Clearing the smoke by Dilaab

If there is anything the Filipino people ought to know, it is that the Comelec has been dubbed for many decades as one of the most notoriously corrupt government agencies. You have to be totally naïve if you think that the Comelec officials have so suddenly turned around and become the cleanest government agency just because they introduced the automated counting machines. This is why, weeks after the May 10 elections, legitimate problems and complaints about the counting machines have surfaced. This needs to be addressed before we give the Comelec a clean bill of health.

Thus, it is unfortunate that certain people, many of them in the mainstream media, continue to sing hosannas to the automated voting machines, chastising and dismissing the complaints of losing candidates, giving them the usual tag of being sore losers. These people continue to gloat and one I learned is even preparing to be appointed to a high position in Malacañang, as if he or she has the ability to handle a government office.

If only they looked at the front page story of the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday, a newspaper that was tagged as very pro-Noynoy. It reported that the number of voters ballooned to 256, 733,195 registered voters then they would finally know and hopefully accept that there is something terribly wrong with those damn PCOS machines. This is just one of the reasons why the 86-member International Observers came up with a declaration saying, “The May 10 elections was neither honest nor credible!”

Sensing the futility of the mounting problems, the DILAAB organization came up with a statement entitled “Clearing the Smoke.” We’re printing this statement to show that we’re not alone in this.

“Despite the euphoria over a relatively credible, orderly and peaceful election, many complaints of irregularities and fraud have surfaced, including that of a shadowy character nicknamed after a marsupial. These have been highlighted by a congressional hearing despite the Comelec’s brushing them aside as isolated and baseless. And, notwithstanding the PPCRV pronouncement to the contrary, this “smoke” continues to thicken to the point of threatening to delay the proclamation of the President and VP-elect and negating the supposed gains of the P7B fully automated elections.

While the Comelec is now complaining that all this smoke fanned by the congressional hearing is delaying their work, there is actually one very proficient, scientific, and legal way to clear this smoke: The random manual audit. If the random sampling is statistically sound, this can prove or disprove any allegations of fraud and irregularities, and will put to rest rumors that the CF cards can be programmed remotely or confirmed reports of CF cards found where they should not be.

If a manual canvass of the ballots from the randomly selected machines are compared with what was printed, transmitted, received and tallied by the servers, as stipulated in the election law for the automated election, then it can be ascertained with a certain statistical level of confidence, whether there really were errors in printing of the COCs or not. There may even be no need to check the accuracy of the transmission vs. the printed COCs as the PPCRV has already certified that there are insignificant and irregularities in this area.

If the random manual audit is done as mandated by law, this would clear the air! In fact, the most efficient way this could have been done was for the BEIs to have done it right after they had printed and transmitted the results. If this was not done in front of all the poll watchers right after the voting, this can still be done by independent and competent groups within each province.

If Comelec insists on doing it themselves, they should do it in the presence of authorized poll watchers and other independent groups. There is not that many of clustered precincts that will be checked as there’s supposed to be only 5 randomly selected clustered precincts per congressional district. By doing this, the credibility of the elections can actually be confirmed once and for all and there won’t be any need to investigate each and every allegation, protest or complaint unless the irregularity has to do with illegally prepared ballots/votes or even voter’s lists.

 Once the smoke clears, the whole nation can now move forward to reconciliation, rebuilding and real development for the common good. The tasks at hand are formidable and this smoke needs to be cleared now before it further thickens. Or else, the result may be too cloudy for comfort, with no clear directions. Hence (1) the congressional canvass and proclamation of the President and VP should proceed without delay (2) this RMA should clear the air of all the local irregularities; (3) the P7B exercise should be fully audited and evaluated for effectiveness or even possible fraud. For DILAAB 26 May 2010. Signed by Dr. Tony Pineda and Fr. Melo Diola.” Let’s see if the Comelec will listen!