INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Can the Comelec prevent cheating in 2010?

Inquirer

Neal Cruz

MANILA, Philippines -- The Commission on Elections, whether composed of the present commissioners or of new ones, should work double-time in the next three years, before the presidential elections in 2010, to make sure that the massive cheating that’s taking place is not repeated -- ever again. With each election, the cheaters become more inventive, audacious, shameless, and often successful. The only reason the cheaters failed to win more Senate seats this time is the doggedness and bravery of the eagle-eyed election watchdog groups.

Cheating has become more sophisticated and easier. Before, it was the ballots that were falsified -- which required plenty of work and time. Now, it is the Statement of Votes and the Certificates of Canvass -- which indicate the total number of votes counted in the city, municipal and provincial levels -- that are altered. Now cheating is wholesale, in the hundreds of thousands of votes. And it is so easy to do. Just add number 1 to a number, say, 10,000 votes, and it becomes 110,000. Or make a number 1 into a 7 or 9 and 10,000 becomes 70,000 or 90,000.

Comelec officials and teachers are supposed to be paragons of virtue who will prevent cheating. But more and more of them are being co-opted by political operators. Poll watchers are also supposed to spot cheating, but what if they are barred from polling places, such as those in Maguindanao province and other areas in Mindanao?

Let’s face it, the character of our poll officials and the manner of cheating have changed, and the old safeguards are no longer enough. The Comelec must always be one step ahead of the cheaters. The Comelec must formulate some priority reforms if it is to prevent massive cheating in the 2010 elections where, owing to its being a presidential election year, the stakes are much higher. You can be sure that even now, the cheaters are already planning their operations.

The first priority, of course, is poll automation to make the counting faster. The longer the counting takes, the more chances of cheating there are. In fact, this is a basic tactic of cheaters: delay the counting and canvassing of votes to give them time to do their thing. The submission of the Certificates of Canvass (COCs) and the Statement of Votes (SOVs) from the provinces to the National Board of Canvassers in Manila is purposely delayed. If the cheaters’ candidates are losing, they can adjust the figures in the SOVs and COCs to cover the deficit.

The second priority is to weed out the corrupt in the Comelec -- and it should start from the top. Comelec officials and employees are supposed to be the “policemen” of the polls. But what if it is the policemen themselves who are doing the cheating? The evidence of cheating in Mindanao shows some Comelec officials altering the election results. Money talks, and it seems that in the Comelec, the saying that “everybody has his price” is true.

We have laws that punish cheating and other violations of election laws, but the Comelec rarely enforces or punishes the perpetrators. One obvious reason is that there are so many violators that the Comelec doesn’t have the time or manpower to prosecute them. Faced with the enormity of the task, the Comelec just gives up and looks the other way.

Take the case of the illegal posters and streamers that were put up outside the poster areas. There were so many of them. The Metro Manila Development Authority tried to remove them, but as soon as its workers left, the workers of candidates returned and pasted more posters. The government ended up spending millions of pesos cleaning up the dirt left behind by the candidates -- millions of pesos that could otherwise have been used to help the people. The Comelec has not punished even one candidate or worker for these violations.

Another violation of epidemic scale is vote-buying and vote-selling. It is now done openly and blatantly. Some voters shamelessly wait outside polling places, waiting for someone to buy their votes. And vote-buyers hold wads of bills in plain view of the public to entice voters to sell their votes. But have you heard of a vote-buyer or vote-seller being prosecuted by the Comelec?

And would you believe that the Comelec itself -- and the electoral tribunals (Presidential, Senate and House) -- encourages cheating? They do this by taking such a long time to resolve election cases. In cases where a complainant wins, the decision usually comes when there are only a few days left of the contested term, meaning, the cheater has already occupied the stolen position for almost the whole term and collected the salaries and allowances, as well as the pork barrel, of the winner.

So the battle is to be proclaimed the winner. Even if a cheat were caught, if he had been proclaimed, the complainant would have a difficult time -- not to mention the precious time he would have to spend -- pushing him off. And that is what encourages cheating. “What if I am caught?” the cheater would say. “If I’m proclaimed, it is the same as being the real winner.”

To discourage this thinking, the law should be amended so that in the case of an election complaint which, after a quick summary hearing, is found to be meritorious, the salaries and allowances of the position are frozen and paid to the winner only after the case shall have been decided. Thus, the real winner can still collect all his backpay. And the cheater does not get any emolument during all the time he occupies the stolen position.

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TODAY’S JOKE: This was sent by a reader in Filipino.

Pag nag-number 1 si Loren, mababaliw si Chiz. Pag nag-number 3 si Ping, mababaliw si Villar. Pag nanalo si Trillanes, mababaliw si Gloria. Pag nanalo si Alan, mababaliw si Mike Arroyo. Pag nanalo si Pichay, mababaliw tayong lahat!

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