The real danger before us

Comelec is talking about money while we’re talking about people’s sovereignty. And they are not paying attention. That is the problem, a big one as dangerous as a political tsunami.

But the attitude of Comelec officials and the government that appointed them is to ignore all protests and criticisms. Every now and then they issue a press release but go ahead and do as they please. So what if it is illegal?

Anyway, with a bought Congress and an intimidated Supreme Court, what is there to worry about?

There are those who persist in thinking that a protest as big as Edsa 1 might be the answer. But more than a million came to the INC organized rally to protect the rule of law during the Corona impeachment trial to no avail. (Edsa 1 might have done it but as soon as it was over and done with all promise of reform was forgotten. It was not a revolution. It was a putsch. We merely substituted one set of plutocrats for another set.)

More have come to accept that we were fooled to think that serious reform would be undertaken after Edsa. What we got was simply to return the oligarchy of pre-martial law and pass a botched up constitution.

That does not mean that there is no way out of this impasse in our efforts to build a nation worthy of its citizens. We just have to think very carefully what needs to be done.

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It should not surprise anyone if Comelec illegally buys a P1-billion property. It got away with renewing Smartmatic-PCOS contract illegally and the apparent blessing of the intimidated Supreme Court after Corona was removed.

Let’s watch carefully how the ‘illegality’ will be settled. Comelec has gone ahead to buy a P1-billion property without approval from Congress.

The electoral body claims it used its alleged savings to top up the purchase price.

Sen. Franklin Drilon, chairman of the upper chamber’s finance committee, said Comelec officials violated the Constitution and could be facing technical malversation charges for signing a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with the Philippine Retirement Authority to purchase a P1.19-billion property without any authority from Congress.

“There is no authority whatsoever under the 2012 General Appropriations Act for Comelec to purchase land for a building. That is the role of Congress, the role of Congress is to appropriate to specific items,” Drilon said. Comelec’s act is a “culpable violation of the Constitution.”

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But was not the Senate President aware that the Comelec is merely acting out what has become standard practice in this administration — to govern outside the law? Until the issue of why Comelec renewed the PCOS contract without resolving questions on how it conducted the May 10, 2010 elections, we cannot expect the electoral body to fuss about legality.

Rene Azurin, Business World columnist who has been following up Comelec’s illegal actions, describes the temerity of its officials. “Their boldness calls to mind the villains in old Western movies who would just walk into a bank in the middle of town in broad daylight and cart off all the money.”

There are enough reasons to call the Comelec to task. Why is it able to continue to defy the law?

Simple. If its officials think they can get away with it why should they be bothered about laws? But what about the Filipino public — not to mention our dangerously indifferent senators and representatives, Azurin asks. Don’t they care?

It is especially unnerving when there are a few concerned citizens who do care and risk their lives and future. “The multi-sector coalition AES Watch and TransparentElections.org, policy groups like the Diliman-based CenPEG, IT industry groups like the Philippine Computer Society and the Philippine Electronics and Telecommunications Federation, and academicians like Dr. Pablo Manalastas and Dr. Felix Muga II, and removed Comelec commissioner Mr. Gus Lagman have done their part,” Azurin adds.

“They have been virtually screaming their heads off in protest against Comelec’s obvious favoring of this previously obscure foreign company called Smartmatic and its flawed machines?”

Fortunately, former Comelec officials are coming forward to expose anomalies. Azurin cites Atty. Melchor Magdamo who has filed complaints with the Ombudsman. “Comelec had called for a public bid on a warehouse requirement — which, by the way, would have been completely unnecessary if Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes and his complicit fellow commissioners had not rammed through a decision to purchase the error-prone Smartmatic machines — and appeared to tailor the listed specifications to describe Smartmatic’s present warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna.”

In Magdamo’s letter to the Ombudsman, he says, “It is obvious that the specifications in the bid documents fit into one and only one warehouse in the Philippines — the existing Smartmatic warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna which has been housing the Smartmatic Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines since year 2010 to present.”

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I frankly do not fathom why the government should go around looking for more investors while making life difficult for investors who are already here.

Presumably the meetings planned by the group to Australia are to seek financial instruments as investments. An official in the group said the meetings in Australia for the first time “is part of a push to widen their investor base and showcase opportunities in the Philippines.” It is not clear who it would benefit more.

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MISCELLANY. Philippine Normal College was the school where my mother and aunt went to. After high school graduation from their provincial schools, most of those trying their luck in Manila went to Philippine Normal College to study and to become teachers.

So this column is happy to make a pitch for the Philippine Normal College, now known as the Philippine Normal University. If our future depends on the education of Filipino youth then this PNU must be given all the support it needs. As the National Center for Teacher Education in the country, the Philippine Normal University will celebrate the theme “PNU: Still No. One at 111” this September 2012.

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According to Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Laura del Rosario, the Philippines will host the 2015 APEC meeting. It will be formally announced in the APEC Leaders’ Week in Russia being held from Sept. 2-9. It will be formally announced, through the Leaders’ Declaration, that the Philippines will host the summit three years from now. Indonesia will host the Apec meeting next year and China in 2014.