Comelec: Listen to AES Watch on 2010 polls

This week we left behind the Senate impeachment trial, which is on a week-long recess anyway and focused on the more important issue of the up and coming 2013 national or mid-term elections. Last Tuesday we targeted the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) forced upon the nation without any comprehensive tests to check its viability, reliability and above all, its dependability. In the end, as we wrote last Tuesday, I considered the PCOS machines as the mortal sin of the Comelec and gave the example of the town of Compostela, Cebu which had no elective officials for 22 months.

Then last Thursday, we asked the Comelec to consider a return to the old, tried and tested… although admittedly slow and subject to “ballot snatching” manual voting system, for the simple reason that the PCOS machines failed to do what we expected it to do anyway at a huge cost to taxpayers. So the more logical solution is to go back to the old system.

Anyway the difference today as compared to previous elections when the manual system was used, is that many people from all over the country are already on social networking or they are cellphone savvy, which means any potential goons seeking to snatch the ballot boxes can easily be identified, or even photographed and reported by alert citizens. We can even devise better ways to report any election related anomalies. Unlike the PCOS machines, which even only a few IT experts can tweak the system and the voters will never know what happened to their votes. That’s exactly what happened in the May 2010 elections that triggered a tsunami of electoral protests.

Apparently, the two articles we wrote caught the attention of Atty. Himero Jose Garcia IV, the committee secretary of the Senate Oversight Committee on Suffrage and the Committee on Electoral Reforms & People’s Participation, chaired by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. I ended up getting a letter/invitation to attend an oversight committee slated on March 15, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Atty. Garcia also wanted to invite the Tanggulang Demokrasya, vice-gubernatorial candidate Glenn Soco and the Compostela mayoralty officials whom we featured in our articles.

Mind you, this is not the first time I got a Senate invitation, however I begged off simply because of a heavy work schedule, plus I don’t like to go to Manila especially in the summer. I also don’t have the contact numbers of the personalities requested. But I do have the contact number of Tanggulang Demokrasya (Tan Dem) which is TanDem National Secretariat, Teresita D. Baltazar, managing director with mobile 0917-8804169 or they can email her an invitation at [email protected].

Unfortunately, I got another email from Atty. Garcia telling me that the hearing has been postponed. Hmmm sayang. But if the oversight committee is serious in its desire to get to the bottom of that electoral mess, perhaps they can ask Hon. Teofisto J. Guingona Jr. or Bishop Broderick S. Pabillo of the AES Watch for a copy of a three-page letter that they sent to Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes and all the Comelec Commissioners only last March 5. I would have loved to reprint that letter, but unfortunately it is just too long, it won’t fit my short column space.

Basically, AES Watch represents 45 organizations and groups having a strong advocacy for independence, probity and integrity in promoting democratic governance against all types of electoral fraud. If the Comelec is dead serious in giving our nation electoral reforms designed to give us honest and credible elections, then I suggest that they read that letter seriously and sit down with AES Watch officials in order to find ways to improve our electoral system. The Comelec owes this to the Filipino people.

I already said here before that I don’t particularly trust Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes simply because he is an appointee of President Aquino and a lawyer for the Liberal Party (LP) which means he is beholden to the powers that be. So now is the right time for him to show to the Filipino people that he will not do the bidding of the LP and give our electorate credible and honest elections in 2013.

Let me just quote a part of the AES Watch letter, “Incidents during the last automated election show the many faults in the system, not to mention acts inconsistent with good faith by Smartmatic for which it should be blacklisted. One of the still unresolved electoral protests is the Biliran automated election, which revealed a number of technical inconsistencies that affected the valuation of the votes.” If the Comelec refuses to listen to the AES Watch, it will strengthen our belief that P-Noy placed Chairman Brillantes there in order to ensure a total LP victory courtesy of the discredited PCOS machines. If that happens, I’ll be the first to call for a national boycott of the 2013 elections because we should never be a party to electoral fraud.

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