We watched with great interest the mid-term elections in the United States yesterday because for the first time in many decades, the Democrats finally lost their vise-grip control over the US Senate to the Republicans. Thanks to the unpopularity of US President Barack Obama where most Americans blamed him for his incompetence and wish-washy leadership. Hmmm, sounds like our political leadership here at home.
What I found remarkable was that CNN’s surveys and analysis as to the outcome of the Senate race was right on the dot. But above all, US elections are so transparent any voting irregularity is instantly checked and resolved and yes, they don’t have an arrogant Commission on Election (Comelec) chairman in the US. This should give our officials at the Comelec and idea of what real transparency is.
Speaking of the Comelec, I read in the news that a group of information technology (IT) experts will soon be filing a temporary restraining order (TRO) in an effort to stop the Comelec from bidding out the procurement of additional Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines. One of the petitioners is my good friend, Biliran lawyer Glenn Chiong who was my recent guest in my talk show “Straight from the Sky” last month. I rang him up and he validated this story because the Comelec is poised to have this bidding done as soon as possible. He even sent me a Powerpoint presentation entitled “Smartmatic’s Gargantuan lies!” But it’s a bit too long to put it in this column today, but we shall put excerpts of that article in future columns.
We already wrote more than a week ago about that petition which was filed by Atty. Chiong together with the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), who presented to the SC evidence to back their claim that the electronic tabulating machines credited votes to more candidates than what were actually shaded in the ballots cast by voters. All these benefited those candidates belonging to the ruling Liberal Party (LP).
So why wasn’t there any Senate Blue Ribbon committee investigation on the massive electronic dagdag bawas? The answer is very simple. Those who won their seats in Congress or the Senate belong to the Liberal Party, so why should they agree to have those electoral fraud looked into? In my TV interview with Atty. Chiong, he pointed out in a Powerpoint presentation that the machines did not count the actual votes indicated in the ballot.
Incidentally Atty. Chiong also earlier testified at the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC) hearing on vote discrepancies and “digital lines” resulting from the Smartmatic-issued PCOS machines. But that’s it! The oversight committee merely put all those evidences aside, even with the knowledge that the Filipino people were defrauded by the manipulators of the PCOS machines. So if you ask, who manipulated those PCOS machines? The answer is simple… the Comelec!
Mind you, an IT expert, Hermenegildo Estrella Jr., has expressed his sentiments asking that Smartmatic be excluded from the bidding for additional PCOS machines, saying “There are sufficient grounds to disqualify and blacklist Smartmatic from participating in the forthcoming bidding for 2016 election requirements.” Mr. Estrella, was a former management systems analyst of IBM and advisor of Ayala and Citibank and therefore apolitical.
Meanwhile, this week the Comelec arrogantly called for their pre-bid conference to purchase supposedly new and improved PCOS machines. We should stop them before they commit another crime against the Filipino electorate.
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For those of you who want to preserve Cebuano music and culture. On Saturday Nov. 8, 2014, exactly a year after super typhoon “Yolanda” made landfall in Guiuan, Samar and struck Tacloban City, hitting Northern Cebu and Panay, the country braces itself for another super typhoon that will make its landfall at Park Mall, Mandaue Reclamation Area, Cebu.
Tropical cyclone Max Surban, or SuperBagyong Max, the 30th named storm of the 2014 Pacific Typhoon season, intensified into a typhoon Monday morning with maximum sustained winds of 220 (LPH) laughs per hour. This super typhoon free concert will bring a howl into the night beginning at 7 p.m. to feature love songs from his new album, SuperBagyong Max.
With zero pork barrel allotment, Max Surban initiated his own rehabilitation efforts, with the help of guardian angels from Gothong Southern Shipping and Virginia Foods, Inc., if only to rehabilitate people’s minds and hearts with a deadly overdose of laughter. Everyone who knows anyone directly or indirectly hit by super typhoon Yolanda is invited to get free mental rehabilitation at a concert — on first-come, first-served basis at the Park Mall, along Ouano Ave., Mandaue Reclamation Area, Cebu. Show to start at 7 p.m.
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Email: vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com