Did we have PCOS or "tikas" machines?

It is more than obvious to us that the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) continues to support the camp of Sen. Noynoy Aquino to the point that a huge news item about two Comelec whistleblowers who surfaced and given prominence on nationwide tv in the major networks, the PDI editors buried this news on page A-4 in yesterday’s news under the title, “Comelec whistleblowers ready to bare more.” If the PDI were anti-Aquino, I guarantee you that this article would be their blazing headline. But no, they are hoping against hope that all these allegations are just too wild and will go away.

But this story isn’t going away. The two whistleblowers are Atty. Melchor Magdamo who was a staff of Comelec Chairman Jose Melo and Dr. Arwin Serrano, a member of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) who was assigned to the Comelec. They first came up with that report about the attempt to purchase the blue folders at P380 each that the Comelec en banc decided to cancel.

Now these two have sought the help of former Solicitor General Frank Chavez and held a presscon in Makati together with Mr. Ernesto del Rosario, from the Comelec’s Information Technology Department who had details on the anomalies in the automated systems. This centers on the accuracy of the vote count after the compact flash cards in the PCOS machines malfunctioned. Did it really malfunction as reported or all this was merely part of the grand plan to defraud the May polls? Let’s ask the Comelec!

Then there’s that other whistleblower whose statements were taped by Manila Times columnist Buddy Cunanan. This whistleblower was masked to hide his identity. He apparently surfaced because of a crisis of conscience and is willing to show evidence in the proper forum. His statements are very damaging and a mute testimony that the Filipino people were taken for a ride in the last May 10 elections. This taped interview can now be downloaded in YouTube.

This whistleblower really puts some logical answers to the illogical results that has been happening right here in Cebu. He pointed out that once data from the PCOS machines are transmitted, these are blocked and instead the prepared results from “other” PCOS machines are accepted as the results. What was intriguing is his statement that the Presidential race was actually between Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro and Erap but their votes were “shaved” by an average of five million votes each. Sen. Loren Legarda’s votes were also shaved close to two million votes, because as the whistleblower alleged, Binay paid P1.4 billion to the syndicate in the Comelec.

In the Province of Cebu, the total number of voters was 1,500,628. If you add all the votes cast for all who ran for President, the figure would be 1,411,850. Subtract this number from the 1,500,628, then you will see a figure of 88,778 voters who did not vote for any President! In the Vice-Presidential race, the figure is higher at 151, 954 who did not vote for a VP! These figures are highly questionable because the Filipino voter would vote for their President and Vice-President as they only come once every six years. From the way things are going, it seems that the PCOS machines should be called “Tikas” machines. Hmmm. Inquirer columnist Randy David had the gall to write an article about the Filipino voter’s love affair of the PCOS machines last Sunday.

Right now, not a soul from the Comelec dared to answer our queries. Even more damaging to the credibility of this elections are the 86-member foreign observers who presented to Sen. Chiz Escudero that the May 10 elections were neither fair nor honest.

So if they believe that the May 10 elections wasn’t fair or honest, then we should now get these whistleblowers together and give them full security because I fear for their lives. If indeed, Noynoy Aquino is truly against corruption, he must also go into the bottom of this controversy because cheating in the elections is also corruption. For his sake, he should never take his oath of office under a cloud of suspicion that his elevation to the Office of the Presidency was tainted by cheating.

There was a logical pattern to this electoral fraud in the sense that certain candidates were targeted to lose in their own territories. Can you imagine Erap losing in San Juan or Bayani Fernando losing in Marikina? Yes, even Gov. Gwen Garcia lost in her precinct, which in my book puts this electoral contest into a dark cloud of doubt. Even more intriguing are the votes that Jun Davide got 543,246 votes, while his runningmate Greg Sanchez garnered 543,924 votes. I asked people who would get higher votes and everyone said that Greg who is more popular in the province should get a bigger margin of votes than Davide. But it is only 678 votes higher. Wow!