Cheated must identify poll rigging offerers

I will not presume to advise President-apparent Noynoy Aquino on policy. But I unsolicitedly will on his health, as I do anybody who cares to listen to my pitch against smoking. That spiel has nothing to do with the harm of second-hand smoke or social stigma or setting an example to the youth. It’s about each one’s dream.

Life is a long haul, and we all wish to do and see much — foremost perhaps the fruits of our work and our grandchildren. Smoking reduces our chances to live long.

Quitting is easy; I should know, I’ve done it many times. Joking aside, quitting requires grueling will power. But there are aids. The most common used to be nicotine substitutes. Patches and gums secrete nicotine to hopefully distract the smoker from lighting for a high. Problem, though, is they don’t kill the nicotine addiction and so depends mostly on will. Not too effective.

Now here’s a product endorsement, which I never publicly do. But I must say it worked with all the dozen men and three women I gave it to. Ask your doctor about Pfizer’s anti-smoking Champix (and discount card). The pill does not alternate — but deadens the urge — for nicotine. It gives the smoker no more reason to light up. In time s/he begins to hate the stink of tobacco smoke. Champix costs roughly P40 a tablet, about the price of two cigarette packs; the doc will start you off on half tab a day. Pfizer guarantees quitting in three months, but all those I know had used it stopped in less than three weeks.

Something about ending smoking: your taste buds perk up, so your appetite increases. Adding on weight, you’ll need to take on a new habit: regular workout.

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In the weeks leading up to the election   at least six groups of info-tech experts warned about failure of automation. Halalang Marangal, CenPEG, AES Watch 2010, Kontra Daya, TransparentElection.org, National IT Standards Foundation, and Philippine Computer Society foresaw the same scenario. Peril was great of inaccurate poll results due to technical flaws or criminal manipulation. Blamed was the Comelec’s ditching of basic security features: the ballot machine’s on-screen vote verifier and built-in ultraviolet mark reader, the source code review and SysTest Lab results, and the Board of Elections Inspectors’ digital signatures, among others. Tests were spotty of the machine’s vote counting and transmission. The technologists called for a simplified parallel manual count to ensure correct, credible precinct returns. Namfrel, Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, Financial Executives’ Institute, and Philippine Bar Association supported them.

Admin politicos reacted the same too. They jeered the experts’ “wild imagination,” telling them to give Comelec a break. On cue the poll body and Malacañang echoed them.

Today the same pols are crying automated cheating. Their common denominator is not only losing the election. They also wail where the IT men and supporters are, now that they supposedly have been cheated.

There’s something the losers should know. The technologists, before the election, were talking about possible automation crashes. Now, after the election, it’s the job of the cheated, if true, to tell how it was done. They can start by identifying the persons who offered to cheat for them, but whom they supposedly rejected and so vengefully victimized them instead.

The “cheated losers” have the same story, basically as Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor and Surigao Gov. Ace Barbers tell it. They were approached, Defensor at home and Barbers in the golf course, by men attesting knowledge to rig the results in their favor for a fee. Defensor claims to not bothering to ask how much, Barbers says the men quoted P50 million, but it does not matter. The bothersome fact remains that they refuse to name the offerers. Same with “cheated” admin Rep. Annie Susano in Quezon City, the Gonzalez and Ermita fathers and sons in Iloilo and Batangas, Gov. Teresita Lazaro in Laguna, Rep. Munir Arbison in Sulu, Mayor Angel Gatlabayan in Antipolo, Lito Atienza in Manila, and Speaker Prospero Nograles in Davao City. They are all high officials; seven of them purportedly are first-rate lawyers. Defensor even heads the House committee on justice, and sits in the Judicial and Bar Council that vets nominees for judges and justices. So they should know that it’s their duty to entrap and imprison criminals.

Officials are thorough. They have secretarial and security aides ready to screen and snap photos of visitors for press releases. They have laptops and cell phones to list down names and contact details. They know about the dagdag-bawas (vote padding-shaving) that have marred elections since 1995. Most of all, they have instant communication with lawmen in case they encounter crime. They cannot now lamely say that all they have are the mobile numbers of the offerers, who aren’t answering calls. Proving fraud is up to the “cheated”. The IT experts cannot do it for them.

The shoe is on the other foot, though. Admin stalwarts used to derail congressional inquiries to avert sure exposure of shenanigans. Now they’re demanding an investigation, but without first showing some proof of poll fraud aside from their tale.

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 “Christ reached His breaking point and man burst forth in glory. Judas reached his breaking point and we all know the story.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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