“So sue us!” These are the words of Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes to the groups who questioned their decision to use the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) for the 2013 elections. This smacks total arrogance from a body that supposedly is tasked to give the Filipino people fair and honest elections. Brillantes already publicly admitted that Smartmatic was fixing the problems of the PCOS machines, yet they are so stubborn, they will use these defective machines because they know too well that it can be “tweaked” or used for cheating.
It is time for the Filipino people to show our indignation against such tyranny from the Comelec. We know too well that if the PCOS machines are as good as Smartmatic advertised it to be, there would be no election incident in Compostela where they had no mayor or councilor in the last 22 months. Thanks to those defective PCOS machines.
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I’m gravely alarmed with the headline news here in The FREEMAN that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was now monitoring the activities of the New People’s Army (NPA), perhaps as an offshoot from that earlier report that the NPA would “retake” Cebu. If there is anything that we Cebuanos are very proud about it is that, a few years back Gov. Gwen F. Garcia declared an all out war against the Communist insurgency and despite threats by the NPAs against the government that blood will flow in the streets of Cebu, this has not happened.
But I’m one person who believes that we should never take for granted our freedoms and guard it from those mischief makers. The NPAs comeback in the Province of Cebu can only happen if our people are complacent or worse, have a nonchalant attitude towards this threat of violence by those who seek to overthrow our democratic form of government. That’s exactly what the NPA wants to do… sow terror in the hearts of our people and disturb not only our peaceful existence, but also our economic progress.
We’ve already written in length that Cebu’s economic growth, especially the tourism development that the Suroy-Suroy program that Gov. Garcia brought into the far-flung towns of Cebu Province, is due to the reality that there is peace in the entire Province of Cebu. Tuburan, which was the most infested some years ago, has experienced that peace and a new economic growth. Alas, under the Aquino regime, the NPAs have gained strength and are boasting to do a comeback in Cebu. Should we just sit down and allow these terrorists to disturb our way of life?
There is an old saying that goes, “For evil to flourish, it is enough that good men do nothing.” I would like to know what Gov. Gwen F. Garcia intends to do about this new NPA threat. Perhaps now is a good time to count heads and call all barangay leaders to be on the lookout for a possible “NPA intrusion” via pumpboat from either Negros, Leyte or from Masbate.
If you ask me, we should tap the Bantay Dagat teams who are assigned in the coastal areas to report any sightings of men or women who will come to Cebu to sow terror. Perhaps they are already here. So the key word here is vigilance. My latest intelligence report was last January where a vessel was spotted to have unloaded a cache of firearms somewhere in the coast of Surigao, which the NPAs control.
That the NPAs have suddenly gained strength is directly linked with the Aquino regime’s allowing high-ranking communist officials within his administration. We’ve already pointed out that his political adviser, Ronald Llamas, is one of them, who counts on Francisco Nemenzo as his adviser and confidant. Nemenzo is a known CPP stalwart.
Reading the front page of the Philippine Star yesterday made me puke. It was a story about Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III finally attending the graduation rites of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and exhorting graduates to shun corruption. Come now, it was only the propaganda machinery of the leftists that tagged the AFP as the most corrupt agency, when the reality is, it is the Customs, the BIR, DPWH or DepEd which are the most corrupt. Just because the corruption by former AFP Comptroller Gen. Carlos Garcia was headline news, it doesn’t make the AFP a corrupt agency.
For as long as PNoy continues to get advise from his leftist or communist friends, we will never see any reduction to the communist threat and the reality is they are growing in numbers. Last January, a news report from Tacloban came out with an NPA boast that they had recruited some 500 new members. With the arms being unloaded in Surigao, you can say that the NPA are ready to kill more innocent civilians and our military.
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Email: vsbobita@mozcom.com