We’re not yet done with the Comelec!

Just in case you folks think or believe that the issues plaguing the May 2013 elections are already over and done with, you are completely wrong! Last Tuesday, a multi-sectoral group led by the Tanggulang Demokrasya (Tandem) called on the Comelec to manually count ballots in 78,000 precincts as it appears that the Comelec came up with a “template” that was used by the PCOS machines, which is why a strange phenomenon occurred when the senatorial votes came out uniformly with 60 percent of the vote going for the Liberal Party, 30 percent for the UNA and 10 percent for the other parties.

Tandem pointed out, “The startling revelation towards the end of May 2013 that the sixteen canvasses for the 2013 senatorial elections revealed a 60-30-10 linear pattern throughout the country.” As political activist and convenor of Solidarity for Sovereignty, Adolfo Paglinawan said, “The nine Team PNoy and three UNA candidates were winning was not all alarming because that was what the final Social Weather Station and Pulse Asia surveys suggested. What was controversial was that it was a most unlikely event considering the ethnic fractiousness of the Filipino voting population and archipelagic nature of the country’s geography.”

I fully concur with this observation and I dare the Comelec open the ballots because I would like to believe that while Grace Poe may have been the number one senator in the other regions, she couldn’t have fared well in Cebu given the fact that after the 2004 Presidential elections, she literally went to town to accuse us Cebuanos of cheating her father Fernando Poe, Jr. But since she was running for office, she retracted this statement. But the die has been cast.

Paglinawan also said, “For the first time in the history of Philippine elections, from Aparri to Jolo, the vote appeared like a template. The national pattern was also observed in the regional level, with most provinces having the same numerical behavior.” This is why when Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes proclaimed the first five senatoriables against the cries that the vote count was less than 25 percent, he practically guaranteed that the vote count would not change anymore. So let’s ask ourselves, how could the Comelec Chairman make such a prediction when the vote count wasn’t even completed yet… unless of course he had prior knowledge of this voting pattern?

We’ve already clearly pointed out during the last May 2010 elections and the May 2013 elections that the Social Weather Station (SWS) and Pulse Asia were part and parcel of the propaganda machinery of the Aquino Regime. Last March 13, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) campaign manager Rep. Tobias Tiangco formally wrote both SWS and Pulse Asia asking these pollsters to disclose the people who are funding their surveys, which he said was a violation of a Comelec resolution. This call was echoed by Team PNoy spokesman Miro Quimbo. But both pollsters refused to make that disclosure. I dare say it is time to pursue this case!

Perhaps the bigger question to ask is what should we do to the Comelec in order to force these pollsters to reveal their funding sources? On the other hand, we can no longer rely on the Comelec to give this nation its constitutional mandate to give us honest, free and credible elections. But more appalling than the violations committed by Comelec officials is the reality that the Filipino people are not alarmed by this naked grab of political power via the PCOS machines. I dare say that the sovereign will of the Filipino people was not reflected in the May 2010 and 2013 elections.

Meanwhile, during the Philippine Constitutional Association’s (PHILCONSA) monthly meeting, former Senator Richard “Dick” Gordon gave a powerpoint presentation of what transpired during the May 2010 and 2013 elections and challenged the PHILCONSA members that they should be at the forefront of this noble crusade to help cleanse the election process. That PHILCONSA should help restore public trust in the electoral process and help enhance our credibility as a democratic society. PHILCONSA should fight for what is right.

That was a lengthy but thorough presentation but the most damaging issue that he brought forward was the complaint filed by Smartmatic vs. Dominion Voting Systems in a Delaware County Court.    In the complaint, Smartmatic alleged and recognizes that Dominion failed to deliver a fully functional technology for use in the 2010 Presidential National Elections. That Dominion failed to provide timely technical support during the elections and failed to provide Smartmatic with information related to the licensed technology, including new developments to the licensed technology. Lastly, Dominion failed to place in escrow the required source code, hardware design and manufacturing information. So many questions with zero answers.

*  *  *

Email: [email protected]