Comelec, Senate clash over automated polls
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Senate are on a collision course over the poll body’s refusal to computerize the elections in May despite the recent enactment of the poll automation law.
"The Comelec and the advisory council have reached the consensus that automation of voting and counting and canvassing is no longer doable in time for the 2007 elections," Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos said. But he said electronic transmission of election results is possible and doable.
Sen. Richard Gordon said Abalos and other election officials face impeachment for "abdication of responsibility" if they fail to implement the poll automation law.
"This is not something that suddenly woke him up from his slumber," Gordon said, adding that the Comelec had always been part of the deliberation on poll automation.
"We should ask Abalos what he has been doing to ensure that elections will be clean," he added.
Abalos said an "end-to-end" computerization is not possible even in selected areas. An "end-to-end" process covers voting, counting, canvassing, transmission and even recount.
"If we only have to automate the transmission of results in certain pilot areas, we can do that because machines that can do such functions are readily available," Abalos said. He stressed that an electronic transmission is good enough because it is in this stage where irregularities are usually committed.
He added that only P100 million would be required for an electronic transmission system.
While praising President Arroyo for signing RA 9369, Gordon called Comelec’s insistence on limiting automation to transmission as "spectacularly idiotic" and meant to force the country to use the overpriced poll automation equipment supplied by MegaPacific Consortium. The Supreme Court had already declared as null and void the Comelec’s multimillion peso contract with MegaPacific.
Based on the newly enacted Republic Act 9369, the poll automation for the May elections will be limited to six pilot provinces and six highly urbanized cities across the country. Comelec will choose these areas in consultation with local councils.
Automatically disqualified from the pilot election automation scheme are provinces or cities whose officials are administratively charged within 16 months before the May 14 elections. Poll automation on a nationwide basis takes effect in 2010.
Gordon said that the technology required for the automation, including the machines, are readily available and that the country may even lease the poll equipment used by the United States in its midterm elections last year. But the Comelec said the US equipment may be incompatible with the local system.
Gordon also said that the advisory council formed by Comelec should not be confused with the one that is supposed to be created under the law.
"They are saying this without looking at what’s out there in the field. They are looking at their own navels. This is a very irresponsible Comelec," Gordon said.
"We won’t entertain mediocrity. We can’t entertain mediocrity in this country," he said. Hands off
Ironically, Malacañang is giving Comelec a free hand in implementing a measure that Mrs. Arroyo herself signed into law recently.
Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol, in separate interviews, said there was nothing wrong about Mrs. Arroyo’s signing of RA 9369 even if there’s no more time to implement it in May.
Apostol also said Abalos would not be held liable if he is unable to implement the law due to lack of time.
"Given the proximity of the bill’s passage to the May elections, we will have to rely on Comelec’s judgment on the feasibility of implementing its provisions," he said.
"The President is correct. The law is already there so she had to sign it especially that that was a priority bill," Apostol said. "At least we already have a law on poll automation so we already have a legal basis to implement it."
He said RA 9369 would be the basis for the computerization of succeeding elections.
Abalos and the country’s top election lawyers including Romulo Macalintal, who defended Mrs. Arroyo in the election protest filed against her, had been dissuading her from signing the law.
"Automated elections are part of the 10-point reform agenda of the President. It is in pursuit of political and electoral reforms that she signed the AES bill, which she had certified as urgent," Claudio said..
House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles also backed Abalos stand on automating the May 14 polls.
"Three months before elections will cause more confusion. Even election lawyers must be oriented so they will know how to object or handle cases involving automation. We can test that for the October 2007 barangay election, not now," he said.
Crispin Beltran, on the other hand, expressed doubts on the government’s sincerity in signing the law.
"We don’t distrust technology, we distrust the Arroyo administration and its infamous record of massive electoral fraud," the detained Anakpawis party-list representative said in a statement.
"We fear that injecting higher technology into Philippine elections while such a corrupt and politically desperate administration is in office and in charge of the electoral process would further endanger the already shaky credibility of the polls," Beltran, 74, said.
The veteran labor leader, who has been detained since February 2007 on non-bailable charges of rebellion, said Mrs. Arroyo’s motive was to "maintain a majority hold over the Senate and the House."
"And what better, easier way to do it than electronically. We have a measure of trust in technology and how it can make the polls more efficient, but we cannot trust the administration to run a clean and honest elections," he said.
"It might well be easier for the administration to manipulate election results if the polls are automated. It is possible that polls will be automated in the urban areas and regions where Arroyo is most unpopular," he added. Backing from CBCP
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) lauded yesterday the signing of the poll automation law saying a modernized election process "has been the wish of the bishops."
"If national resources could afford such a positive development, then we see no problem with it," Caloocan Bishop Deogracia Iniguez Jr., CBCP public affairs head, told The STAR. A computerized election process, the bishop added, "will be beneficial not only for the government but for the country in general."
The CBCP, which is holding its semi-annual plenary assembly at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center, is expected to come out with a pastoral statement on the new poll automation law tomorrow.
On Abalos’ claim that there is not enough time to automate the polls, Iniguez said the government should "verify his claim."
He said the bishops are keeping track of election issues with great interest and many consider the coming midterm polls a "referendum of the people‘s mandate on this administration that has so many unresolved issues."
In earlier pastoral statements, the CBCP stressed the importance of electoral reforms in the government’s efforts to regain trust and confidence of the people.
"The Commission on Elections has to be transformed into a competent and reliable body beyond reproach. The call for resignation or even prosecution of a number of commissioners should not be lightly brushed aside. The electoral process, including counting of votes, has to be reformed and modernized," the bishops said.
Meanwhile, the Integrated Bar the Philippines (IBP) will seek Comelec accreditation as an official independent watchdog in the 2007 elections.
This was announced by IBP president Jose Vicente B. Salazar during a visit to Cagayan de Oro City yesterday.
"This IBP leadership believes that lawyers in the country are not anymore confined in the court system. We believe that our profession entails a social obligation as well," he said. - With Paolo Romero, Edu Punay, Mark Francisco, Mayen Jaymalin And Marvin Sy -The Philippine Star
"The Comelec and the advisory council have reached the consensus that automation of voting and counting and canvassing is no longer doable in time for the 2007 elections," Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos said. But he said electronic transmission of election results is possible and doable.
Sen. Richard Gordon said Abalos and other election officials face impeachment for "abdication of responsibility" if they fail to implement the poll automation law.
"This is not something that suddenly woke him up from his slumber," Gordon said, adding that the Comelec had always been part of the deliberation on poll automation.
"We should ask Abalos what he has been doing to ensure that elections will be clean," he added.
Abalos said an "end-to-end" computerization is not possible even in selected areas. An "end-to-end" process covers voting, counting, canvassing, transmission and even recount.
"If we only have to automate the transmission of results in certain pilot areas, we can do that because machines that can do such functions are readily available," Abalos said. He stressed that an electronic transmission is good enough because it is in this stage where irregularities are usually committed.
He added that only P100 million would be required for an electronic transmission system.
While praising President Arroyo for signing RA 9369, Gordon called Comelec’s insistence on limiting automation to transmission as "spectacularly idiotic" and meant to force the country to use the overpriced poll automation equipment supplied by MegaPacific Consortium. The Supreme Court had already declared as null and void the Comelec’s multimillion peso contract with MegaPacific.
Based on the newly enacted Republic Act 9369, the poll automation for the May elections will be limited to six pilot provinces and six highly urbanized cities across the country. Comelec will choose these areas in consultation with local councils.
Automatically disqualified from the pilot election automation scheme are provinces or cities whose officials are administratively charged within 16 months before the May 14 elections. Poll automation on a nationwide basis takes effect in 2010.
Gordon said that the technology required for the automation, including the machines, are readily available and that the country may even lease the poll equipment used by the United States in its midterm elections last year. But the Comelec said the US equipment may be incompatible with the local system.
Gordon also said that the advisory council formed by Comelec should not be confused with the one that is supposed to be created under the law.
"They are saying this without looking at what’s out there in the field. They are looking at their own navels. This is a very irresponsible Comelec," Gordon said.
"We won’t entertain mediocrity. We can’t entertain mediocrity in this country," he said. Hands off
Ironically, Malacañang is giving Comelec a free hand in implementing a measure that Mrs. Arroyo herself signed into law recently.
Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol, in separate interviews, said there was nothing wrong about Mrs. Arroyo’s signing of RA 9369 even if there’s no more time to implement it in May.
Apostol also said Abalos would not be held liable if he is unable to implement the law due to lack of time.
"Given the proximity of the bill’s passage to the May elections, we will have to rely on Comelec’s judgment on the feasibility of implementing its provisions," he said.
"The President is correct. The law is already there so she had to sign it especially that that was a priority bill," Apostol said. "At least we already have a law on poll automation so we already have a legal basis to implement it."
He said RA 9369 would be the basis for the computerization of succeeding elections.
Abalos and the country’s top election lawyers including Romulo Macalintal, who defended Mrs. Arroyo in the election protest filed against her, had been dissuading her from signing the law.
"Automated elections are part of the 10-point reform agenda of the President. It is in pursuit of political and electoral reforms that she signed the AES bill, which she had certified as urgent," Claudio said..
House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles also backed Abalos stand on automating the May 14 polls.
"Three months before elections will cause more confusion. Even election lawyers must be oriented so they will know how to object or handle cases involving automation. We can test that for the October 2007 barangay election, not now," he said.
Crispin Beltran, on the other hand, expressed doubts on the government’s sincerity in signing the law.
"We don’t distrust technology, we distrust the Arroyo administration and its infamous record of massive electoral fraud," the detained Anakpawis party-list representative said in a statement.
"We fear that injecting higher technology into Philippine elections while such a corrupt and politically desperate administration is in office and in charge of the electoral process would further endanger the already shaky credibility of the polls," Beltran, 74, said.
The veteran labor leader, who has been detained since February 2007 on non-bailable charges of rebellion, said Mrs. Arroyo’s motive was to "maintain a majority hold over the Senate and the House."
"And what better, easier way to do it than electronically. We have a measure of trust in technology and how it can make the polls more efficient, but we cannot trust the administration to run a clean and honest elections," he said.
"It might well be easier for the administration to manipulate election results if the polls are automated. It is possible that polls will be automated in the urban areas and regions where Arroyo is most unpopular," he added. Backing from CBCP
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) lauded yesterday the signing of the poll automation law saying a modernized election process "has been the wish of the bishops."
"If national resources could afford such a positive development, then we see no problem with it," Caloocan Bishop Deogracia Iniguez Jr., CBCP public affairs head, told The STAR. A computerized election process, the bishop added, "will be beneficial not only for the government but for the country in general."
The CBCP, which is holding its semi-annual plenary assembly at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center, is expected to come out with a pastoral statement on the new poll automation law tomorrow.
On Abalos’ claim that there is not enough time to automate the polls, Iniguez said the government should "verify his claim."
He said the bishops are keeping track of election issues with great interest and many consider the coming midterm polls a "referendum of the people‘s mandate on this administration that has so many unresolved issues."
In earlier pastoral statements, the CBCP stressed the importance of electoral reforms in the government’s efforts to regain trust and confidence of the people.
"The Commission on Elections has to be transformed into a competent and reliable body beyond reproach. The call for resignation or even prosecution of a number of commissioners should not be lightly brushed aside. The electoral process, including counting of votes, has to be reformed and modernized," the bishops said.
Meanwhile, the Integrated Bar the Philippines (IBP) will seek Comelec accreditation as an official independent watchdog in the 2007 elections.
This was announced by IBP president Jose Vicente B. Salazar during a visit to Cagayan de Oro City yesterday.
"This IBP leadership believes that lawyers in the country are not anymore confined in the court system. We believe that our profession entails a social obligation as well," he said. - With Paolo Romero, Edu Punay, Mark Francisco, Mayen Jaymalin And Marvin Sy -The Philippine Star
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