Our Elections Should Now Be High Tech

I was surfing cable channels last Saturday evening when I chanced upon a live report of CNN from Taipei. The Koumintang candidate for president was conceding the election. Apparently, it was officially announced a few minutes earlier that the opposition candidate China hates most has won the election.

What I found amazing here is the speed by which they counted the votes. It was just about eight in the evening of Saturday and there they were, with the final results for an election held that day. I found that amazing, almost unbelievable. But then again, Taiwan is Asia's Silicon Island, one of the region's high tech capitals.

Back in this backwater country of ours, something like this is totally unheard of. We might have been Asia's first democracy, but we haven't progressed much from the mano mano system of counting votes. Computerizing the voting system is controversial here and the token attempt at it resulted in dismal failure.

The only thing we have to show for our half-hearted effort at modernization are the counting machines we bought that don't count. But I am sure the officials who brokered the purchase of those machines successfully counted their you know what. The taxpayers, as usual, lost a few hundred thousand dollars worth of precious public funds on junk. As in most government transactions, it seems they were not interested in working machines, just in their commissions.

We are just about a year away from the next election and I don't see the Comelec preparing to modernize our electoral process. I imagine we will still vote and count the votes as they did when Manuel Quezon was elected President of the Commonwealth.

Today, an ATM machine makes it possible for a bank account holder in Manila to withdraw funds in his bank's ATM in Zamboanga. But public school teachers will still be sleepless for days, tallying votes on large sheets of brown paper stuck against a wall.

The tragedy is, the technology and the expertise are here. Maybe it is because no one in the Comelec is comfortably familiar with computers and high tech telecommunications. I think the reason the Taiwanese election was concluded that quickly is because the votes were sent to a central computer as they were cast. What the Comelec needs is a system similar to the bank ATM networks where transactions can be consummated in real time.

I undestand the Comelec is now concentrating on devising a new voter's identification card. That may help minimize retail cheating at the precinct level but that is not as serious a problem as wholesale cheating done at the provincial canvassing level. Just look at what happened to Obet Pagdanganan and to Nene Pimentel.

I don't know if we still have time to do something about it but we should hear from our Comelec now. We have to move on in our electoral process or its credibility will suffer some more to the detriment of our democratic system.

Budget will always be a problem, but they should explore ways to go around that. Could they work something out with the banking industry... where our electoral process can piggyback on their existing network for a day? Do we need special machines or could ordinary clones suffice? Do we have to buy special machines or could we rent them?

The credibility of the election next year is important in regaining confidence in our political system and our economy. If there is any hint of anomaly, specially if the President's son seeks a senatorial seat, our economy may never be able to recover in the near term.

I think the credibility of our electoral process depends largely on our ability to get the results quickly. In fact, if we can have a central machine record our votes in real time as in an ATM banking transaction, that's the ideal. We should work towards that ideal, before people lose faith in the system.

President Estrada is set to lead the groundbreaking ceremonies this morning that will mark the start of the expansion and modernization of the North Luzon Expressway. When that expressway was constructed over 30 years ago, it was designed to carry a lot less than the 150,000 vehicles that now use it everyday. Anyone who has tried to exit the expressway at Balintawak during rush hour knows how inadequate it has become.

The expressway however, is not a government project. It has always been a private sector endeavor that is heavily regulated by government. Through the years, we have also learned a lot about toll roads, given both the success stories and the failures abroad. Given that government does not have the funds to modernize and increase the carrying capacity of that vital artery to the North, the private sector must take on the task again.

It isn't cheap nor is it easy. For the North Tollways, we are talking of P50 billion for a total of 182 kilometers, to include an extension to Subic. It took almost seven years from the time then President Ramos asked the Benpres Group to take it on to get the project to this point of actually breaking ground, under President Estrada. It will be funded by a combination of commercial and multilateral credit. The largest manager of tollways in France is part of the group that will run it based on world class standards.

But it isn't going to be easy. Right of way problems are major stumbling blocks. It is government's responsibility to take care of this but as always, there aren't enough funds to relocate squatters and buy property from owners. Bankers will have to be continually convinced that the usual political problems associated with Philippine infrastructure projects will not seriously affect the viability of the project.

I guess government will have to work double time in improving the expressways. Congestion is also endemic in the South Expressway. I just received an e-mail from Federico Herrera, a resident of Sta. Rosa, Laguna who complained about traffic congestion there. The boom in Calabarzon has made that portion of the South Expressway inadequate.

Sir, just for information Laguna Technopark has many investors from car industries (like Honda, Mitsubishi, Ford, Nissan and Toyota), electronic industries, soft drink and other major industries, providing jobs for thousands of Filipinos. The problem is, most of the times the traffic in that area is so bad it will take you 30 minutes to one hour just to travel a short distance. I frequently see foreigners driving to their workplace, who are as disgusted as I. If we want to attract investors, government must do something about that problem.

It is clear that the name of the game is infrastructure. Unless we have adequate infrastructure, we aren't competitive. And if we aren't competitive, we will always be in the region's sick bay.

Ernie Espiritu is back and he sent in this one.

Not long after his marriage, Joe Jr. and his father Joe Sr., met for lunch. "Well, son," asked Joe Sr., "how is married life treating you?"

"Not very well, I'm afraid," sighed junior. "It seems I married a nun."

"A nun?" his father questioned.

"That's right," moaned Joe Jr. "None in the morning, none at night, and none at all unless I beg!"

Joe Sr. nodded knowingly and slapped his boy on the back a couple of times. "Why don't we all get together for dinner tonight and have a nice talk?"

Young Joe smiled, "Say, Dad, that's a great idea!"

"Fine," replied Joe Sr., "I'll call home and tell the Mother Superior to set two extra plates."

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])