Needed: A cure for ‘electile’ dysfunction

April 18, 2012

BY DUCKY PAREDES
MALAYA

‘No one ever had a cure for electile dysfunction until the PCOS came and worked like a little blue miracle pill.’

AFTER so many elections where the results were manipulated, the count changed (in the time between the end of the balloting and the end of the counting, which took anywhere from a week or so to whole months) to favor whoever was paying for the dagdag-bawas operation.

This was not the only way that electile dysfunction was foisted upon us, the electorate. How many of our elected were sons and daughters resulting from the processes affected by this electile dysfunction?

A cure, perhaps, not yet the perfect one but one that has already been proven to work is to cut the time for counting and collating the city, town, provincial, regional and national counts until the final result in order not to give time for the electile dysfunction to set in. We have long known that a quick count was the main solution. If the final count can be speeded up, the votes will be counted and the results known and E.D. will have no effect on the result.

We somewhat cured this in the last election through the use of the PCOS machines. More than anything else, what worked to make that last election credible was that the results were out within 36 hours of the end of the voting.

Of course, the Commission on Elections will be using the same system that gave us the most credible election ever in this country. That election was, of course, far from perfect. Many of the systems set in place to assure the security of the ballots were not in operation, some of the machines came out with results that were obtained when the machines were tested, and so on.

Still, however, it was the election that was most unaffected by electile dysfunction; thus, the present Comelec has assured us all that the election this time around will even be better than 2010 and the few miscues in that first fully automated election will not occur this time around.

For me, the Comelec’s assurance is good enough. The Comelec runs our elections and they know their business. I say, let’s do as the Comelec says we should.

Of course, there are dissenters. This is what comes of a people who expect that there is no cure for electile dysfunction. They have lived with it for so long and are convinced that there is no such thing as a little blue pill for the condition.

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Yesterday, the Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch) filed with the Supreme Court (SC) a citizens’ Petition for Certiorari, Prohibition, and Mandamus (with Prayer for Temporary Restraining Order and Writ of Preliminary Injunction) versus the Comelec and the seller of the PCOS system, Smartmatic-TIM with the following Petitioners: Former Vice President Teofisto T. Guingona, Bishop Broderick S. Pabillo, Movement for Good Governance’s Solita Monsod, Transparentelectrions’ Ma. Corazon Mendoza Akol, Solidarity Philippines and Kontra Daya’s Jose Dizon, Phil Computer Society Foundation’s Nelson Celis Jr., Center for People Empowerment in Government’s Pablo Manalastas. Transparency International-Philippines’ Georgina R. Encanto, and We Watch’s Anna Leah Colina.

Their petition would nullify the new contract between Comelec and the Smartmatic-TIM for the purchase of Smartmatic-TIM’s PCOS machines because the option to purchase had expired and is against the law, according to the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) & Comelec Advisory Council (CAC); the PCOS machines were proven to be deficient with errors and bugs (as confirmed by Comelec and Smartmatic); and for other legal grounds.

AES Watch explains that the TRO petition is the Petitioners’ response to Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr.’s challenge publicized on March 22 this year for those opposed to the second Comelec-Smartmatic deal “to sue” Comelec.

AES Watch claims to be a broad multi-sectoral citizens’ election watchdog composed of organizations and institutions throughout the country, including the following: UP Alumni Association (UPAA), CBCP-Nassa, Philippine Computer Society Foundation, CenPEG, Transparentelections.org.ph, Movement for Good Governance (MGG), Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), Association of Schools of Public Administration of the Philippines, (ASPAP), DLSU College of Computer Studies, Computing Society of the Philippines, Solidarity Philippines, WE Watch, AMRSP, NCCP, NUSP, Computer Professionals Union, Pagbabago, Alyansa Agrikultura, and others.

Mainly, it is composed of persons who believe that they know more about how to run elections than does the Commission on Elections.

As far as I am concerned, the Comelec is the assigned office to handle all election matters. We have had good and bad elections commissions. No one ever had a cure for electile dysfunction until the PCOS came and worked like a little blue miracle pill. I do not think that asking to give the PCOS another chance to do its magic again is such a bad idea. Who knows that we might even be rid of that malady (ED) forever and can hereon have elections that will give us the leaders we voted for rather than the one chosen for us by the Dagdag-Bawas operators.

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The 13th Don Celso Tuason and Founders’ Cup starts on Wednesday, April 25 and ends on Saturday, April 29. This is a full handicap, modified stableford competition among 280 teams composed of a member and his guest.

Sponsors include Smart Communications, Unilab’s Alaxan FR and HAVitALL, ARMS Corporation, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and Kulinarya at Valley.

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