EDITORIAL - Uncovering the truth

With formal charges filed in court against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and several others including former governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former election supervisor Lintang Bedol, the nation should be able to know the truth about the midterm elections in 2007. Specifically, the nation deserves to know the truth about the vote in Maguindanao, which Bedol claimed he rigged in favor of administration candidates for the Senate.

Apart from uncovering the truth, the nation must see to it that measures will be in place to eradicate cheating in Philippine elections. Every electoral exercise in this country has been marred by allegations of fraud. Many of the accusations have turned out to be true. In the general elections last year, full poll automation allowed the results to be known just hours after the polling centers closed. Automation also apparently precluded the old methods of tampering with the vote, including snatching ballot boxes and replacing their contents, and manipulating election returns as Bedol claims he did.

Even the automated system, however, had its glitches. With the next midterm elections just a year and a half away, the Commission on Elections has yet to decide if it would use the same automated system nationwide or pick a different one. The process, as the Comelec learned in its first foray into full poll automation, can take many months, from bidding to testing and printing of ballots and the distribution of election paraphernalia. Stringent preparations are also needed to prevent tampering with the results. The notorious vote shaving and padding operation or dagdag-bawas used to take place when the votes were manually tallied.

Agencies tasked to maintain peace and order, for their part, must prepare to minimize if not completely stop election-related violence. Filipinos should stop seeing violence as a normal part of elections, and cheating as inevitable. Uncovering the truth about the 2007 vote should be a good step in cleaning up the nation’s electoral process.