Comelec fights back via Internet

Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioners have drawn the battle lines on the Internet to counter an online signature campaign seeking their resignation.

Posted on the Comelec website is a statement urging the public not to vote blindly and be fooled by some people using "half truths" to destroy the poll body.

The Comelec said the online petition of supposed information technology experts led by a certain Augusto Lagman is but the latest salvo in what appears to be a determined campaign to undermine the country’s democratic institutions.

"Whether knowingly or unwittingly, the petition cleverly uses half-truths and misrepresentations to mislead the public into believing that the Comelec has done wrong by omitting certain key and proven facts and relying only on bare accusations and insinuations," the Comelec said.

Lagman’s group has mounted an online signature campaign to pressure the Comelec commissioners to resign for their involvement in the alleged anomalous purchase of automated counting machines (ACM) before the 2004 elections.

Denying the group’s claims, the Comelec said it had not broken any laws or abused the public’s trust by entering into a contract for the purchase of ACMs.

The contract was awarded to a consortium and the ACMs were rigorously tested by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and found to be 100-percent accurate and reliable, the poll body added.

The Comelec said it tried to return the ACMs to the supplier and recover the money, but the supplier refused to take back the machines because the case is still pending in court.

Lagman’s group also alleged that the Comelec continued to spend millions to rent warehouse space to store the ACMs.

The poll body said the action is " another attempt to demonize the Comelec."

"Should the Comelec leave the ACMs to rot in the streets?" the Comelec asked.

"If the ACMs are not warehoused they will certainly soon be damaged, giving further justification for the supplier’s refusal to take them back," it added.

The Comelec said the commissioners could be removed only by impeachment, a safeguard precisely meant to insulate them from partisan pressure.

"In an election contest there must be a winner, just as there must be losers and if the Comelec were to give in to every call for resignation from losers and from people who think they were cheated, then all

Comelec commissioners will be hostaged to whatever partisan group can shout out their discontent loudest and longest," the Comelec said.