Pipsqueak pols assail IT, election specialists

Rightly or not, “port congestion” is being blamed for all imaginable national, corporate, and personal woes.

Why is our sales dipping? Where are our raw materials? How come food is dear despite three fuel price rollbacks? Why is DPWH re-concreting roads only now during the holiday rush? What tripped the economy from 6.6 to only 5.8 percent growth? Why hasn’t the repairman fixed my shoes yet? How come “ninong” is announcing no “aguinaldo” this Christmas?

Yup, all that directly or loosely is attributable to the clog of ships, trucks, and cargo at the Manila piers and Customs. No less than Malacañang is striving to untangle the mess  — to no avail.

Port congestion points up government and private sleaze. It shows ineptness in the most basic in trade: to move goods. And we’re talking of graduating from Third World to First!

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“Lawmakers vouch for accuracy of voting machines.”

That headline blared Monday about the precinct count optical scanners (PCOS) used in the 2010 and 2013 elections. The report read:

“Parañaque City Rep. Gustavo Tambunting and Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe issued the statement, as groups like Automated Election System Watch (AES-Watch) and Citizens for Clean and Credible Election (C3E) repeatedly called for a return to the old system of manual voting and counting.

“Tambunting said the automated poll system has drastically eliminated ‘human error,’ particularly in the canvassing of votes. ‘It would be terrible to go back to the old system of manual counting, which takes forever and allows miscounts and ballot switching and snatching,’ he added.

“Batocabe, on the other hand, deplored what he called ‘recycled claims’ of electronic fraud in the 2010 and 2013 elections, noting that it was in the obsolete system of manual voting and counting that massive cheating was committed. ‘The worldwide trend is toward automation and we should not go back to Jurassic age where outcome of elections is known only after several weeks, even months,’ he said.”

But wait, who are Tambunting and Batocabe to talk about accuracy of balloting gear or trends? Are they info-technologists or poll experts?

A check of the House of Reps website showed hardly any entry on Tambunting, except for his office phone, chief of staff, and 1st termer.

Batocabe’s was longer: 2nd termer; graduate of economics (Dean’s Medalist, 1986) and law (Most Outstanding Intern, 1991), Univ. of the Philippines; Mater (sic) in Public Administration; managing partner, Roque Butuyan Batocabe Gangoso Law Office, 1995-1997; president, Cagraray Environmental Protection & Development Foundation, and SOS Bicol Foundation; director, Rotary Club of Valencia.

Nothing in the website states skill in the news topic. The press item was a “barangay release,” so called because the publicist rolls several lawmakers into one, as in a barangay council. The feed’s likely real client is PCOS supplier Smartmatic Corp., with the two publicity seekers used as “talking heads.” It’s an old trick.

Batocabe’s law firm was intriguing, for the “Roque” and “Butuyan” are Harry and Joel, founding counsels of the assailed AES Watch. They also are the lawyers of Ampatuan massacre and Subic murder victims’ kin. Advocates too of clean government and earth, against pork barrels and illegal mining. Contacted, Roque had only bad memories of Batocabe: “Because of his acts, Joel and I had to dissolve that partnership and form a new one.”

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Now who comprise the AES Watch and C3E that Tambunting and Batocabe badmouth?

In AES Watch are Nelson Celis and Toti Casiño, multi-term past presidents of the Philippine Computer Society, and Comelec consultants for automation. There are also mathematicians, Profs. Pablo Manalastas, PhD and Felix Muga, PhD. Add to them Gus Lagman, computer educator and former Comelec commissioner; and Maricor Akol, Namfrel (National Movement for Free Elections), the Comelec quick-count arm in 1969-2007. Plus, Ernie del Rosario, former Comelec Info-Tech director, and Atty. Melchor Magdamo, past Comelec chief Jose Melo’s executive assistant, who exposed the P800-million ballot-secrecy folder scam of 2010 and the ballot overprinting of 2013, for which two tabloid columnists supposedly were killed.

Also AES Watch conveners were Dr. Alfredo Pascual, later to become UP president; Dr. Reena Estuar, chair, Department of Information Communications Systems, Ateneo de Manila University; Dr. Rachel Roxas, College of Computer Studies, De La Salle University; Dr. Jaime Caro, UP Computer Science; Bishop Broderick Pabillo; and Engr. Jun Lozada, NBN-ZTE scam witness. (In their presence I feel inadequate to add my stint as national council member and Metro Manila co-chairman, 1992 Media Citizens Quick Count, and election observer, including in London, Rome, Indonesia, Taiwan, USA, and Azerbaijan.)

At the core of AES Watch is the CenPEG (Center for People Empowerment through Governance): political scientists and UP Profs. Temario Rivera, Bobby Tuazon, Evi Jimenez, and Dr. Ed Clemente.

Founder of C3E is Engr. Hermenegildo Estrella Jr., specialist in management systems, IT, and elections, and former executive at IBM, Ayala Investments, and Citibank. Among his colleagues are labor and sectoral leaders Dave Diwa, Nick Elman, Leon Peralta, Eleuterio Tuazon, and Alain Pascua.

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AES Watch and C3E do not blindly call for return to chaotic manual process. They want any system that guarantees accuracy, safety, and speed. One idea is for manual balloting and tallying at precincts, which take only eight then three hours, cost little, and are watched by voters. Canvassing and transmission would be automated. Most important for them is to blacklist Smartmatic, which broke election laws and flopped in 2010 and 2013.

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