EDITORIAL - Get your act together

The lawyer of President Arroyo is claiming victory for his client, citing results of the official tally by the Commission on Elections. Citing its own count, the camp of Fernando Poe Jr. is also claiming victory. And for comic relief, supporters of disqualified candidate Eddie Gil claimed 15 million people voted for him, and proceeded to proclaim him the winner.

Only Congress, however, can proclaim the duly elected president and vice president. As expected, the canvassing process was off to a rocky start yesterday, with lawmakers behaving along partisan lines. Meanwhile, security officials continued to talk of efforts to prevent the proclamation of the winners.

The nation is turning into a textbook case on how not to conduct free elections. And if lawmakers do not get their act together, the canvassing could trigger a descent into chaos. The opposition claims the administration-dominated Congress is bent on railroading the proclamation of President Arroyo. Administration lawmakers say the opposition, seeing the defeat of their standard-bearer Poe, is bent on delaying the canvassing so no winner can be proclaimed by June 30, when the elected president is supposed to assume power, thus triggering a constitutional crisis.

All the contenders in the presidential race have copies of the certificates of canvass that will be the subject of the congressional tally. The results that will be reported as Congress goes about its work can be checked against those certified copies. This can be done with reasonable speed, without the histrionics that have become the hallmark of lawmakers whenever they know their session is being aired live on national TV.

Administration lawmakers know that more than speed, the canvassing needs credibility. As both chambers convene in joint session today to adopt the canvassing rules, administration lawmakers should make it clear to the public that other options would make the canvass intolerably long. Opposition politicians, for their part, should also realize that grandstanding politicians are as useless to this effort as poll cheats. They should show that their objections are meant not to delay but to ensure the credibi-lity of the canvass.

Congress has often disappointed the people. This time lawmakers should rise to the occasion and do their job right.