The question before us/ The TIME list

I must admit it can be very confusing. On one hand Comelec says everything is ready for the May 13 elections. But when they did pilot tests on more than 60,000 the machines bled. As one said it is not surprising. These are second-hand machines that cost P1.6 billion from Smartmatic.

Same when mock elections were held in 10 selected locations — the machines would not work properly so the demonstration had to stop.

Indeed, with elections already ongoing overseas it should be cause for alarm with reports that HK was a disaster. Two machines bled and rejected ballots. At the UP Integrated School in Diliman a machine failed to start even after the password was keyed in. When it finally started, it rejected four ballots that had no defects, the report added.  

These machines are behaving true to form as it had in 2010, but the complaints from machine errors to false voting results were simply ignored. It happens, Comelec officials said. Whaat? Impossible. Besides the winners matched the results of surveys.  

The Anti-Pinoy blog condenses the problem and calls it the “Comelec PCOS snafu”:

“To add high octane fuel to the election wildfire is an automated election system which does not have a nanometer of integrity and credibility. The source code remains uncertified (CNP: or non-existent). Stress testing has exposed a lot of serious flaws. Then there’s the IT illiterate Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes.

The country is running an automated election, built on IT technology — and we have an IT illiterate at the steering wheel.

Manual counting sold elective positions on a retail basis. Automated counting has taken sales of elective positions to the next level — and is now being sold wholesale!”

I am more worried that this is all happening in the service of matuwid na daan. Soon we will not know what is matuwid frombaluktot.

A joke went around when Filipinos in London were afraid to fight for their rights: Tanong: “Sasagasaan na tayo ng kotse hindi pa tayo kumikilos”? Sagot ng Pilipino: “Kasi po baka magasgas ang kotse.” (The car is on its way to run over us and we still don’t want to move? Why? Because the car might be scratched.)

Well, it is one of those painful jokes that tells the truth about us with Filipinos continuing to prepare for elections despite all the evidence that it will be a failed one. Come to think of it, it may be true after all that it is meant to fail prelude to a takeover. With Comelec refusing to accept that renewing the Smartmatic-PCOS automatic electoral system was a mistake despite all the evidence and flaws, a failed election is inevitable. But that is only about the government’s side. What about the electorate or at least the intelligent electorate? Why are they cooperating with this perfidy?

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I would have remained quiet about the TIME award to President Noy Aquino as one of the 100 most influential leaders in the world.  

But it was a bit much when the magazine gave the reasons why he was chosen. “The sputtering economy stabilized and became hot under him, he pushed for a reproductive-rights law that many said was impossible in the fervently Catholic nation, and he bravely confronted Beijing over its claim on the South China Sea,” says TIME.

He may have been cited in the TIME list but all three reasons demean the Philippines as a country in the service of the American agenda. Had TIME Magazine been subtler when giving the reasons for naming him, it would have given space for intelligent and patriotic Filipinos to appreciate the award.

But then the TIME list for influential leaders has a reputation for the choices it makes to favor political reasons. It is no different from choices made for winners of the Nobel Peace Prize or for that matter which country wins in the lamentable beauty contests of Miss Universe or Miss International.

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His inclusion in the list could not have come at a worse time with the release of a Wikileaks report on a US diplomatic cable that said “even the late President Corazon Aquino admitted that her son, President Benigno Aquino III, is not a “natural politician.” The cable was sent before the 2010 elections by former US Ambassador to Manila Kristie Kenney.

The cable was sent to inform Washington of Aquino’s expected bid for the presidency, after Sen. Mar Roxas said he was passing on to Aquino the Liberal Party standard.

In Kenney’s cable she said “Most political observers, including his late mother, agree that he is not a natural politician, lacking the charisma and aggressive political agenda that usually propels political candidates.”

The US diplomat said it was Cory herself who told her “it had taken a massive effort by the entire Aquino clan... to get Noynoy elected to the Senate.” Mrs. Aquino reportedly said they had to rely on the popularity of her youngest daughter, actress Kris, her husband basketball star James Yap, as well as her own political pull.”

Aquino, served out three terms as Tarlac second district representative, ranked sixth in the 2007 senatorial race with more than 14.3 million votes.

Kenney also described the President’s record as a legislator “lackluster.” “He has not played a leading role in the House or Senate, and his views on many controversial issues remain unknown.”

Interestingly she noted in the same cable that the US Embassy is “not aware of any corruption allegations against Aquino” and that his “uncontroversial nature” is seen to boost his image as “clean”.

She compared “Aquino’s foray into presidential politics to that of his mother’s, who had been catapulted into the presidency by the assassination of her husband, Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.” That answers many questions on how he took over from Mar Roxas who was earlier favored by the US because of his background in finance.

“Just as the 1983 assassination of Senator Ninoy Aquino propelled his wife, Cory, into presidential politics, so too her death has unexpectedly transformed the political landscape, launching her son on a quest for the presidency,” Kenney said.

Her conclusion: there was public clamor for Aquino to seek the top government position, because “Filipinos hoped to see change after the controversies which hounded the Arroyo administration.”