LP doubts automation/JBC inhibitions needed

The five Catholic bishops of Davao region heard all sides of the aerial spraying debate and rendered their conclusion. They are calling for deeper studies because no evidence warrants banning of the plantation practice.

Banana growers must be elated. Bishops Fernando Capalla, Wilfredo Manlapaz, Patricio Alo, Guillermo Afable and George Rimando have absolved them. Earlier Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales from faraway Manila called aerial spraying immoral because infringing on human health.

Clearly unhappy is the Interface Development Interventions Inc. that leads Davao’s anti-aerial spray movement. No sooner had the prelates told all sides to not muddle the issue with ideological and vested interests than the IDIS struck. “Anti-people and anti-Christ,” it labeled the five.

Calling bishops demonic for disagreeing with one’s stand is extreme. But to begin with, it’s wrong to let religionists settle scientific issues. The fates of Copernicus and Galileo show why. Then again, it was the IDIS that first pulled Capalla in via an anti-aerial spraying manifesto. The bishop later lamented that his signature was forged.

Only dispassionate scientific research will instruct. Ten toxicologists have done it. Peer reviews by the UP-Manila and World Health Organization have debunked them, though.

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Not only conflicted justices of the Supreme Court must inhibit from the review of allowing Gloria Arroyo to name the next Chief Justice. Two members of the Judicial and Bar Council too must recuse from screening the replacement for retiring CJ Reynato Puno.

Regino Hermosisima is in fact facing a plea to inhibit. Lawyer Nestor M. Leynes III recounted in a letter to the JBC Hermosisima’s alleged bias for certain candidates to the judiciary and unconstitutional acts. More basic, he has not been confirmed by the Commission on Appointments. An ad interim posting by Arroyo, because withdrawable anytime, makes him beholden to the appointing power. (This is in fact Arroyo’s fourth time to name him as two-year rep of retired justices.) Leynes stressed that Hermosisima opposes the rise of an SC associate justice to “acting CJ”. In like manner he must not participate in the JBC’s vetting process in an acting capacity.

The same goes for acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra. He has yet to be confirmed by a CA that’s likely to meet only after June 30, when he shall have stepped out with Arroyo. But he actively is campaigning against justices perceived to be independent of Arroyo’s devices.

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From the start info-tech experts have been voicing doubts about poll automation. But election candidates largely ignore them. Politicos are either too busy campaigning or techno-illiterate or taken in by mass enthusiasm for automation. Insight can’t sink in that they’d be the first losers in a computer snafu.

Finally, one party has studied the process and pointing up defects. The Liberal Party is raising the alarm of looming failure of election from computer flop. Presidential standard-bearer Noynoy Aquino and running mate Mar Roxas are set to meet the Comelec brass today to gauge if it’s still salvageable. They have good reason to fear no-proclamation of winners for President, VP and senators. Gloria Arroyo’s body language points to it: her congressional run, touchy police-military promotions, insistence on naming the next CJ, multibillion-peso midnight deals, kith and kin sneaking into Congress via party lists, and spokesmen’s talk of juntas. An unreformed Comelec, which she used to rig her 2004 presidential run, could be part of the plot.

In a letter to Comelec chairman Jose Melo, Aquino and Roxas cited eight worrisome points about automation. Some are of general concern, others partisan:

1. Questionable source code review — In violation of the automation law the Comelec took too long to allow the review of computer programs. With little time left for parties to complete it, restrictions to review only in Comelec offices using only its software and PCs further hinder the job.

2. Lack of means to verify ultra-violet ballot marks — The Comelec has not explained why automation supplier Smartmatic-TIM switched off the U/V reading feature of the vote counters. This, after they changed ballot boxes from transparent to opaque to avoid ballot damage from exposure to U/V light.

3. Random manual audit — Cross-checking the electronic count via a manual one must be done before transmission of results and proclamation of winners.

4. Refusal to accredit Namfrel-CBCP-Nassa as citizen poll watchdogs. It’s as if the Comelec does not want to have a public unofficial count.

5. Unfair ballot design — The Comelec has not de-listed debarred KBL presidential bet Vetaliano Acosta. His name appears ahead of Aquino’s, while close rival Manuel Villar’s is in the last column by itself, giving him a 2.5-percent vote edge.

6. Lack of contingency plans — In violation of the automation law, the poll body has not laid down adequate backups in delivery of ballots and counters to precinct clusters.

7. Disqualification of LP bets — The Comelec has been unseating or debarring LP members, like Governors Ed Panlilio and Grace Padaca, Rep. Baham Mitra, and actor Richard Gomez.

8. LP as dominant minority party — The party had held the status in the 2007 election. The Nacionalista Party, with NPC, has filed to gain the rank.

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“You can buy people with your wealth, but you cannot buy out a single sin in your soul. You can buy yourself off on earth, but you cannot buy yourself into heaven.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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