Political change via poll reforms

No, he’s not aching for a junta to replace the government, ex-national security adviser Jose Almonte clarified in my radio interview Saturday. He only painted political scenarios during several recent speeches if reforms do not come soon. Poverty and injustice are worsening, as seen in declining purchasing powers and unsolved murders. Its present generals are purging corruption in the military. But the bigger civilian bureaucracy isn’t moving as fast. If the military emerges as a white knight, the people might entertain a return to regimented rule.

Almonte analyzed, though, that Filipinos no longer would accept full martial law. Marcos’s plunder and abuses in the ’70s have assured that. But they could stage another EDSA-type revolt, this time leading to a civilian-military executive-legislative junta, precisely because of unmet desires for widespread change after the 1986 and 2001 topples by people power. That’s savory. People–businessmen, workers, youths–prefer predictability of progress, peace and opportunities. To avoid a slide to a junta, the civilian government must thus hasten to reform itself. Politics has to be made to respond to people’s wish for individual and national advancement, law and order, clean and efficient government. And the first way to achieving this is through electoral reforms.

Almonte set a timeframe: December. After which, it would be too late for the next national election of 2007 and growing disaffection. By yearend, he said, Congress should pass two major measures: a budget to modernize and make the Comelec truly independent, and state funding for political parties long-advocated by Lakas president Jose de Venecia and Laban chairman Edgardo Angara.

Sweeping electoral reforms would be to everyone’s good – the voters whose ballots have been thwarted by money and machination, investors who want quiet continuity, and politicians themselves who will no longer have to win solely through highest cash bids. That would need a revamp of the Comelec at national and local levels, and sufficient funds to once and for all automate vote casting and counting for speed and accuracy. Subsidy for political parties would lessen their dependence on political favors or dirty fund-raising from pork barrels and public contracts.

To be sure, the three major parties are recharging. The Liberals are recruiting young achievers from national and local governments, NGOs, academe and the media to make them the party to beat in 2007. Laban has reorganized its national council and is rebuilding chapters split between two presidential candidates in 2004. Not to be left behind, Lakas is re-indoctrinating members in Christian democracy, and de Venecia is scouting for fresh blood as well. The preparations are all internal, though. They have yet to sit down as parties of common interest, in and outside Congress, to agree on plans and laws that can preclude Almonte’s predicted storm.

The opposition, meanwhile, is gathering its tattered forces, but only to free its detained, disgraced leader it seems. By hailing Joseph Estrada as chairman emeritus, a United Opposition – PDP-Laban, PMP, and dropouts from Laban and NPC – is trudging backward to imagined glory days of 1998-2000, when Estrada was short-lived President, instead of forward to new platforms. It is thus reduced to sniping at every administration move by way of a political program. Estrada’s acceptance of the position, by proclaiming himself a supposed champion of good governance and the poor, only brings back to mind his all-night drunken parties in Malacañang, the corporate acquisitions sealed behind closed Palace doors, the alias Jose Velarde bank account, and the jueteng payola – all of which did nothing for the needy. Are these not what he’s now facing plunder charges for, and is thus detained in the no-bail offense?

The opposition is likewise not pushing electoral reforms. Except perhaps for PDP-Laban president Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who has been opposing confirmation by the Commission on Appointments of Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. Yet his objective too, if not his motive, is unclear in this regard, according to Pimentel’s own CA secretary Atty. Ed Tamondong when he was Senate President in 1998-2001. "I remember ... that (Pimentel) was pushing for the appointment of Garcillano as Comelec commissioner," Tamondong writes. "I recall this very well because I was in his office, with then-Director Garcillano, when Senator Pimentel asked for the papers of Garcillano which he said he would submit to President Estrada. Aware of Pimentel’s interest in Garcillano’s appointment, I even told Dir. Garcillano that I would have his nomination calendared for CA confirmation as soon as it was issued."

What caused his change of heart, only Pimentel can say. He declared before Congress’ Lenten break that the CA had bypassed Garcillano. Not true, though. From CA records, the members only deferred his questioning because they ran out of time grilling another appointee to another agency. Pimentel’s beef against Garcillano is the latter’s alleged dagdag-bawas (vote padding-shaving) in 1995 as Comelec director in Pimentel’s Northern Mindanao home region. Yet to this, Tamondong notes: "The wonder of it all is that Pimentel has not filed any case against Garcillano if indeed involved in dagdag-bawas. With his unerring sense of high-impact dramatic moves, Pimentel would not have missed such a good shot. What I know is that it was Pimentel who was alleged to have carried out a dagdag-bawas operation in Cagayan de Oro when he ran and lost in the 1995 senatorial election."

And so, electoral reforms hang.

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