Who’s to blame for the confusion?

We all are, but especially those to whom we entrusted legislation for automated elections. That is where the trouble began. As far as I can remember automated election was a touch and go affair with some of those crying fraud and trending now among those who had opposed it.

People forget that the 2004 budget was not passed, thanks to a bickering Congress. The uncertainty of its passage kept up a guessing game whether or not even the elections would be funded. Because of the protracted debate, there was little room for the huge task of returning to manual on the 11th hour.It became both a problem of time and funds. As Chairman Benjamin Abalos said in an interview months before, the budget for automated elections was for P3 billion, P1 billion for the validation machines, P1.7 billion for the counting machines and another P300 million for e-transmission. There was none for informing the public.

This is not to absolve the COMELEC from any responsibility for the confusion, or that there were no shenanigans of which I may not be aware of, but it must be said yet again that the confusion occurred in the context of gridlock between the legislative and executive that even so vital a process as election was being used as political football. I know as a matter of fact that President GMA wanted automated elections to be one of her major achievements during her 30-month tenure but this was frustrated by the Drilon-led Senate.

I had no difficulty finding my name on the old registration book although a COMELEC man warned me that if I had not re-registered, I would not be on any list. But I persisted and went from precinct to precinct in the Magallanes Sports Hall and finally found my name in a book of previously registered voters. Again it may be true that in some cases, voters were discouraged by the confusion but Commissioner Borra is right when he says some of those who were not able to vote did not try hard enough. At the same time it is also true that if even the COMELEC guys did not know that those who had not re-registered (as it was in my case) can still vote, how is the public to be informed?

New man at the helm. There’s a new ambassador at the embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Businessmen should be encouraged that incoming HE, Ambassador Mohammed Ameen Wali has his sights on an expanded trade and investment relations between our two countries. As my friend and publisher, Max Soliven, already mentioned in his column, the former ambassador, Saleh Al-Ghamdi made many friends during his tenure here and changed several wrong impressions about the Saudis. Ambassador Al-Ghamdi was a warm and approachable ambassador but he has moved to a more difficult assignment as ambassador to New Delhi where the Muslim populace is second only to Indonesia in size.

Ambassador Wali is expected to consolidate those gains by cultivating the business side of diplomacy. As his CV reads, his last post before Manila was minister plenipotentiary and chargé d’affaires ad interim in Tokyo and was one time in Singapore, both centers of business in Asia. Like Ambassador Al-Ghamdi this is also his first posting as an ambassador. I have many friends among the Saudis including the illustrious former Saudi ambassador to the Court of St. James, H.E.Ghazi A. Algosaibi, who kicked up a storm when he wrote An Ode to a Suicide Bomber. I hear that he is now back in Riyadh as Minister for Labor. With almost a million Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia, Minister Algosaibi will be an important contact we must cultivate. One of the things I learned during a media visit there is how little Filipinos have taken advantage of the many opportunities for gaining skills ie in computer studies.

Letters: From: Martin Lu <[email protected]. who says he is glad that GMA is leading the count. He shares this letter to his batchmates written 12 days before election day to meet and discuss specific proposals for charter change.

"To me, the evil on May 10 is – this "winner take all" presidential derby where the fate of 80 million hangs. Very expensive, very high stakes for all. Could we not make elections cheaper, the odds/stakes less? Our values will never change overnight. The fault is more in the system, and less in our values as a people. He points to the ff. 1) concentration of powers in the Presidency. EDSA 1 produced a benign dictator who had law making powers, and who appointed wise men who crafted a Constitution with this "six-year winner-take-all presidential derby".

2) a bicameral legislature, reinstituting a regressive, duplicate legislative body that is the Senate. The Senate and the colliding ambitions of some super legislators have dragged us behind our neighbors. For one, it was the Senate that failed to respond to a very popular clamor for change. The presidentiables who want to take over GMA’s job interpret the 73 percent of us who want change as clamoring for a new president. (CNP note: According to a very reliable source, Sen. Drilon did not care about charter change because he said there was no popular clamor for it! Let’s show him!) No, sirs. The fault is not in one man or woman. It is in the Senate!!!

3. Centralization of powers of the three branches of government in Manila. While we copied the American model of three separate but equal branches of government, we failed to adopt the federal-state checks and balance. Hence, all local governments have to come begging Manila for a decision, for the budget, the hiring and firing of personnel, the grant of contracts over natural resources, etc. Our system of government is so centralized, so bulky, that even a saint or a great soul elected or, by EDSA Miracle, elevated to the Presidency, will fall short of our expectations.

He hopes President GMA will keep to her promise to be a transition president. "When I write GMA on my ballot, it is with a covenant she made with us that she will be a transition president who will surrender her awesome powers to the federal states and to parliament. Hope this election will be a vote for the abolition of the Senate, an institution that has outlived its purpose, produced super-egoes with presidentiable ambitions whose self-interests have spelled doom to all efforts by a few senators, and an overwhelming number of congressmen, governors and mayors to "cure the evil that is in our constitution.

We remedy a fourth evil if we realize we do not have to elect 12. We can also leave the space for Vice President blank or crossed out."

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