By Ado Paglinawan
Edwin Lacierda
As expected this government’s capers are again at work. The evidence of ineptocracy often hidden behind a display of arrogance, reeks from the mouths of president spokesman Edwin Lacierda and Comelec chairman Sixto Brilliantes.
Now they want civil society, whose taxes they are already spending recklessly, to fix their trail of incompetence.
Lacierda, for his part, would rather wash his hands from any culpability and put the onus of blame on the Comelec. What he said, that the 9-3 victory for the administration speaks of a credible election, suffers from lame logic. On the contrary, how can an election be credible when that output was precisely not due to any actual canvass of electoral returns but the product of pre-programming?
Sixto Brillantes
The ad hoc technical working group of Tanggulang Demokrasya, AES Watch, Solidarity for Sovereignty and other civil society groups precisely delivered the smoking gun when it uncovered the 60-30-10 votes distribution consistently manifesting like a template from the national, to the provincial, to the city and municipal, and finally all the way down to the precinct level. The pattern also showed up in the clustered precincts that were subjected to Random Manual Count.
What in effect this showed, as a matter of political analysis and no longer mathematical, is that the administration’s real ticket favored nine PNoy and three UNA candidates, in effect Malacanang winning a 12-0 slate.
What this proves, logically and graphically, is the BS Aquino dumped Jun Magsaysay, Risa Hontiveros and Jamby Madrigal after using them as props, substituting in their stead Nancy Binay, JV Ejercito and Gringo Honasan. This not only lends credence to the rumored accommodation by the administration of the candidates of the so-called Three Kings Jejomar Binay, JV Ejercito and Gringo Honasan, and proof positive of the of the high probability of a conspiracy between BS Aquino and Jejomar Binay.
Now how can that be any credible when the sociographics, the geographical nuances vis-a-vis ethnic preferences, and established bailiwicks of other candidates, gave way to a 60-30-10 formula? What was worse was the established behavior of the assigned votes of the nine PNoy candidate compared to the peaks and valleys of the votes of the three UNA candidates – where PNoy goes up UNA goes up, where PNoy goes down UNA goes down, always running in parallels and never intersecting each other like two persons dancing the chacha and never stepping on each other’s toes.
This Mr. Lacierda, is statistical improbability at its most obvious manifestation. The programmer never even tried to camouflage it.
For instance in Mindanao, the 60-30-10 pattern was true in the cities of Zamboanga, Ozamis, Valencia, Mati, Davao City, General Santos, Bislig, Cabadbaran, Cagayan de Oro, Digos, El Salvador, Kidapawan, Koronadal, Tandag, Tangub and even Isabela in Basilan.
Explain this please from the viewpoint of an island that has been wracked by eight to twelve hours of brownouts a day since the third quarter of last year. Surely, Mr. Lacierda will deny BS Aquino is unpopular there.
In the Visayas, the province of Bohol was most revealing – Tagbilaran City and all of Bohol’s municipalities were dancing to the 60-30-10 tune. Mr. Lacierda, sir, now surely this cannot be the fault of the former president, is it? At least when Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cheated Fernando Poe Jr., the dancing was confined to an 80-10-10 cadence but only in four provinces, namely Pampanga, Cebu, Iloilo and Bohol. This time in 2013, the Malacanang rap was absolutely crass and brazen.
But what comes as a waning squawk of a bogeyman whose promise to his siblings that he will leave the Comelec with a legacy they can be proud of, has now become more picturesque of a monumental faux pas – the 60-30-10 election fiasco.
Chairman Brilliantes wants civil society to fork the P200 million, he said would take for a complete manual count of the 2013 elections.
The Chairman ought to be reminded that we are not the reprobates here, we are the whistleblowers.
So for starters, why cannot the Comelec get the manual count budget from the residual Smartmatic budget, since it is Smartmatic anyway that failed to deliver a credible automated output? In fact, Mr. Chairman, we still have to hear from 18,000 PCOS machines out there who up to this writing have not yet transmitted any precinct canvass?
Second, why cannot the Senators who “won in the digital pre-programming” pass on to their counterparts in Congress to shave P1 million from their pork barrel allocations that together they can produce way above Mr. Brilliantes’ requirement.
These are just two suggestions on how to “skin this cat” so to speak. The digital senators themselves should be the first ones interested in validating their mandates.
All of a sudden where did the creativity of the Comelec chair fly to? From his own lips, he announced that for $10 million he will produce the source code from Dominion Voting System. That was a whooping P400 million in a compact-disc that was never subjected to public scrutiny and review. But voila, he delivered.
What should instead be the compelling motivation of both Lacierda and Brilliantes is no longer more braggadoccio. Their intelligence funds may not be ready yet to come to gather the fast spreading disenchantment of the people who have since 2010 have been exhausting legal and administrative means to effect a substantial and meaningful reform of our electoral system.
Do they have the readiness to meet the ire of those who in desperation may take bolder and unconventional redress of their grievances? I am only asking a question.
Definitely with its hot air balloon already starting to burst, seen in the fleeing foreign direct investments that were not weighty in the first place, the unemployment going to its three-year high, exports plunging and with it devaluing the peso, and finally the evaporation of hot money from the stock market, to mention only a few, I am just afraid the BS Aquino government is shaving its viability to dangerous levels.
The peoples’ votes are sacrosanct. All civil society wants is a clean, honest and transparent manual count.
Lets not fuzz around about P200 million for the common good. Afterall, the Melo and Brilliantes Comelecs have already spent more than P10 billion in sheer folly!
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RELATED STORY:
Comelec: Pay and we’ll do manual recount
By Leslie Ann G. Aquino
Manila Bulletin
Manila Bulletin
Manila, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is open to a manual recount of the results of the May 13 midterm polls if those seeking the recount will pay for it.
“It’s okay as long as they pay,” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said.
“We’ll do the computation to determine how much. As long as they deposit, it’s okay with me,” he added.
On Tuesday, various groups led by the Tanggulang Demokrasya (Tandem) called for a manual recount of the 78,000 precincts in the country, citing the alleged discrepancies in the results of the automated midterm polls.
Brillantes recalled that when former senator Mar Roxas wanted a full recount in 2010 for vice president, the estimated cost was P153 million.
“This time the amount is higher, about P200 million. If they pay, we’ll recount all,” he said.
Asked regarding the claim of the group that the results were pre-programmed citing the so called 60-30-10- pattern, Brillantes said this should be substantiated with evidence.
“There must be evidence,” he said.
“If there’s evidence, we’ll summon them. But if they can’t prove their allegations, they will be answerable to their statements,” said Brillantes.
He also challenged the group to identify who pre-programmed the results.
“They should tell us who did the re-programming,” Brillantes said.
The poll chief, however, admitted that he is not familiar with the name of the Tandem group.
“Who’s Tandem? I don’t know the group. It’s something new. Never heard,” said Brillantes.
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