia. Lessons of the past however have shown that in this country we should expect the unexpected. So we should be more vigilant. Ultimately however all these speculations and wild imagination will be erased and ended if Congress should not dilly-dally anymore, immediately proceed with its canvass and proclaim the winners ASAP. 

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