The serious and countless techno blunders, glitches, switchings, and other irregularities negate the notion that election protests are just “whinings” of the losers. Such grave aberrations arose from the doubtful automated polls, not only flawed and defective, but as compromised by manipulation, and corrupted at the heart of the system.
Like ATM cash dispensers, lotto machines, aircraft auto-pilot mechanism, to name a few, the workings of poll automation must be perfect in the exercise of national political suffrage. Unlike in poll surveys, or opinion or census taking when there is statistical margin of error, the PCOS and its CFCs and other software should be perfect, or 100% accurate.
Say, how could the reconfigured or corrected CFCs found to be defective after final testing and sealing, still be error-prone inside the PCOS as to transmit zero votes of, say, all candidates?
According to “Koala Bear” or “Robin” who owned as one of those “rigging” election results, Jojo Binay allegedly spent P1.4 billion to have the votes of VP rivals shaved during canvassing. “Robin” had the temerity to accuse Binay as “consolidator” of the poll frauds. It may not be that easy to disregard the “rigging” of ERs, given the plethora of poll offenses and manipulation.
Who stood to benefit from election anomalies? Noynoy Aquino was too far ahead, too big his lead for rigging to topple him down. But the Villar-Legarda tandem, the Gibo Teodoro-Edu Manzano pair, and Mar Roxas bore the brunt of their vote meltdown. Doubting fingers wouldn’t point to them as possible “culprits” and, pick on Binay as probable “goat”.
Comelec and Smartmatic may be vulnerable to doubts for abetting the “rigging”. Remember the faux pas – intentional or unintentional? – of Comelec in shipping out, the 76,000 PCOS machines without prior final testing and sealing their CFCs serving as their memory code. Upon final testing in their places of destinations – some 3 or 4 days before May 10, 2010 – their CFCs didn’t pass muster, and so, had to be reconfigured.
IT experts opine that it would take only a minute for reconfiguration of doctored CFCs before their resealing. Could it have been then that the massive “rigging” to shave or pad votes – based on several complaints – had been done, despite the security provided by LGU repositories, like, the PNP/AFP contingents and the BEIs concerned.
Some election protests like that of Lito Atienza, Manila mayoral loser, had discovered fraudulent ERs pre-dated late April and early May before the May 10, 2010 elections. Likewise, in several clustered precincts the turn-out of voters actually voting exceeded the number of registered voters, like, that in Surigao del Norte and Quezon City, uniformly going to the winners with very negligible few going to the losers.
That the Comelec Commissioners and their subalterns, especially those with supervisory clout, can not escape from the blame because the principal responsibility in the overall program rests on their shoulders.
Some Comelec hands have been caught inside the cookie jar on the ordinary cardboard for use as secrecy cover for voters actually voting. The magnitude of their intended larceny that the cardboard would cost P380 each? What a conscienceless thievery! Assuming that each polling place needed 20 pieces, multiplied by 76,000 equals P99,900,000. This was revealed by two whistleblowers inside Comelec who, instead of being lionized for their guts, are made pariahs and, the culprits strutting like proud peacocks.
All these shenanigans are now probed by the House committee on suffrage and reforms. One wonders if the committee has the political will to pursue their probe to the end. As regards the PCOS and CFCs that are highly technical in nature, could they ferret out the truth and hie the criminals to court? Meantime, on Comelec’s restrictive milieu, would Comelec also do their part, especially that the whistleblower has charged that except for Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, the rest might be involved, including supervisory personnel with less clean hands as well?
(To be continued)
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Email: lparadiangjr@yahoo.com