Cut the automated crap

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

07/02/2009

Let’s get something really straight and cut the no-fraud automated poll bullshit.

The manual 2004 presidential elections results were fraud-ridden because an incumbent President, Gloria Arroyo, knew she had no chance of winning the polls against the opposition standard bearer, Fernando Poe Jr. and she wanted to stay on in Malacañang.

Since she was in power and position, with the entire government resources at her abusive disposal, along with her handpicked Commission on Elections chairman and commissioners plus her police and military generals in the electoral fraud picture, the polls were undoubtedly marked with massive fraud. “Hello Garci” tapes are the proof of this desire of Gloria and her prostituted Comelec to win the presidency at all cost.

Fraud did not occur easily because the polls were on a manual mode, but because Gloria Arroyo, through all her Comelec cheating operators, with the full cooperation of her prostituted generals, made such large-scale cheating possible.

But even that fraud could have been checked by Congress that convened itself as a National Board of Canvassers, then headed by Sen. Francis Pangilinan and then Rep. Raul Gonzalez. As the majority of the Senate and the House of Representatives were all allies of Gloria, they ran roughshod over the objections of the opposition party lawyers and refused to have the irregularities in the election documents questioned. It will be recalled that Pangilinan and Gonzalez are known as Messrs. Noted.

It is much too hypocritical of Pangilinan to now portray himself as having clean hands by expressing dismay at the probability of reverting to manual mode, when he himself was involved in ensuring that the electoral fraud would be perpetrated throughout the national canvassing.

It must be asked too: The reason a bogus President who lies, cheats and steal, was allowed to stay in power and position is that her groups of civil socialites, cardinals, bishops, leftists, businessmen, militant students and her military and police generals, despite their knowledge of the massive vote-rigging, preferred to have her in Malacañang and thwart the sovereign will of the people because they did not want another actor to become president, since this would lay bare the people’s scorn of their bogus people power.

As for the then Speaker, Jose de Venecia and his congressmen, they, too, contributed to the perpetuation of that fraud, since they knew of the break-in in the House by Gloria’s assets who switched the ballot boxes with fake returns but covered for her and her crime.

In 1998, the polls were on manual mode. There was no incumbent president in the running. Where was the fraud then, when the manual elections were clean and orderly?

It is therefore not a question of voting and counting mode, in the matter of electoral fraud, but the integrity, competence and capability of the Comelec to bring about clean and orderly polls, as well as the integrity and honesty of the congressional leaders who make up the National Board of Canvassers in ensuring that poll fraud is not perpetuated.

The nation can certainly have fraud-free elections under a manual voting system and it can also have a massively fraudulent election under an automated system, not to mention the chaos automation will bring, along with the massive disenfranchisement of voters, with the plan to compress 250,000 precincts nationwide into some 80,000 precincts, and not to mention the absolute cluelessness of automation of the poll commissioners, so much so that they are ready to hand over total control of the entire conduct of the 2010 polls to a firm that has ties with Malacañang’s powerful and the presidential cronies.

There is no question that, with the presidential polls coming up, and with the one-chamber constituent assembly to usher in the parliamentary Charter change having no luck, Gloria and her family need protection after she steps out of Malacañang and massive poll fraud may again be engaged by Malacañang, to ensure that Gloria’s anointed wins.

The need then is for Comelec, whether it is manual or partial automation, or full automation, is to ensure that no massive fraud occurs under its watch.

But already, some commissioners, who are also suspected of still taking orders from Malacañang, are making it easy for massive computer fraud to step in by giving total control of the conduct of the polls to those whom Malacañang favors.

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