If only Dr. Jose Rizal were alive today!

Today is the 118th anniversary of the execution of our National Hero Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal. We all know from his life story that Rizal was an ophthalmologist, a novelist, a journalist and a revolutionary. His most famous books are Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. If Dr. Rizal were alive today, he’d probably be a columnist writing with the top newspapers in Manila and yes… a revolutionary, seeking for political reforms, after all, Dr. Rizal was an “Illustrado” or an enlightened or educated Filipino.

Someone in Facebook said, “This is not a country for intelligent people.” This is because even the most logical or intelligent of Filipinos can no longer find logic or reason in what is happening with our nation today… because our political class no longer listens to the learned or the intellectuals, rather they’d try to kowtow to what the masses want.

Yet even the masses are suffering today and as we already wrote a few columns ago… the Aquino regime is hell-bent on pushing for those huge fare increases in the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) despite its unpopularity. As we already mentioned that with the prices of oil products at an all time record lows… increasing fares should be the least priority of any government. Yet we can no longer find any logic in the actions of the Aquino regime.

This is my last column for the Year 2014 and somehow it ends at the 118th anniversary of the execution of Dr. Jose Rizal. For most of the Year 2014 we have been searching for a real, honest and genuine social and political reform and I’m sure that if Dr. Jose Rizal were alive today, he too would be in the forefront of this revolution that we are seeking at this time, especially when the 2016 presidential elections is fast approaching.

While most people say that there is no more time for reforms, I dare say that we can still prioritize reforms like the use of electronic counting machines called the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) which has proven to be so faulty… it no longer reflects the true will of the Filipino people.

Last Dec. 17, I wrote in my Freeman column questioning what the Cebu Citizens Involvement and Maturation in People’s Empowerment and Liberation (C-CIMPEL) has to say about the use of the PCOS machines. I gathered that they refurbished their office right across the Cebu Cathedral, yet in an act of zero transparency, they did not honor me with a reply. Yet this body was created by the Cebu Archdiocese to check on the transparency of the elections in Cebu.

At this point, I dare say that the C-CIMPEL has become an unwitting tool of the Comelec as they are unable to check for themselves the actual counting of the ballots as this is no longer feasible under the present electronic voting using the PCOS machines. That’s because there is no one in C-CIMPEL who is an expert on information technology (IT). This is why despite having a C-Cimpel in Cebu, the 2010 Presidential elections revealed only a fraudulent count in the town of Compostela where former Mayor Richie Wagas questioned many elections returns (ER) he suspected were fake ballots brought out by his political rival incumbent Mayor Joel Quiño.

In the end, Mayor Quiño lost to his rival Mayor Richie Wagas during the manual recount ordered by RTC Judge Estela Alma Singco. But then there was just a month left before the 2013 mid-term elections and this time, Mayor Quiño (whose political group were allied to the Liberal Party) won over Mayor Wagas. I suspect that he benefited from what Ateneo Prof. Alex Muga discovered called 60-30-10, which gave the Liberal Party 60% advantage over UNA’s 30% and 10% for those who also ran.

Now what did the C-Cimpel say about the 2010 and 2013 elections in the Town of Compostela? Nothing! They have become accomplices of electronic fraud by their sin of omission! Again for the nth time, if the Comelec would use the PCOS machines to cheat in a town as small as Compostela, how much more would they use the PCOS machines to ensure the victory of those who pay for their victory? Now isn’t this the job of the Comelec to assure the Filipino voter that his vote would be counted?

Even the PHILCONSA has asked the Comelec to get out of this electronic voting system. This elicited a warning from Smartmatic president for Asia Pacific Cesar Flores who threatened to sue the Comelec because they own the intellectual property rights to the PCOS machines. But we know too well about the very public legal battle between Smartmatic and Dominion… the real owner of the AES technology.

Again for the nth time, we must restore our confidence in our electoral process by returning to the manual elections because the PCOS machines were obviously misused by the Comelec that benefited the ruling party. So why was there no official investigation on this electoral fraud?

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