Why the CBCP no longer trusts the PPCRV

The big news in the election front is that the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) National Secretariat for Social Action (CBCP-NASSA) has dropped their support for the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) as the citizen’s arm of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). What is happening here?

The CBCP statement issued by CBCP-NASSA Chair Bishop Roderick Pabillo and read to all bishops, archbishops, social action centers and parishes says, “Considering the Guiding Principles of Partnership, we now declare our support to the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) as they generally respect and work hard to establish coordination and good partnership with NASSA and the social action network during elections.”

According to the CBCP report, the reason why the CBCP-NASSA dropped PPCRV is due to its refusal to coordinate with them. Both Namfrel and PPCRV were accredited by the Comelec as its citizen’s arm for the May midterm elections. If there is anyone to blame, it falls on the lap of PPCRV Chair Henrietta de Villa who, way back in the May 2010 elections, gave a thumbs up to the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) even if she didn’t understand the workings of the digitalized problems of the PCOS machines and thus… she became a convenient deodorant for the Comelec to prove that their PCOS machines was flawless, which is far from the truth.

Worse for the PPCRV was the acceptance of former Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal as PPCRV National Vice-President, who was among those who gave this country the PCOS machines, when so many other nations like Germany, France and India has shunned electronic voting because it can be hacked and tampered with. In my book, Greg Larrazabal should never have been accepted into the PPCRV, which is why it has lost its credibility. The CBCP-NASSA did the right thing in dropping PPCRV.

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It is Holy Week and I hope that Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III would reflect on what he has done in his Presidency where he sold to the Filipino people his slogan, “Kung Walang Korrupt, Walang Mahirap.” So he must go in deep seclusion, hopefully before the contemplative nuns, notably before Sister Agnes of the Carmelites in Zamboanga and ask himself, “Have I given the poor the priorities of my government?”

To give him a guide for his reflection, he must look back just a couple of weeks ago, when poor 16-year old Kristel Tejeda took her own life because her parents could not pay her tuition fee. Yet, it is apparent that the Education department has programs designed to help poor and deserving students but it is more than obvious that this system was so mired in its own bureaucracy, they no longer serve its intended purpose to help poor students.

Then there is the very recent issue where PNoy vetoed the Magna Carta for the Poor. One would think that this law, designed by his own rubber stamp Congress could have easily been signed by the President, but he vetoed it and it just makes us wonder whether the heart of this President was really for the poor… or just like any other politician… they use the name of the poor in vain to gain their own popularity.

No money for education… no Magna Carta for the Poor, but billions of pesos are available supposedly for the poor so that this President can assuage Sen. Pia Cayetano of a “safe and satisfying sex.” Forgive me, if I feel nauseated about the whole damn thing. But it is clear to me that PNoy and his triumphant supporters who supported the RH Bill and made it into a law do not deserve to get their cake and eat it too!

I dare say that it is high time for us Catholics to show our displeasure by not voting for Team PNoy senatorial candidates. What makes me even sicker is this President agreed to do an advertising promotion campaign to prop up his senatorial candidates. I never saw any former President go out of his way to sell his own senatoriables. Then there’s the PCOS issue.

Please don’t get it from me. Open the Facebook of my fellow Philippine Star columnist Chit Pedrosa and you will read here thoughts wherein she said, “Surprise, surprise. Here come the PCOS candidates. Survey muna. Tapos PCOS. Team PNoy candidates dominate the top 12 senatorial slots of the mid-term elections in May based on the latest survey the Social Weather Stations, but the opposition said, the result would not be credible until the polltakers disclosed the people who paid for the survey, radio reports said on Monday. In the latest four surveys conducted by SWS since August last year, Team PNoy re-electionist senators Loren Legarda remained on top with Alan Peter Cayetano in number two, according to radio station DZRH.”

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