Biggest poll puzzle: what if Garci wins?

First, the Opposition puts up two candidates to adjoin a sis and a dad in the Senate. Then, two Administration factions pit a vice lord against an illegal quarrier respectively as gubernatorial bets. You’d think you’ve seen the crassest, craziest in Philippine politics. But there’s even worse. Virgilio Garcillano, the former Comelec commissioner whose name is synonymous with everything wrong with our system, is running for congressman in the first district of Bukidnon. And if his lawyer is to be believed, he might win.

Rightly, no party has stooped so low as to adopt this congressional wannabe. Why should they? Garcillano only means trouble. As Comelec regional director for Northern Mindanao in 1995, he gained notoriety as the "mechanic" who fixed national poll results for the highest bidders. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. had blamed him for his defeat in that year’s senatorial race by a measly 22,000 votes. Later conceding perhaps to Garcillano’s dagdag-bawas prowess, Pimentel worked in 1999 for his appointment as commissioner, though in vain. Garcillano would get the post in Feb. 2004, amidst howls of protest coinciding with the start of the presidential campaign. And that was when he got mixed up in the infamous "Garci Tapes".

"I don’t know what their reasons are," Garcillano shed crocodile tears as even the most opportunistic parties avoided him. "I only want to serve the people." Either he hasn’t checked the public pulse or he’s just plain numb about public opinion. Serve the people, he says. Why, one of the most basic requirements of a public servant is honesty. Yet he has not explained to the people his chats with candidate Gloria Arroyo at the height of the 2004 canvassing, or his implied kidnapping of an election supervisor, or his consequent disappearance for almost a year. He would best serve the people by coming out with the truth once and for all.

"If no party will carry me, then I would have to run as independent," Garcillano then feigned deep hurt, "and that’s even if I have no political machinery to rely on." With that, he zoomed into the Comelec office in Malaybalay with an 80-car motorcade, to file his candidacy. He obviously has an organization — the core perhaps of his poll-rigging network.

For a former Comelec man, Garcillano has shown no respect for the right to suffrage. Murmurs of his vote padding and shaving recur too often to be groundless. Suspicious are his two passports, whose sizes don’t match and which carry no entry stamps to Singapore, to where authorities said he fled from the heat of investigation. To this and the Tapes, he invariably turns legalistic and insists the allegations have yet to be proven in court.

Garcillano apparently has a low regard for the voters in his district, consisting of the towns of Baungon, Talakag, Malitbog, Kalilangan, Libona, Pangantucan, Manolo Fortich, and Sumilao. He believes they will vote for him simply because of what he claims is his national popularity — thinking Filipinos call it notoriety — gained from the Garci Tapes. (His friends even warned me against writing about him, lest I make him more known than he already is and help him win. No, really.) He even filed "Garci" as his official ballot nickname, although he hated being called that during the 2006 hearings of the House of Representatives on his election scams. He refused to answer questions back then whenever addressed as "Garci," insisting that his pet name was different. Now he thinks the stinky moniker will take him to victory. To cap his disrespect for his voters, he paraded ago-go dancers at the Comelec office as crowd drawers.

What if his forecast victory comes true? What will this Garci do in Congress?

Perhaps his first act will be to take an oath to raze the Constitution and the government, as he almost did with his election shenanigans. Then, he can file bills to decriminalize election cheating, perjury in congressional hearings, forgery of passports, and kidnapping. With luck, he can even become Speaker.

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Hermie Toledo, a Filipino factory worker in South Korea, took time out to send this note about our Red, White and Blue:

"Please call the attention of our consul here. I was passing by the Sky City Mall beside Kimpo Airport when I noticed a display of flags of different nations. Instinctively I looked for ours, and was dismayed to see the red field up. I immediately called the embassy, but no one answered. Maybe you’ll have better luck."

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