Mamasapano killers scot free / Setting Comelec Chief aright

The commando general has been charged and P-Noy cleared, as the 102 massacrers guffaw. On another front, the Comelec chief repeats lies about the PCOS’ supposed capabilities.

Comelec chief Andy Bautista’s dig at a locally made election automation likely is borne out of ignorance. It cannot be let to pass.

He said that, because the TAPAT issues vote-verification receipts, voters would be tempted to sell their votes. He added that the imported PCOS purposely disabled such feature so voters won’t have any means to sell votes. That was after he cast a mock ballot at last Monday’s public demo of the TAPAT, which beat the PCOS in accuracy, transparency, credibility, speed, and cost.

Had he listened to instructions, he would have learned what the receipt (voter verifiable paper audit trail) is for. It is not to be a negotiable instrument, as he implied. He was supposed to drop it into the lower half of the transparent ballot box. There the VVPATs would be kept for future need, like an accuracy check or a poll protest.

It would do him well to heed the experts. One is Dammy Magbual, vice chair of Namfrel (National Movement for Free Elections), chairman of the Asian Network for Free Elections, and co-founder of the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors. Says Magbual:

“Anyone who knows elections using modern technology has reason to be disappointed with (Bautista because):

“(1) The VVPAT is mandated in 38 of the 50 states in the USA that use machines. It’s meant to be placed in a ballot box, that’s why it’s called ‘audit trail,’ so the ballots manually can be compared if consistent with the machine count. It’s an audit tool to build confidence in the machine.

“(2) A resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on Mar. 9, 2009, encourages all states to endorse and abide by the Declaration of Principles for International Observation (DoP). The DoP maintains that a VVPAT must be issued for states using technology in elections. Manila is a signatory. Why do we renege on international agreements we sign?

“(3) No, it was not disabled in the PCOS. The PCOS has no capability to print a VVPAT. That’s misleading the public.”

Info-technologists, including past heads of the Philippine Computer Society, Nelson Celis, Toti Casiño, Leo Querubin, Gus Lagman, and Lito Averia attest that the PCOS product specs do not include a VVPAT. Venezuelan seller Smartmatic only lied to the Comelec about disabling it in the 2010 and 2013 elections.

Please, Chairman Andy, do not echo that lie. Instead, study how Smartmatic has broken Philippine election, procurement, anti-dummy, and anti-graft laws at least 17 times since 2008 (see www.philstar.com/opinion/2015/07/15/1477107/smartmatic-gets-more-billions-despite-breaking-17-philippine-laws).

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Tomorrow would be the sixth month of the Jan. 25 Mamasapano massacre. And what has the P-Noy administration to show by way of justice for the 44 slain police commandos?

Here’s what. The Ombudsman has charged with grave misconduct the bungling commando general and the intelligence head who planned the raid to take down three international terrorists. Eight field officers were indicted with them. The then-suspended National Police chief also was rapped with usurpation of official functions, in making the officers report only to him and President Noynoy Aquino.

All that happened last Wednesday. It seemed like the Ombudsman rushed things so P-Noy can have something to say about Mamasapano in his last State of the Nation on Monday, July 27th.

Incidentally, to Malacañang’s glee, the Ombudsman cleared P-Noy of any liability. That was despite, as the police post-operation report and the Senate inquiry determined, his inducing the generals to report only to the suspended superior.

The Ombudsman investigator had an excuse for clearing P-Noy. The two criminal complaints did not cite the President, that’s why. That’s half of the script.

And what of the other half — those who committed the massacre? Well, last week was headlined that 102 chieftains and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) were to be charged at last. Among them were MILF commanders Ben Tikaw, Makku Tikaw, and Salik Kikuk; and BIFF commanders Mer Amilil and Muslimin Gumanding.

But as soon as the announcement came out, Justice Sec. Leila de Lima took it back. Supposedly the public release of the NBI rap sheet was unauthorized. So she ordered an investigation to ferret out the “leak.” For now, there are to be no indictees for the massacre.

Uh-oh, someone botched the script. So on Monday, P-Noy would look silly reporting the indictment of the commando officers who survived the massacre, but not the massacrers. It would look sillier if the “leak” inside the justice department is charged ahead of the massacrers.

Then again, perhaps that’s part of it. P-Noy needs to show his MILF truce-mates that he’s on their side. At the gates of the National Police headquarters at Camp Crame, meanwhile, the bereaved families of the 44 fallen commandos knock. They still await Malacañang’s promised housing and business loans, educational grants, and job placements.

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