Are Filipinos still worth dying for?

The Philippines is not the only country having problems with using an electronic voting system. India and Germany had the same trouble years ago and, in the end, they came up with laws banning electronic voting systems. In the United Kingdom and in Canada, (where Dominion Voting Systems is based) they still use paper and pencil for voting. Remarkably, they can still announce the winners of the elections the following day. Makes you wonder why didn't the Comelec study their system?

Perhaps the most intriguing case came from the United States of America, which came up with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), a Federal Law signed by Pres. George Bush on Oct.29, 2002. Apparently criticisms of HAVA that I got from Wikipedia centered on mandated changes in voting technology, voter identification, confusion and voter intimidation, misappropriation of federal funds and unnecessarily complicating the voter registration process. If I didn't tell you in the beginning that this was in America, you'd probably think that I was referring to the Comelec here.

We were having trouble with Smartmatic because we didn't know who these people were until they filed that case against Dominion Voting Systems at a Delaware Court. It was only then that the Filipino people realized that Smartmatic was not an Information Technology (IT) Company, but a mere vendor or a carpetbagger. Comelec officials should have known better to negotiate directly with Dominion Voting Systems. But then who knows…large sums of moneys must have been passed around. This is why it is high time for the Office of the Ombudsman to subject all Comelec officials to a lifestyle check!

Meanwhile, allow me to quote what I got from HAVA via Google, "A Pennsylvania court ruled in April 2007 that voting machine certification was the result of what Judge Rochelle Friedman called "deficient examination criteria" which "do not approximate those that are customary in the information technology industry for systems that require a high level of security".

The court ruled that voters have a right under the commonwealth's constitution to reliable and secure voting systems and can challenge the use of electronic voting machines "that provide no way for Electors to know whether their votes will be recognized" though voter verification or independent audit." I just hope that we have a judge like Judge Rochelle Friedman who knows how to look at the flaws of our PCOS machines. After all, we do have a right to a reliable and secure voting system, which the Comelec didn't give us.

Unfortunately, we Filipinos have become too callous with the corruption swirling around our government agencies. We know that there's corruption in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) or in the Bureau of Customs (BOC) or in the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) or Land Transportation Office (LTO) or at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), but when we see the corruption within the Comelec, how come our people are not marching the streets in righteous indignation? This is why the Marcos dictatorship lasted for a long time!

This brings me to ask that question that was answered by the late Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. with his "The Filipino people is worth dying for!" So we ask you people again… "Is the Filipino people worth dying for?" Unfortunately at this time, I dare say that the Filipino people are not even worth fighting for…much less dying for!

Last May 28, Turkey was marred by a gigantic protest sparked by outrage at the eviction of a sit-in at Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park protesting the park's demolition. This protest happened at a time when the economy of Turkey is better than most European countries and at the height of the popularity of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who dismissed the protesters even if it was their right to make that protest.

Just this month, indignant Brazilians went to the streets in a nationwide protest that has been dubbed the "Salad Revolt" or Brazilian Spring triggered by the Movimento Passe Livre (Free Fare Movement), a group that advocates free public transportation. The demonstrators were against hikes in bus, train and metro ticket prices and they have become a force to reckon with by the Brazilian government.

Here in the Philippines, school tuition has been hiked and gasoline pump prices increased by as much as P2 pesos per liter just recently. You can bet that this would have an impact with the people in the poverty level. Then the Comelec pulls a fast one on our elections with the 60 percent of the vote going to the Liberal Party, 30 percent for UNA and 10 percent for the others, a voting pattern that could only be done via manipulation through the computer, yet our people are not out in the streets in righteous indignation. Wake up Filipinos!

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