PCOS and the Filipino's right to vote

Last Wednesday we asked the Cebu Citizens Involvement and Maturation in People's Empowerment and Liberation  what they have to say about continued use of the PCOS machines, but apparently no one inside C-Cimpel reads our columns or if anyone had read that column, he probably decided not to reply to me lest we uncover the group's true intentions, and as we had said, it has become the deodorant of the Commission on Elections.

But I did learn that last Tuesday, C-Cimpel had its newly refurbished office blessed by Arch. Jose Palma, which means it would continue doing what many people believe that it failed to do in the last two elections. Being a watchdog organization, C-Cimpel must look and study what is happening inside and outside the Comelec. What cases have been brought against Smartmatic and why does the Comelec insist on using the PCOS machines when it has been proven by Atty. Glenn Chiong that the safeguards mandated by law were taken away in the 2010 and 2013 elections.

Yet in all of these, we heard no peep from any of the officers in C-Cimpel. They go about their business like the three monkeys, who see no evil, hear no evil and talk no evil. But the reality in Philippine elections today is that unseen hands have usurped the constitutional right of the Filipino people to vote for their leaders and this has been replaced by the unseen hands of Smartmatic under the employ of the Comelec. If Arch. Palma so wishes, I can bring in Atty. Glenn Chiong to give the C-Cimpel a PowerPoint presentation, which he has given in all the six National Transformation Council  assemblies all over the country.

If the C-Cimpel cannot see this coming, like they never saw this happen in the 2010 & 2013 elections, then I suggest that all those in C-Cimpel must resign in shame for their ignorance of what is happening to the nation today. But then resignation is a word that the people who espouse the Daang Matuwid, a.k.a. Straight Path, line have never come across.

*  *  *

Yesterday morning, I was watching Karen Davila on ANC interviewing US Ambassador Philip Goldberg talking about the Jennifer Laude killing where the prime suspect is US Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton and as expected, the topic was on whether the US would give custody of Pemberton to the Philippines as mandated by the Visiting Forces Agreement. But the US Ambassador was literally word fencing with Karen, as he would not categorically state that he would give up Pemberton to Philippine custody.

I can understand the stand of the US Ambassador because America is the only superpower in the world today. Giving up Pemberton to Philippine custody would open the floodgates of Americans who might be in custody in another country like Japan or Korea who are incarcerated for their crimes.

Just after I watched that ANC show, I got this letter in my email which goes, "Mr. Avila, I just read your opinion now at Phl Star. I cant help myself to be worried, with this numerous challenges we face everyday, I don't even know what's gonna happen in the future of our dear country its really uncertain, poor Pinoys.

When I read your article I was also watching ANC with Karen Davila having an interview with US ambassador to RP Mr. Goldberg, and he was talking about the VFA, EDCA and all that stuff about the "good" relationship of U.S and RP. You are right, reading between the lines, Goldberg and the US govt look at us Filipinos as inferior race and incapable of governing ourselves." Apparently this reader has been reading my articles about how Americans regard Filipinos when they took the Philippines away from Spain.

I wrote that article in the Philippine Star in order to get a wider audience. I based that article on the book "Imperial Cruise" written by James Bradley who wrote the national bestseller "Flags of our Fathers. Of course I did get a lot of positive comments in those articles… but a friend of mine texted me that I sounded more like a leftist anti-American writer.

But on the contrary, that book shook and awakened me that for all the years of my life, especially during the high school days, we learned our Philippine history lessons from authors Gregorio Zaide and Teodoro Agoncillo and what we learned from them was nothing but American propaganda. In short, a great majority of my generation where taken for a ride believing that Americans had benevolent intentions in the Philippines. But their intention was to rule the Pacific and the Philippines was just smack so close to China, Vietnam, and Japan. So, back to the Pemberton case. For as long as the US does not respect us Filipinos, we can never expect America to give us a fair deal even on the VFA or the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The Supreme Court might as well decide that this is unconstitutional!