EDITORIAL - The 'Garci' whistle-blower

Samuel Ong is dead, but the issue he raised, which ended his law enforcement career, should not be allowed to die. The whole truth about the “Hello, Garci” vote-rigging scandal may never be known, but Ong’s death should remind the nation that poll fraud need not be a permanent fixture in every Philippine electoral exercise.

Ong was an official of the National Bureau of Investigation when he presented to the public in 2005 what he described as “the mother of all tapes” – a recording of phone conversations between a man believed to be Virgilio Garcillano, at the time a commissioner of the Commission on Elections, and a woman believed to be President Arroyo. The unauthorized recording pointed to the manipulation of votes in parts of Mindanao. Malacañang had tried to launch a preemptive strike, with then presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye presenting what was supposed to be the “Garci” tape before Ong surfaced.

Amid calls for her resignation, the President later apologized for her “lapse in judgment” but refused to step down. Both Ong and Garcillano disappeared, although Garcillano would later pop up, deny rigging the vote, and run for public office using his nickname “Garci” in his campaign materials. He lost. The tapped conversations were never authenticated by impartial experts. Bunye was named to the Monetary Board, military officers implicated in the scandal were promoted, while Ong remained in hiding until his death.

Though the vote-rigging case is unresolved, the Comelec and other concerned parties are aware of how votes can be manipulated under a manual system. A switch to automated elections could thwart cheating in next year’s general elections – if measures will be put in place to prevent anyone from tampering with the results. No one should discount the possibility that people used to rigging the vote will not find a way to undermine the elections again in 2010.

The Comelec and all concerned parties should be prepared for the various ways of cheating in both manual and automated voting systems. Samuel Ong put his career and his life on the line to bare the contents of the mother of all tapes. The majority of Filipinos need not risk so much. Every citizen can play a role, however small, in seeing to it that the 2010 elections will be credible.