Separate balloting to thwart warlords

Reader Jojo Mendoza notes that the election is just a continuation of the age-old sports and academic rivalry: Noynoy-Mar of Ateneo versus Gibo-Edu of La Salle.

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And Joey Rillo reports that illegally motorized pedicabs abound in the vicinity of the Manila police department on UN and Quirino Avenues and Gen. Luna Street: “The cabbies not only counter-flow traffic, but also do not have registration plates, much more public utility insurance coverage for passengers.”

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Sen. Nene Pimentel’s suggestion makes sense — to advance the 2010 balloting in Maguindanao by ten days. The massacre was election related. Having a separate schedule for the province can avert any more violence. Maguindanao voters can then freely exercise their right to suffrage.

The barbaric shooting of 57 civilians, mostly women and journalists, has grabbed world attention. With an earlier election, poll watchdogs can fly in, with observers from Muslim and other lands. Local and foreign newsmen can flock to the usual poll hotspots. In such situation, crooked pols will think twice about inflicting violence and fraud. Risk of world exposure would be great. For a change, Maguindanao could be rid of flying voters, harassers, vote buyers, ballot box snatchers, and gunslingers.

But the government has to put in place certain conditions. Like, all police and military units in Maguindanao must be replaced. This is in light of findings that top police provincial officers had joined in the killing spree, while military units had equipped the Ampatuan political clan’s “civilian volunteers” (private army) against Moro separatists. In their stead must be deployed crack units — Marines, Army Rangers, PNP Special Action Force — to capture the massacrers. Next, disarm and disband the private armies of the Ampatuans, Mangudadatus, and other warlords. This would be the government’s chance to seize loose firearms in that strife-torn province.

The Comelec must do its part. First, it must put Maguindanao under its control start of the election period on Jan. 10. By then, Malacañang can lift the locale’s state of emergency. All election officials who operated in Maguindanao in the 2004 and 2007 balloting must be replaced. They are gofers of the Ampatuan political dynasty and of then allied, now enemy Mangudadatus. It was they who let the politicos zero the immensely popular presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. in three towns in 2004, and the 12-man Opposition senatorial slate in 20 of 22 towns in 2007. The Comelec must also extend by a reasonable period the filing of candidacies in Mindanao. The massacre had disrupted the process that is set to end on Dec. 1. Tension has prevented many candidates from filling up the legal forms.

These measures aim not to turn the odds against the old pols, but for free voting in Maguindanao. If the Ampatuans, Mangudadatus and other warlords want to win, they should do it without guns, goons and gold.

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Suddenly RP outranks Iraq as the world’s most perilous place for journalists. With 37 newsmen among the massacred in Maguindanao, 105 have been killed so far since the Arroyo admin came to power in 2001. In only five cases have suspects been arrested.

Meanwhile, the Arroyo admin speaks with forked tongue. Publicly it denounces the massacre as a heinous crime. Privately, it is appeasing the Ampatuan clan that eyewitnesses have identified as perpetrators.

Our blighted land has sunk this low under Gloria Arroyo. We now seek criminals’ permission to enforce the law. Imagine, 57 mutilated corpses recovered, but the police have no suspect yet! By contrast last April, they were so brutally quick to arrest Ted Failon’s housemates on pretext of investigating foul play in an obvious suicide.

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At the rate things are going, Congress would be unable to pass a 2010 budget. The House of Reps approved its version late October, transmitting it to the Senate just before sessions adjourned for the All Saints-All Souls holidays. Sessions will resume Dec. 7, but only for eight days, hardly enough for the Senate to wrap up budget hearings and debate in plenary. After the long Christmas break, Congress will reopen mid-January for a three-week session. By then, the House may not have a quorum anymore to ratify the report of the usually grueling bicameral conference bargaining. The next session will be in May to proclaim the President-elect.

With no 2010 budget, the 2009 appropriation automatically will be deemed reenacted. And since the projects for which funds were allocated already have been completed, Gloria Arroyo can juggle funds at will. This, warns ex-national treasurer Leonor Briones, is like giving Arroyo a blank check to misuse hundreds of billions in public pesos for electioneering.

It’s no coincidence that the previous times Arroyo had reenacted budgets were in election years 2004 and 2007.

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“Compare yourself with yourself. Envy not others for what they can do; challenge yourself to what you can do.” Shafts of Light, by Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ, is available in cards: P100 per box of 25. To order, e-mail: [email protected]

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E-mail: [email protected]