“GREG, how true!” This was the comment of a friend from Seattle upon reading my piece, “Insights from a small town politician,” particularly the part about the need for “mobilization” (a euphemism for vote-buying) in order to win an election.
As a result of that column, other savvy individuals have come forward with their own first person narratives of election cheating. At our parish in Pinole, California, a retired Philippine Constabulary colonel who said he had already found God, told me about the rip-roaring days back in Central and Northern Luzon when they made piles of money during the election season.
“We collected contributions from the jueteng lords,” he said. And added: “Of course, we did it all the time, but we got more during elections.” Orders from the top, he explained.
According to him, there were other fund-raising tactics, like kidnapping businessmen for ransom money.
“But that’s not the only way the PC got involved in the elections,” said the ex-colonel. “On election day, we would swoop down on a precinct, drive out the voters and fill the ballot boxes with rigged ballots.” Orders from the top, he explained again.
The ex-colonel’s tale made the New People’s Army’s PTC or Permit to Campaign seem almost legitimate. I commented that the new automated voting system appears to have addressed the problem of election cheating.
“Not quite,” said the ex-colonel. “A friend of mine who is still in the active service, in the PNP, told me that there are ways around the system.”
I recalled that the vice-mayor who had provided insights on local elections for my last column had also told me something related to the automated election system, based on his own personal experience.
According to him, to ensure that the system would work fairly, he and other candidates were asked to participate in a test of the PCOS machine in their barangay precinct. Each one was attributed a hypothetical number of votes which they then marked on ballots and fed into the PCOS machine. The accuracy of the count was then confirmed by the machine. If the count had not matched the hypothetical votes cast, that would have been a red flag.
On election day, there was a problem at the barangay precinct in transmitting the results online. The election officers were constrained to bring the compact flash drive containing the results to the poblacion. When the votes from the concerned precinct were flashed on the screen, the numbers reflected were those in the test and did not conform with the number of voters in the precinct.
“That means the compact flash drive containing the test was the one fed into the machine in the poblacion,” said the vice-mayor.
According to him, it doesn’t take rocket science to conclude that a pre-programmed compact flash drive could be fed into the PCOS machines in the poblacions in those instances when barangay precincts had transmission problems.
“Of course, that kind of transmission problem can always be arranged,” he said knowingly.
While Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista has assured the country that everything is being done – and will be done – to ensure a fair and accurate count, he could give no guarantee, as quoted by the Manila Times in a story filed on October 8, 2015: “How can you guarantee clean, orderly and honest elections? But we will do our best.”
Indeed, much depends on the honesty of the politicians, the political parties and the candidates themselves. Are there such virtuous creatures? Said the late US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, “Ninety per cent of the politicians give the other ten per cent a bad reputation.” And former Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev was more blunt: “Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.”
And here’s what presidential aspirant Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago had to say about her colleagues in the Senate and the House of Representatives when they were set to impeach Chief Justice Renato Corona for inaccuracies in his Statement of Assets Liabilities and Net Worth or SALN (literally translated from her colorful Tagalog):
“My first point, if the Chief Justice loses here, that means that those who win are honest people because they have condemned him because he is corrupt. Therefore, assuming that these representatives – because we represent the people, isn’t that so, that’s why we’re elected officers, we’re supposed to represent our constituency – if we judge him guilty because he is crooked, that means we are honest. Now, if all of us are honest – many of us are honest – why is the Philippines often, if not all the time – why is the Philippines always ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the whole world?
“That you should answer. You pretend to be clean. Now if our officials are really clean and the whole country is clean, why does transparency international always list us as one of the most corrupt countries in the world? We’re glancing at each other. Who among us?
“That is my first point. Second, why don’t you stop pretending, like actors…there are certain politicians whom we know are using loopholes in their SALN. The law says that whatever your deposits are at the end of December, the end of the year, you declare how much money you have in the bank – the others, they withdraw their money in November or December so that when they file their SALN, there’s hardly any deposit or they just have a couple of thousands because the rest has been withdrawn. When January comes, they deposit the funds again. My countrymen, you be the witnesses, why isn’t that being looked into?
“Second, palusot – or the second thing they resort to in the SALN loophole – all their assets – real estate, bank account, other assets, they put in other people’s names – that is very, very widespread – so, they appear not to have any assets because these have been placed under other people’s names. If they can’t use their wives or children, because the law requires that those close to them should be investigated, they use distant relatives or even trusted friends. What a hypocritical accusation.
“That is the problem with this country. We’re all for honest government and yet the world condemns us as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. That’s why it’s difficult to win in any international election – in any international campaign – because the Philippines, among others, has a reputation of being a corrupt country. Others think, if that country is corrupt nothing good will come out of it, nothing good will grow from it.
“Why, isn’t there any one of you who hasn’t cheated on his SALN? Give me another life – Lord, give me another life and I will investigate everyone, one by one, in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. We shall see – I will also investigate myself.
“There are so many loopholes in that SALN, why didn’t anyone say something about them before. Why have you now suddenly become concerned about the loopholes? Well, if that is the case, then let us all just put our assets in dollars and – the purpose of the SALN will be perverted or corrupted. That is true. But what about all the other loopholes? Why have you become angry over the loophole only now? Why not before? Because some of us have been using the loopholes – they just have not been impeached.”
Looks like, all we can do is pray for a clean, orderly and honest presidential election. Maybe His Holiness Pope Francis can canonize a patron saint for honest elections, in time for May 2016. ([email protected])
