Comelec and Smartmatic: What options are left?

I passed by Villalon Road yesterday and I found out that Mayor Mike Rama must have read our column about our complaints on the sidewalk vendors using what's left of the sidewalk and the sorry dilapidated state of the road there. Well, I notice that some of the sidewalk vendors are no longer touching the road but as far as the asphalt is concerned. The potholes have been patched up with anapog. While something is being done on this road, but when the next strong rains come, the anapog would be washed with the rains. What we need is asphalt and we would have needed it yesterday.

***

Last week, the Commission on Elections voted unanimously to award Smartmatic Total Information Management a contract to lease 93,977 Precinct Count Optical Scan despite all the negatives that we and so many critics, especially coming from the Information Technology groups who believe that the last two national elections, the 2010 Presidential elections and the 2013 Mid-term election was wrought with electronic fraud. It is a fact that Ateneo IT Professor Alex Muga revealed to the public that the 2013 elections resulted in the infamous 60/30/10, which he accurately tagged as 60 percent for Liberal Party candidates, 30 percent for UNA candidates and 10 percent for those who ran without a political party.

What is truly distressing here is what two Comelec Commissioners said and featured in the news reports last Saturday when Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said she voted with "sadness", saying that she was pushed to the edge forcing Comelec to choose Smartmatic. Commissioner Sharif Abbas said the same thing. But despite their "sadness" the Comelec would still push for these electronic elections, despite Smartmatic's ugly record not just in the Philippines but many other countries as well.

This means that if all this pushes through, Liberal Party might as well throw the towel now because Department of Interior & Local Government Sec. Manuel "Mar" Roxas will be the next president of this country. Yes, with the blessing of the puppeteers of Daang Matuwid, Sec. Roxas (who until now hasn't quit his DILG post when he should have done so already) now has full control of the yellow propaganda machinery of the Aquino family and the LP,  which means the full control of the PCOS machines. So what options do we the electorate has against this?

It has a huge implication in national and local politics. Lest we have already forgotten, the Comelec never cared to give us Filipinos clean and honest elections and we have more than enough proofs from the Compostela elections of 2010 and the Dalupihan and Biliran elections of 2013, where the PCOS machines proved beyond reasonable doubt that those who cheat in this electronic polls can get away with it.

So should we still hold elections when we already know that the Comelec intends to cheat by using new PCOS machines under contract by the same Smartmatic that gave us incredible results? It is up to you. I can only pity Mayor Michael Rama, who is openly siding with Vice President Jejomar Binay because they will become victims of the "Hocus-PCOS."

Still on the issue of elections, I read with amusement a front-page bottom line report in The Freeman last Saturday that blared, "Tom says sorry to Lahug for shortcomings as mayor." This is the problem with today's politics where there are no permanent enemies. When Tomas Osmeña was mayor, he neglected Barangay Lahug because he hated its Barangay Captain Mary Ann Delos Santos. Now that both of them are already friends, somehow Tomas gathered enough courage to apologize to some 100 employees of Barangay Lahug. Now whether that apology came too late, we will never know.

If at all, Tomas' biggest folly in Lahug was when he kicked a sidewalk barbecue vendor because he was having a fit seeing so many violators. Well today, all sorts of vendors are still vending on our sidewalks, which only gives you an idea that nothing much has changed whether we are under the leadership of Team Rama or the Bando-Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan.

Now that Delos Santos has shifted political alliances, no one can predict whether she would be able to convince her constituents in Lahug to vote for Tomas Osmeña to become Cebu City Mayor again. I have talked with some poor people in Lahug and some say that it is hard to get away from the image of the mayor kicking the barbecue and the vendor.

But in fairness to Tomas, he has learned to apologize. This was something that we did not expect. Perhaps he is getting old or as other pundits would say, "Politicians would say anything just to get your votes." We'll, we really don't know whether that apology was done in true and honest sincerity but at this point, we can only reckon that he did it because he now has to cultivate this new alliance with Mary Ann delos Santos who has a strong following in Barangay Lahug. In short, it remains to be seen.

***

For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.