If you are not with the LP... be really scared!

 The political kettle is starting to boil and if you go by the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) surveys, Gov. Gwen F. Garcia landed on the 26th spot, which is a long way from the top 12 that is needed for the Senatorial race. During my last talk with the Governor, when she wasn't yet formally included in the UNA line up, I already advised her to be prepared for the worst because of the popularity of the 12 names in a lineup of known senators in this election that is based on "name recall," which is a huge disadvantage.

 But I'm not yet advising Gov. Gwen to pull her ejection seat… at least not yet. Let's find out if her situation improves six months before the elections. By this I mean, she should be in the top 10 of this line up if she has a Chinaman's chance of bagging a senate slot. This means… visibility, either on radio or on nationwide TV. Of course, visibility means… money… lots and lots of money. Now will Gov. Gwen throw away that much money?

* * *

 Perhaps the biggest challenge that we all have to face is the reality that the so-called Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) would still be used in the 2013 polls. Yes Virginia, they are the very same ones that we used in the May 2010 polls. We've written volumes on the many faults and flaws that are apparently inherent in the PCOS machines, but the COMELEC and Smartmatic simply turn a deaf ear to our complaints. Mind you, I wrote again about the PCOS machines last Saturday and almost all our guests from the Rotary Club of Manila (they came to grace our 80th induction ceremonies) who were in our table agreed with me that the PCOS will be used for Electronic Dagdag Bawas.

 I have already said that in the old manual "Dagdag Bawas" it would not result in overturning the national elections because the cheating is done for local candidates. In the past, supporters or the goons of political warlords desperately seeking to win another term has to physically grab the ballot boxes from the teachers (often at gun point) and bring them somewhere to remove the ballots inside and stuff them with pre-signed but fake ballots. In the old days this was difficult to publicize. But with almost every citizen having a cellphone with a camera and most remote places already reachable by cellular signals… such electoral shenanigans can easily be exposed. Hence I would rather trust the old manual system than the electronic Dagdag Bawas where no one would have any idea what happened to our votes?

 In Rene B. Azurin's column yesterday in BusinessWorld, he came up with a pointed attack against the PCOS machines when he asked, "How can anyone believe Smartmatic salesman Cesar Flores, a student of sociology with no apparent experience in the technology side of the IT business, when he makes pronouncements about the technical capabilities of his machines? He says, "I can guarantee to the public that no one can hack into the PCOS machines. In fact, we challenge them to even try to do it. Fine. If he is serious about this challenge, let him put up a prize of, say P10 million and allow hackers to take a crack at it."

 Of course Cesar Flores is not just an ordinary salesman, but the top honcho of Smartmatic. Yet we've written numerous columns in The FREEMAN and in The Philippine Star about the serious flaws and defects of the PCOS machines and no one from Comelec nor Smartmatic dared to reply to our questions. Deadma is the word for them. They think that if they replied to my queries… it might just expose the truth… that the PCOS machines can be hacked… and yes… it was already "misused" in the 2010 elections.

 I'm with Mr. Azurin's dare for Smartmatic to put up P10 million prize money for hackers to try and pick on the PCOS machines. Of course, he would never throw away this kind of money because he knows too well that the PCOS machines (Yessir, they are the same ones that we used in the May 2010 polls) could be hacked.

 A close friend told me about this and he even admitted that he had the opportunity to look inside the electronic innards or motherboard of the PCOS machines and it can actually be done through its ROM… where a virus can sleep inside it until election day and it would start cranking out the pre-arranged results inside the machine rather than the votes cast by the electorate. We have to stop it while there is still time.

 It is for this reason why politicians who are not allied with the Liberal Party (LP) should be scared… and I really mean scared that they would not only lose their election bids. But also shirts, pants and money in an electoral exercise that is already pre-rigged. But Comelec and Smartmatic are taking a "damn the torpedoes" attitude against people like me who are exposing this kind of electoral fraud. I would rather boycott the 2013 than participate in this farce because of one simple reason. I don't trust the Comelec at all!

* * *

Email: [email protected].