Unselfish act

One bright spot in the otherwise depressing and disgusting developments on the conduct of our last election courtesy of our discredited Comelec, is the recent announcement of Mike Defensor gallantly conceding his defeat in the Senatorial race. With his gesture, Mike has set an example to other candidates how they should behave in the face of an irreversible setback at the polls. He has just shown to the entire nation the rare stuff that politicians, who have placed national interest above self, should be made of. Now I know why he has reached the unprecedented heights of success in public service at such a young age. I voted for him in the last election precisely because we need young blood in the Senate having in mind the words of our national hero, Jose Rizal, that the youth is the hope of our fatherland. The example he has shown in defeat reinforces my belief that there is still hope for this country. I wish Mike Defensor all the success in his future endeavors and many political battles ahead.

Indeed, when Defensor bravely faced the press together with his wife and children telling all and sundry that he lost fair and square and that there is “honor in defeat” which he wanted to impart to his children, he has won the hearts and earned the admiration of millions of Filipinos. Such a scenario is quite bizarre in the Philippine political landscape. In our elections, there are no losers, only victims of cheating.

At first I considered as a joke and used to laugh at every losing candidate’s claim of being cheated of victory. But at the rate reports of cheating and other election anomalies in many areas of our country are surfacing, more specifically in the perennial hot spot like Mindanao and with the sloppy handling by the Comelec which looks so unprepared and helpless, I am beginning to believe that this is no longer a joke. It is becoming apparent that there is really rampant cheating in every election which the Comelec cannot prevent (or willingly allows?) and that candidates lose in elections either because they do not cheat while their victorious opponents cheat, or they also cheat but are out-cheated by their victorious opponents.

If some media people have “dirty minds” as the Comelec Chairman claims, it is mainly because of the many election irregularities that have been reported and the Comelec’s reaction to these reports. Write ups and accounts of ballots being filled up by minors and persons other than the voters themselves, election returns being tampered or taken to other unseemly places like hotels, discrepancies in, or missing certificates of canvass, elections not being held in an entire province necessitating special elections that are still disrupted, delayed or postponed canvassing or re-canvassing because of absence of canvassers,  missing members of Board of Election Inspectors gone into hiding out of fear, and the usual vote shaving and vote padding or dagdag-bawas, are certainly not figments of imagination. They really occurred in the last elections. Some of the incidents have been caught by TV cameras. These occurrences prompted a senatorial candidate to comment that, at this time, none among the senatorial candidates, not even those in the winning column, really knows whether or not the votes they obtain are correct or accurate.

Despite all these reports that seriously marred the conduct of the last election especially in some parts of Mindanao, the Comelec just shrug them off as being unfounded and instead required those concerned to file their complaints and produce their witnesses first. This is a reaction that can be likened to the typical reaction of some policeman on the beat who would not immediately respond to the urgent call for assistance from a resident in the neighborhood about a crime being committed, unless a complaint has been filed first. With this kind of reaction, election offenses cannot really be checked just as crimes remain unabated. The prevailing perception is that there was almost chaos in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte and parts of Cotabato during the last election. But this perception remains unfounded because witnesses are afraid to come out. Hence, as far as the Comelec is concerned, the elections in those areas are still “generally” peaceful and orderly.

People cannot have but dirty thoughts that became dirtier during this election because of one glaring fact. The Comelec is fully aware of the many areas in the country where cheating occurred in the previous elections like Maguindanao and the Lanao provinces as well as parts of Cotabato. It also knows the officials previously implicated in the irregularities there. It has three years at least from the last election to adopt the necessary measures to prevent the happening of same irregularities this election. Yet almost the same irregularities occurred in the same places and almost the same officials are involved. Why?

The election is almost over but for the counting and canvassing. Based on the latest tally, there are 8 GO candidates, 2 independents and only 2 TU bets in the winning column. The list of candidates in this winning column has not changed for the past two weeks of canvassing both in the Comelec and Namfrel count. But up to now, the Comelec has not made even a partial proclamation of winners because it is awaiting the canvass of votes in those areas that precisely have questionable results due to the occurrence of irregularities. If there is any drastic change in the winning slate after the returns in those areas are canvassed by having more TU bets in the winning column, suspicions will certainly arise that the results have been manipulated.

Perhaps this is the very reason why Defensor decided to concede defeat. His move may really have thrown a gauntlet to any attempts at committing acts “inimical to the essence of democracy and fair play in an electoral battle”. I hope other losers would follow his example. On the other hand, the Comelec should, at this stage, already make a partial proclamation of winners in the senatorial derby.

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