'No sabotage in barangay polls'

MANILA, Philippines - The panel tasked to investigate the delays in last year’s barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections found no deliberate attempt to sabotage the synchronized polls.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner and panel head Armando Velasco said they will submit the report this week.

He, however, hinted that the panel had observed “negligence” on the part of some of those involved in the preparations.

“We didn’t see sabotage nor was there an intention to delay the election. The concentration of delays was in the preparatory procedures,” Velasco said.

The synchronized polls last year were marred by delays in the delivery of election supplies like election returns, ballots and canvassing forms, prompting the poll body to create the panel.

There were reports that some Comelec personnel had intentionally messed up the packing of supplies so that these would not be included in the shipment.  

Because of this, they were the ones who did the delivery, which enabled them to get cash advances.

Velasco said there were seven aspects of preparation – allocation and specification, notice to proceed, bidding, printing, verification, packing and shipping – and all were found to have caused delays. 

But lack of time was the primary reason why the paraphernalia was transported late to their destinations, according to Velasco.

“In previous elections, we had six months to prepare. If something went wrong or if some materials were sent to the wrong school, we still had time (to make corrections). But for this, we only had two days as buffer time,” he said.

The Comelec was not able to immediately go full blast in the preparation due to various calls from Congress to postpone the twin elections.

It was given a go signal only in August, or two months before the elections, during a meeting in Malacañang.

Velasco said they also observed the lack of system in almost all aspects of the preparation. “They were panicking maybe because time was running out and some of those who were supposed to supervise the preparation were not given control of their men,” he said.

The panel has come up with 16 recommendations but left the decision on whether or not to file charges against those who may have been remiss in their jobs to the Comelec. 

The panel had questioned some 30 Comelec officials and employees during the investigation.