The Smartmatic-PCOS election fiasco may be a blessing in disguise. It has forced us to question the system through which we choose our leaders.
Comelec’s insistence that everything is ok and ready for May 13 is a lie. Why Brillantes is insisting that it’s all systems go, we read about PCOS machines that are missing and others are not working.
As for the source code, he has today said the source code can be reviewed but not the one for 2013, only the 2010. I wonder what he is coming up with.
Let’s accept the challenge. Smartmatic’s contract with Dominion Voting Systems ended in 2009. That is the reason why it could not make the necessary corrections on the 2010 elections.
I think his attention must have been called about the boo-boo he committed when he said “if there was no source code to review in 2010, why should it be required in 2013?” He is half-right insofar as there was no strong protest that there was no source code to review in 2010.
Moreover, Congress and the diplomatic corps led by the US Ambassador were bent on a proclamation before June 30. I still remember Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s warning to objectors “you don’t know what will happen if we do not have a president by the end of June”. That stopped the debates in Congress but even before the debates could be finished, the US Ambassador was on his way to Times Street to congratulate the new President-elect. Other ambassadors soon followed. End of story.
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So Mr. Brillantes — it is not true that no one complained about the lack of review of the source code in 2010. There were many complaints but these were stonewalled by the very institutions that should have protected the integrity of the elections.
It took time for computer experts to come up with comprehensive reports on the failed election. In Senator Ponce Enrile’s words you don’t know what will happen if we don’t have a president by June 30.* * *
So Mr. Brillantes — it is not true that no one complained about the lack of review of the source code in 2010. There were many complaints but these were stonewalled by the very institutions that should have protected the integrity of the elections.
So it is only now that we have a clearer picture of what happened in May 2010. Despite these findings, Comelec renewed the Smartmatic-PCOS contract forcibly ignoring deadlines and rules on biddings. Comelec presumed that all that was needed was simply to brazen it out and use Smartmatic-PCOS again because there will be no outcry.
The electoral body miscalculated the anger that was slowly building up with the knowledge of just what happened in 2010. That is where we are now. Angry with 2010 and fearful of 2013.
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Yet this Smartmatic-PCOS fiasco might be the catalyst needed to once and for all junk a system of politics and governance that promotes graft and elects incapable leaders. They become politicians and once elected enrich themselves. While attention has been focused on the flawed automatic electoral system, there was another concern being voiced out — and if we did vote, who are we going to vote for? More of the same. There are parallel movements that reject the qualities of candidates. I will mention only three that have lately caught wide attention: Senator Loren Legarda, Senator Chiz Escudero and senatorial candidate Sonny Angara. There are others.
I am not surprised that Senator Loren Legarda has bought a “swanky $700,000 condo in Park Avenue, New York City.” She has become used to a luxurious life — a house in Forbes Park, expensive cars, daring low-back couture gowns and food from very expensive restaurants delivered to her house. Are these the perks of a senator courtesy of unaudited funds?
Sen. Loren is an intelligent woman and she has a good staff that churn out praise err…press releases to justify her expensive lifestyle. Neither am I surprised that she tops the blasted popularity ratings.
Still I was shocked at how crudely she conducts herself. I know first hand that she organized a dinner in her house for the caucus of senators who would decide to vote as one to impeach Chief Justice Corona the next day. According to reports, she already owned the Park Avenue flat she did not report but had the effrontery to vote vs. Corona for an incomplete SALN. OMG.
Ditto for Sen. Chiz Escudero who projects an image of the new generation of politicians of the country — bright and popular until we know what he has been about. He has been allegedly receiving billions of pork barrel while his province of Sorsogon languishes in poverty. What did he do with the public moneys? As for Heart Evangelista, that is his private affair.
The most disappointing for me is candidate Sonny Angara. I hope it is not true as alleged by reliable sources that he co-authored with his father, Senator Edgardo Angara the P3 billion Aurora-Pacific Economic and Freeport Zone (APECO) project in Aurora. This project has dislodged farmers and fishermen, all members of the Dumagat tribe. So desperate are the indigenous tribes, they are said to have walked two 350 km.-marches against the project. At present they are still walking for another.
The Dumagats allege that the ambitious 12,923 hectare ecozone-tourism project grabbed their ancestral lands and fishing grounds unjustly from them without due process and proper consultation, in violation of the “Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (RA 8371).
Then there is the Movement Against Dynasties (MAD), a civil society group that wants to put a stop to political dynasties. There are a number of well-known families that have appropriated the political space for their families for generations.
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This column congratulates Red Cross Chairman Dick Gordon for taking a stand in the battle between Comelec and civic groups on Smartmatic-PCOS.
He has filed a petition for mandamus vs Comelec to the Supreme Court to allow the political parties to examine and review the source code. Finally, we have a candidate willing to contribute to the growing clamor against the Smartmatic PCOS automated electoral system that Comelec will use on May 13.
No one has seen this source code and as far as we know it is not available because its owner is Dominion Electoral Systems and it has been locked in a legal battle with Smartmatic-PCOS.
“The opportunity to review the source code is very important to ensure honest, clean and credible elections.” Gordon said.
He is the author of Republic Act No. 9369 that amended the Automated Election Law. The Comelec has no discretion on whether or not to allow the political parties to review of the source code, he said.
“The law is clear. Section 14 of the Automated Election Law says that the COMELEC “shall promptly make the source code of that technology available and open to any interested political party or groups which may conduct their own review thereof.”
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