The UN vs Aquino III; What elections?

President Aquino is acting true to character when he defied the UN ruling that the continuous detention of GMA is “politically motivated.”

She is not allowed to post bail while others who were similarly charged were. So what? Aquino said.

It is shameful. As if he is saying, I am the president of the Philippines. I am the boss here. Walang UN dito! (There is no UN here!) Go to hell!

It would take very little if he had said instead in diplomatic fashion that the ruling would be considered and the result made known as soon as possible. But that would be expecting too much from him. He is not cut out to be a leader or a statesman capable of such niceties that would speak well of Filipinos.

But what of the men around him? Do they have to behave just as badly? What did GMA do that made Aquino so angry and vindictive to her? One columnist thinks it had all to do with Hacienda Luisita. It was GMA who nullified the stock distribution option of the Cojuangco property and it was under the watch of former Chief Justice Renato Corona that the Supreme Court made its decision to distribute the hacienda’s 6,000 hectares of land to the farmer beneficiaries as final and executory.

US diplomat Lewis Gleeck Jr. said:

“A government cannot perform adequately if its basic raison d’etre is revenge. I am not so Christian as to believe that such sentiment is never justified, but revenge, as a basis of government, covers up flaws in both the policies and performance of government. Hatred can deform thinking that anything that the dethroned Monster has done must be seen to be Evil, and its opposite good. This was the rationale of Palace policies for the entire years of the Aquino government.”

The ruling of the UN goes far beyond former President Macapagal Arroyo’s detention. At the heart of the matter is whether we want to belong to a community of nations under the rule of international law or behave like Nazi Germany.

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I was one of the thousands who were saddened that Mayor Rody Duterte did not file his COC last Friday. Among the candidates he was the only one committed to constitutional reform that would shift our crazy, ineffective and graft-ridden form of government to a parliamentary federal system. Here is the short statement of Mayor Rody Duterte:

“A little over two years ago I posted in the government website over the Internet that I was not interested in the presidency. Nothing has changed. I am comfortable where I am now. If Inday Sara (referring to his daughter who shaved her head to convince him to run) would want it she has the choice of running in 2016 or the next election. Personally, the earlier the better. I want to retire. I am tired. Give the presidency to the one who wants it. I don’t.”

I understand his decision. After all, we have only one life to live and if he feels becoming the president of the Philippines is not how he wants to live it, he alone can decide that. The trouble is that most of those who are running for president do not have the necessary qualities necessary to lead our fractured country. We have to sacrifice our personal preference in our quest for a better country not just for ourselves but also for our children and our children’s children in generations to come.

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Just as I was finishing this article, I got a  phone call from former Philippine Ambassador to Italy, Jose Romero.  He received messages from a group of foreign diplomats urging approval of the BBL. 

Ambassador Romero’s statement reads:

“Some European ambassadors appearing in media today supporting the CAB and the BBL whose constitutionality has been challenged by various sectors of Philippine society and which is now pending in the Supreme Court and deliberated in Congress show a lack of respect for Philippine laws and can be considered an undue interference in the affairs of a sovereign nation to which they have been accredited.”

Why indeed are these European countries, including Malaysia, applying pressure to have a flawed BBL that a majority of Filipinos oppose, passed? Would they react the same way if their country risked dismemberment? I say let the Filipinos solve their own problems.

Romero is president of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations Inc. which is composed of retired ambassadors, multi-sectoral organizations, retired generals and flag officers, businessmen, and distinguished members of civil society.

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If you think all is well in the preparations for Elections 2016, they are not. Here  is what Lito Averia says about the source code review. He calls it “a restricted environment.” In other words, those who review it are not given sufficient facility to do so. If you ask me how I would question it, I do not know and so would millions of voters who will accept it hook, line and sinker.

Frankly as I have said over and over again, unless the ordinary voter understands the technology behind automated voting it is unconstitutional. Source code review: A restricted environment means it is neither ready or acceptable.

Lito Averia writes, “By all indications, based on Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Resolution No. 9987 and the conduct of the briefing held last October 8, 2015, Smartmatic-TIM is in the driver’s seat. There will be two sets of source code to be reviewed within a seven-month period. First is the review of the “baseline source code” which is the source code to be provided by Smartmatic-TIM without the rules and procedures in the counting and consolidation of votes specified in our election laws. This will be followed by a review of the “source code after customization” which is the amended source code that includes the rules and procedures in the counting and consolidation of votes specified in our election laws.

The Comelec aimed to give more time for the source code review than wait for the automated election system to be fully customized citing that in 2010 there was only a month’s opportunity to review the source code and in 2013 there was only a five-day opportunity.

Section 15 refers to the conduct of a “Walkthrough for the baseline source code” and Section 16 refers to the conduct of a “Walkthrough for the source codes after customization.”