March 19, 2012
SHOOTING STRAIGHT
By Bobit S. Avila
The Philippine Star
By Bobit S. Avila
The Philippine Star
Last Friday, I was in the midst of a very important meeting when a friend interrupted our meeting to show us a texted report that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) finally approved the purchase of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines. My meeting had nothing to do with politics, yet a report like that was shocking enough for us in Cebu because of the incident that happened in the town of Compostela, 25 kilometers North of Cebu City where they didn’t have any town officials for 22 months, thanks to the PCOS machines that doesn’t know now to count!
But in truth, the Comelec decided to re-proclaim Mayor Joel Quiño despite the request of complainant Richie Wagas to open the ballot boxes to prevent more embarrassment. Opening the ballot boxes would have revealed that what’s inside the ballot boxes would not match with what the PCOS machines reported. This is the same in all the electoral protests in the 2010 polls.
If indeed our Comelec officials want to ferret out the truth… they should have agreed to open the ballot boxes… but they did not because it would prove what we’ve been saying all along… that the PCOS machine doesn’t know how to count and worse as I mentioned the other week, the group called Tanggulang Demokrasya has already collated more than enough evidence all over the country on how the use of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines operated by Smartmatic has resulted in a massive electoral failure for the 2010 elections. We told you so, but you didn’t listen!
But our self-righteous Comelec officials are focusing on the 2004 and 2007 electoral fraud and are in complete denial that fraud also marred the 2010 elections because the Smartmatic machines were compromised and the digital signature removed which was one of the safeguards that our lawmakers put in place. But Comelec arrogantly removed these safeguards and ended up with so many electoral disputes all over the country.
Didn’t we say that the biggest problem in this sick country of ours is that we don’t fix our problems? Our best proof is this decision by the Comelec to purchase those defective PCOS machines despite its numerous problems. Mind you, nations like Germany, France and India have already come up with laws banning the use of digital counting machines because they have been burned already. But we Filipinos are so stupid… we’re doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past because we do not remember our history. Meanwhile despite public denials from Malacanang, the rumors that President Aquino visited Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) spiritual leader Eduardo V. Manalo with his sisters continue to persist. As we all heard, the inveterate liars in Malacañang would “neither confirm, nor deny” that this really happened. When Malacañang spokespersons say something, you bet that the opposite is true. Well, I have a very impeccable source that the meeting really materialized and apparently the President tried to convince the INC spiritual leader why CJ Corona has to be impeached.
Undoubtedly, it was P-Noy’s “last ditch” effort to get back the INC to support him again. Pundits believe that the meeting between the President and the INC was triggered by the massive nationwide INC rally held last Feb. 28. Although it was only a prayer rally, there was no question that it had very strong political undertones, which in a way sent a message not only to P-Noy but to those Senator Judges seeking re-election that if they convict CJ Corona, they shouldn’t even dare ask the INC for their votes in the 2013 elections. That’s 3 million votes from the INC.
History has shown that the mid-term elections would be disastrous for any unpopular President and his allies in the Senate. With P-Noy getting out of that meeting empty-handed… I have a hunch that the next thing he did was call upon Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes to get those Smartmatic PCOS machines right away. They know that these machines are defective and can be “tweaked” to favor their candidates.
If we don’t stop the Comelec from using the PCOS machines, its first victim will be the INC because their block votes would now become irrelevant. Everyone knows that Comelec Chairman Brillantes is a P-Noy appointee who was lawyering for the Liberal Party… so it is almost a guarantee that if you’re not with the LP slate in the 2013 polls, you might as well not run for any position… or perhaps do the better thing boycott the coming 2013 elections because you already know it’s not going to be an honest race.
By his own admission, Brillantes pointed out that Smartmatic was in the process of correcting the deficiencies of the PCOS machines. This is the first public admission by a Comelec official that indeed the PCOS machines could not count. Therefore may we ask the Comelec chairman what deficiencies were being fixed by Smartmatic and more importantly, why purchase those defective machines in the first place? It’s getting curiouser everyday!
* * *
For e-mail responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mo-pzcom.comor vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through http://www.philstar.com.
Shooting Straight By BOBIT S. AVILA
Last Friday, I was in the midst of a very important meeting when a friend interrupted our meeting to show us a texted report that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) finally approved the purchase of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines. My meeting had nothing to do with politics, yet a report like that was shocking enough for us in Cebu because of the incident that happened in the town of Compostela, 25 kilometers North of Cebu City where they didn’t have any town officials for 22 months, thanks to the PCOS machines that doesn’t know now to count!
But in truth, the Comelec decided to re-proclaim Mayor Joel Quiño despite the request of complainant Richie Wagas to open the ballot boxes to prevent more embarrassment. Opening the ballot boxes would have revealed that what’s inside the ballot boxes would not match with what the PCOS machines reported. This is the same in all the electoral protests in the 2010 polls.
If indeed our Comelec officials want to ferret out the truth… they should have agreed to open the ballot boxes… but they did not because it would prove what we’ve been saying all along… that the PCOS machine doesn’t know how to count and worse as I mentioned the other week, the group called Tanggulang Demokrasya has already collated more than enough evidence all over the country on how the use of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines operated by Smartmatic has resulted in a massive electoral failure for the 2010 elections. We told you so, but you didn’t listen!
But our self-righteous Comelec officials are focusing on the 2004 and 2007 electoral fraud and are in complete denial that fraud also marred the 2010 elections because the Smartmatic machines were compromised and the digital signature removed which was one of the safeguards that our lawmakers put in place. But Comelec arrogantly removed these safeguards and ended up with so many electoral disputes all over the country.
Didn’t we say that the biggest problem in this sick country of ours is that we don’t fix our problems? Our best proof is this decision by the Comelec to purchase those defective PCOS machines despite its numerous problems. Mind you, nations like Germany, France and India have already come up with laws banning the use of digital counting machines because they have been burned already. But we Filipinos are so stupid… we’re doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past because we do not remember our history. Meanwhile despite public denials from Malacanang, the rumors that President Aquino visited Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) spiritual leader Eduardo V. Manalo with his sisters continue to persist. As we all heard, the inveterate liars in Malacañang would “neither confirm, nor deny” that this really happened. When Malacañang spokespersons say something, you bet that the opposite is true. Well, I have a very impeccable source that the meeting really materialized and apparently the President tried to convince the INC spiritual leader why CJ Corona has to be impeached.
Undoubtedly, it was P-Noy’s “last ditch” effort to get back the INC to support him again. Pundits believe that the meeting between the President and the INC was triggered by the massive nationwide INC rally held last Feb. 28. Although it was only a prayer rally, there was no question that it had very strong political undertones, which in a way sent a message not only to P-Noy but to those Senator Judges seeking re-election that if they convict CJ Corona, they shouldn’t even dare ask the INC for their votes in the 2013 elections. That’s 3 million votes from the INC.
History has shown that the mid-term elections would be disastrous for any unpopular President and his allies in the Senate. With P-Noy getting out of that meeting empty-handed… I have a hunch that the next thing he did was call upon Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes to get those Smartmatic PCOS machines right away. They know that these machines are defective and can be “tweaked” to favor their candidates.
If we don’t stop the Comelec from using the PCOS machines, its first victim will be the INC because their block votes would now become irrelevant. Everyone knows that Comelec Chairman Brillantes is a P-Noy appointee who was lawyering for the Liberal Party… so it is almost a guarantee that if you’re not with the LP slate in the 2013 polls, you might as well not run for any position… or perhaps do the better thing boycott the coming 2013 elections because you already know it’s not going to be an honest race.
By his own admission, Brillantes pointed out that Smartmatic was in the process of correcting the deficiencies of the PCOS machines. This is the first public admission by a Comelec official that indeed the PCOS machines could not count. Therefore may we ask the Comelec chairman what deficiencies were being fixed by Smartmatic and more importantly, why purchase those defective machines in the first place? It’s getting curiouser everyday!
* * *
For e-mail responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mo-pzcom.comor vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through http://www.philstar.com.
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