Electing a President by substitution?

According to Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos, there is a provision in the Election Code that scares him – the one allowing last minute substitution of candidates. The way he explained it, it is possible for Lakas to field Sen. Noli de Castro for President and at the last minute replaces him with Ate Glo. That way, she keeps her promise not to run and still ends up with a brand new six-year term.

But it cuts both ways. Fernando Poe Jr. can be fielded by the Partido ng Masang Pilipino for President and at the last minute, the party substitutes him with Sen. Loi Estrada. In fact, popular newscasters and showbiz personalities can theoretically make a good living running for positions they don‘t intend to hold. They can charge a fee to run and be replaced by the less popular beneficiary the night before the election. This is election by proxy.

Substituting candidates is not new. Many years ago, re-electionist Sen. Gaudencio Antonino died in a plane crash the day before the election. His widow, Magnolia, substituted for him and won that election. But the difference is, there is a good reason for that substitution. According to Chairman Abalos, the current election law does not provide for any such good reason. A party decision for a last minute substitution is enough.

I can’t believe guys like Sen. Joker Arroyo missed that one. Chairman Abalos must be mistaken in his appreciation of the law. But if the one running the election next year understands the law in this manner, then we are in trouble, one way or another. Our democratic process is apparently subject to brazen manipulation by political party bosses and everything would be legal.

Chairman Abalos explains that because the May 2004 election will be computerized, a vote cast for the withdrawn candidate is counted for the substitute. He said there would be no more time for the Comelec to change the printed name in the ballots. In the past, voters still had to write down the substitute’s name.

Because of this problem, Abalos is thinking of adopting some implementing rules that provide for reasonable deadlines for substituting candidates. But he is not sure if the Comelec has legal ground to do that because the law clearly allows substitution even up to election eve. Maybe there is still time for Congress to take a second look at that provision and pass new legislation that clarifies congressional intent.

As it stands, I am worried we could end up with a President who was not really elected by the people. An out-and-out mockery of the most sacred of our democratic processes will cause a further deterioration of the country’s political climate. That‘s simply bad news for our economy.

Military Procurement

Armed Forces chief General Narciso Abaya has asked that the budget department, not the AFP, conduct the bidding for the procurement of 100 million pesos worth of supplies for soldiers as he admitted that there was "some degree of corruption’’ in the military’s procurement services. Besides, Abaya was reported to have pointed out, the procurement of boots and other essential supplies would be fasttracked if this were done by the budget department because DBM uses electronic bidding.

Which reminds me, whatever happened to the defense department’s e-procurement process started by former Defense Secretary Orly Mercado? Shortly after EDSA 2, pre-martial law reporters of ABS-CBN (Radyo Patrol and TV news) had a reunion of sorts at Camp Aguinaldo, hosted by Orly. One of the things Orly talked to us at length was his e-procurement initiatives.

I remember that Orly was proud of the progress he was making in this area even if he was getting threats to his life in the process. He told us that using e-procurement allows the defense establishment to save a lot of money.

So, what happened to Orly’s e-procurement initiative after he was replaced by Gen. Angie Reyes? We can only guess. All I know is, we heard nothing more about it. Now, General Abaya is telling us that it is apparently not operational anymore. Why else would he ask the DBM to use their own e-procurement to buy military supplies? Sayang naman all that money that went into developing Orly’s e-procurement process.

But Gen. Abaya should be commended for taking the initiative to revive the procurement of military supplies through e-procurement, even if it means using DBM’s facility for that. Using e-procurement is one sure way of cutting costs because the bidding process is so transparent. Even the big corporations (Ayala, Lopez Group, Gokongwei Group, Unilab, Aboitiz and PLDT) have banded together to form Bayantrade, an e-procurement Internet portal.

But even for the private sector, acceptance of the more transparent process had not been easy. The entrenched syndicates within the purchasing departments of the corporations have resisted the shift to Bayantrade. Bayantrade members register significant savings every time they buy through Bayantrade, so that the SM Group, a non member, uses it too.

In fact, the five original members of Bayantrade have recovered their initial investment of P500 million on the system, in terms of savings. DBM could save a lot of money and cut the learning curve by using the Bayantrade system instead of re-inventing a new one based on an American proposal that would even be hosted abroad.

As for the military, it would be interesting to hear Angie Reyes’s explanation for sidetracking Orly’s e-procurement initiative. I might add, I wonder why.

Goat

One of the dailies (not ours) was gloating that the goat of PMA Class 95, who, as member of the Feliciano Commission, will sit in judgment of the valedictorian and other high performing members of his class. The goat of a PMA class is the lowest ranking, academically.

But as I read the story, it seems to me that class goat was the brightest of them all. He quit the military service a few years ago and is now a pilot of Philippine Airlines flying the Pacific route to the US. He must have seen the futility of military service early on, something that must have escaped the valedictorian and the other class hotshots. Now the hotshots gave up a promising future just because they thought they could clean up the military of corruption, and felt strong enough about it to mutiny. Kinda stupid, if you ask me.

This reminds me of a book I saw at the bookstore in Rockwell last Sunday. The title of the book is something like this: Why intelligent managers fail. The class goat turned out the most intelligent of them all.

Mistake

The phrase in my column last Wednesday that reads "the rules are not too changeable" should have read – the rules are too changeable –– without the ‘not’.. My mistake, sorry about that.

Cleared for take-off

This is from Dr. Ernie E.

A peppery woman at the airline ticket counter was complaining long and loudly about the delay in her plane’s departure.

"Young man," she snapped at the agent, "the way you people run this airline a witch on a janitor’s broom could get there faster!"

The agent, with just a hint of a smile, says, "The runways are clear, madam. Please feel free."

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]