Comelec Not Beholden to GMA, Says Poll Chief

Benjamin Abalos, chair of the Commission on Elections, told a Bayan Muna forum last week that the automated counting machines will make the May 2004 elections fraud-free. He also expressed assurances that the poll body will stay neutral and will not be beholden to the incumbent president during the elections.

By GERRY ALBERT CORPUZ
Bulatlat.com

”We did not buy automated counting machines to allow President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to cheat in the May 2004 elections," Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Benjamin Abalos said adding that the poll body will not be beholden to her or to any politician.

"The computerized elections to be undertaken in May 10, 2004 elections was in response to mammoth calls for Comelec to ensure a fraud-free electoral exercise and reflect the true mandate of the people," the poll chief last week told an audience of 100 leaders of party list group Bayan Muna and allied party list aspirants Anakpawis, Gabriela Women's Party, Migrante Sectoral party and Suara Bangsa Moro political party.

Earlier opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. urged Comelec to allow the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) to conduct a nationwide quick count as a safeguard against high-tech cheating that unscrupulous politicians and poll officials may resort to in next year's computerized elections.

Abalos told Bayan Muna party list representative Satur Ocampo, Gabriela Women's Party spokesperson Cristina Palabay and Anakpawis chair Crispin Beltran that it would be hard for cheaters or hackers to penetrate the system and influence the outcome of the elections.

"We assure Ka Satur and Ka Bel these automated counting machines enjoy multi-layered protection enough to ensure the sanctity of the ballots and the people's mandate in May 10, 2004 polls," he said.

Senator Pimentel asserted that Namfrel conducts its own-quick count because a computerized electoral process is not immune to cheating of seasoned politicians and information technology experts over the possible switching of diskettes containing election returns from clusters of precincts.

"They are saying that there is an opportunity for cheating when the election results are transmitted from one cluster of voting centers to the Comelec,” the opposition senator said. “There is no certainty that the diskette that will be fed to the computer will be the one containing the actual results from the clustered precincts."

Please help

Abalos and other Comelec officials held a demonstration on how to operate the counting machines to convince Bayan Muna and other party list groups how fast, accurate and reliable these machines that commission will use in 2004 elections.

"Please help the Comelec in disseminating the information on computerized elections. We are asking your cooperation to help us inform the public. We are willing to deputize you as Comelec volunteers for this electoral education program on computerized elections," Abalos said.

Bayan Muna secretary general Nathanael Santiago said his group and other allied party list groups are open to the idea to help Comelec in its information dissemination drive on computerized elections as long as the poll body will assure the public that this would not lead to massive cheating.

"Bayan Muna and other party list groups are willing to help only if Comelec can prove beyond reasonable doubt the accuracy of the machines and it can assure that the real sentiment and mandate of the people are reflected in the outcome of the elections," Santiago said.

Critics of Comelec's computerized elections program have asserted that the poll body might only reduce election fraud if there is 100 percent computerization of the elections nationwide. However, they insisted that only 20 to 30 percent of the country will be covered by automated counting while there will be a manual counting for the rest of the country.

Indeed Abalos confirmed that there will be only 1,991 automatic vote-counting machines (AVCMs) worth P1.3 billion that will be available in May 2004. Nine out of the 30 machines, however, conked out during the technical tests conducted by the Department of Science and Technology, but the poll body chief said a dry run will be held three days before the elections and also on the day of the elections to prove the reliability and accuracy of the vote-counting machines.

Three phases

Cesar Reyes, chief executive officer of the Philippine Multi-Media System Inc. said the Comelec's poll modernization program which it will undertake in the May 2004 polls involves three phases in which PMSI will take charge of the last phase for the commission.

Phase 1, Reyes said, will involve the registration and validation of voters. The objective is to cleanse and update the voters list at the precinct level to eliminate right away potential and would be flying voters. "A cleansed and updated voters list would be the basis for a sound data base," he added.

Phase 2 of the computerized polls will deal on automated counting and canvassing of votes at the municipal level. Taking cue from phase I, Reyes said the machines have already determined how many ballots will be printed for each poll precinct and how many votes will be counted and validated by the automated counting machines.

"In this level, winners at the municipal and district levels are already known and even proclaimed with 24 hours nationwide before the official election canvass reach the provincial board canvass," he said.

Phase 3 of the automated poll system involves the dissemination of the election results nationwide based from the electronically-transmitted results forwarded to the National Consolidation Center (NCC) based in Metro Manila.

However, the winners would only be officially declared once the printed copies of the election canvass were sent to Comelec. At least seven copies of the printed election returns will be distributed to major political parties; the citizens' arm Namfrel and the Comelec.

"In this case, the temptation to cheat is largely reduced or prevented. Besides there is a corresponding security mark for each of the municipality and city so, it would be harder or difficult for anyone to cheat," Reyes added.

Comelec Public Information Officer Atty. Ferdinand Rafanan said the automated poll system will allow the poll body to declare winners in cities and municipalities within two days, five days in provincial levels and seven days in national elective posts, like the president, vice president, senators and party lists.

"Before, it took Comelec 26 days to proclaim the winner in the presidential, vice-presidential, senatorial and party list. Now we can have it in less than a week," he said.

Rafanan clarified that there would be no automated poll machines at the precinct level. He said the set up at the polling place will still be much of the manual procedure. "Upon the closing of the polls, the ballot boxes for the different precincts will be brought to a centralized counting center where the machine is located.

Fast-track accreditation

Meanwhile, party list topnotcher Bayan Muna pressed Comelec officials to speed up the accreditation of new party list groups and urged Abalos and Rafanan to accept new party list groups on the basis that these are marginalized and represented or maintain chapters nationwide.

Bayan Muna legal counsel Neri Colmenares noted that Comelec has been asking the political and financial capacity of new party list groups as basis for the poll body to grant accreditation and participate in the electoral race for party list.

"As long as these party lists are not government-funded, underrepresented in the House of Representatives and their chapter members are found in many regions nationwide then by all means Comelec should accredit them and allow them to campaign for party list seats in May 2004," Colmenares said.

The Comelec said they delisted more than 60 party list groups from the lists, while around 36 party list groups of the 70 new applicants including Anakpawis and Gabriela Women's Party are most likely to get their accreditations before the end of December or early January 2004.

Based on the adjusted calendar of activities set by the Comelec, accredited party lists have until Jan. 11 to file their manifestation to participate. Submission of party list nominees will be on March 26.

Comelec PIO Rafanan said from Jan. 6 to Feb. 9, the ban on electoral campaign will be strictly observed saying the start of the campaign period will begin on Feb. 10 or three months before the May 10 elections.

Disband private armies

Meanwhile, Anakpawis national president Rafael Mariano asked the Comelec to disband around 114 private armies monitored by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and put to task the commission to stop the police and the military from joining the campaign trail of politicians seeking elective posts next year.

PNP Chief Superintendent and Director for operations Avelino Razon Jr. there are 114 private armies maintained by influential and powerful warlord politicians nationwide. He said the PNP is all set to take positive action against partisan armed groups.

But Mariano said the figures presented were conservative judging from the number of potential candidates running in the May 2004 elections. Citing recent Comelec reports, Mariano said there were 450,000 candidates vying for 12,500 posts nationwide.

He said between 1998 and 2001, there were 100,000 candidates who filed their candidacy and the police at that time had monitored the activity and electoral related crimes of 500 private armies used in support of warlord politicians and politicians backed by warlords.

"Unless these private armed groups largely oriented to harass and coerce voters to vote for their candidate clients, bloodshed to gigantic proportions will continue to be a dominant political scenario in the elections. The Comelec should step in and stop the goons from claiming people's lives or violating the rights of the people in the name of their favored candidates or politicians," Mariano added.

Mariano dismissed the PNP report that it had brought down the number of private armies to 114 from 176 last year. "The figures cited by Director Razon do not represent the real and objective situation in the countryside. The police officer failed to account private armies organized by the military and the police for favored politicians," he said.

The PNP said 75 provinces and 494 cities and municipalities were identified as "areas of immediate concern" or "hotspots" closely guarded come election time. Bulatlat.com

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