As calls for vigilance over possible attempts to sabotage the May 2010 elections intensify, we miss Josie Lichauco, activist for good governance.
The Concerned Citizens Movement, which Josie started with a few friends in 2005, is formulating a “People’s Contingency Plan to Counter Gloria Forever”.
Marily Orosa, CCM co-convenor said, “The issue now is not whether there will be failure of elections. That’s already a foregone conclusion. The issue is what will the people do in response to the failure?”
It was CCM that petitioned the Supreme Court to stop the Comelec – Smartmatic –Total Information Management consortium from carrying out the nationwide automation of the 2010 elections because it was never tested in a smaller scale as required by the law.
CCM said glitches are inevitable in a new automated system and the Comelec is risking failure by going nationwide untested.
CCM co-convenor Bettina Legarda recalls that it was Josie who frantically convened a meeting of the CCM to discuss the prospects of an automated failure of elections because she was in her lifetime an authority in the filed of telecommunications and Information Technology law.
Her immediate concern then was the lack of 100% telecommunications connectivity in the country that would make a nationwide automated elections impossible. This, plus the scenario articulated by then National Security Council Norberto Gonzalez about a transition council with Gloria Arroyo as a member of the same compelled CCM to file its Petition against the automated elections.
The Supreme Court dismissed the CCM petition. But the concern has not been erased. It has even intensified , what with Presidential deputy spokesperson Charito Planas talking of a possible military takeover in the event of a failure of elections in May.
Harry Roque, professor of law at the University of the Philippines and another CCM convenor said, “we may have lost the case in the Supreme Court, but we succeeded in provoking a public discussion of the possibility of a failure of elections. Now, not only are people convinced that it will certainly happen, but people have rightfully connected the failure of elections with the recent Supreme Court decision allowing Mrs. Arroyo to appoint the next Chief Justice. It’s all part of an overall scheme intended to perpetuate Mrs. Arroyo in office beyond June 30, 2010. It’s OPLAN Gloria Forever still.”
This scenario has gained credence with the appointment of Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit, an Arroyo loyalist as Armed Forces chief and Malacañang’s reported plan to install another Arroyo loyalist, National Capital Region Police Chief Roberto Rosales, in place of current PNP Chief Jesus Versoza, who has of late shown some degree of independence in political issues.
Roque said, at a bare minimum, CCM will reject any proposal for a transition government that would include Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. “The Constitution may not have contemplated a failure of automated elections. It is very clear though that under the Constitution, an incumbent President could never be a hold-over President.”
Namfrel statement:
How sure are you that your vote will be counted in the automated count?
With the automation of the May 2010 elections, the days of the yellow metal ballot boxes that used to be protected by concerned citizens are history. The days of manual tara-tara or tabulation in counting the votes are over. The Operation Quick Count conducted by NAMFREL at La Salle Greenhills is unnecessary. But can we trust the machines? Can we trust the count yielded by the machines?
In other electronic dealings like withdrawing cash from your bank’s Automated Teller Machine (ATM) or buying lotto tickets, one gets a paper receipt, or at the very least, an onscreen notification of one’s transaction.
On May 10, 2010, under the automated election system that COMELEC will administer in more than 75,000 precincts all over the country, the voter will not get any paper receipt or on-screen notification assuring him/her that his intent was what the PCOS machine captured. The COMELEC disabled these features in the machines for what? Speed? Economy? Expediency?
The last remaining safeguard of the accuracy of the count was to have been NAMFREL’s offer to COMELEC at no expense to the COMELEC and as a natural extension of its operation quick count expertise to conduct a random manual audit (RMA) of the count in certain precincts, provided in the automation law itself (RA 9369). NAMFREL’s position is to conduct the RMA right after the electronic count before the proclamation of winners. COMELEC is leaning towards conducting RMA after the proclamation when any discrepancy between the manual versus the electronic count shall not be recognized until much, much later. COMELEC denied the petition of NAMFREL to conduct RMA.
Clearly, COMELEC is choosing speed over reflecting the true will of the people, speed over transparency & auditability.
Joint concern and call on the May 10 Automated Elections
After closely monitoring the preparations for the country’s first automated elections on May 10,
WE, representatives from the Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch), National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), DLSU-Caucus, Kontra Daya, and other organizations now come together to express jointly our serious concerns to the lack of proper safeguards plugged into the vulnerabilities of the AES especially its internal security systems; the alarming possibility of election failure due to the absence of mechanisms for voter verifiability, source code review, general instructions for legal adjudication, as well as imminent power and transmission failures and other critical problems; and the lack of transparency of the Comelec in dealing with the valid election-related concerns of independent citizens’ groups.
In the light of this situation, WE therefore call on the Filipino voters to PREPARE for all contingency, to guard their votes against attempts to disenfranchise them through fraud and violence and, to support all initiatives by independent citizens’ groups to help achieve credible elections and ensure the peaceful transition of power on May 10 this year.
Signed this 23rd day of March, 2010 at the Kapihan sa Ilustrado press conference,
Intramuros, Manila, Philippines by:
(Sgd.) Alfredo Pascual
Aes Watch Convener
President, UP Alumni Association
(Sgd.) Danny Magbual
Spokesperson, NAMFREL
(Sgd.) Sherwin Ona
DLSU -CCS-CAUCUS
AES watch Convener
(Sgd.) David Balangue
Vice Chair, NAMFREL
(Sgd.) Bobby Tuazon
CenPEG Policy Study Director
AES Watch Convener
(Sgd.) Fr. Joe Dizon
Kontra Daya Convener
(Sgd.) Maricor M. Akol
NAMFREL
AES Watch Convener
(Sgd.) Rhodora Clemente
AES Watch Convener
Organized vigilance needed to ensure a peaceful transition of power
The uncertainties attending the preparations for the May 10 elections make the poll automation more vulnerable to political plots. While the problem-riddled election preparations will most likely bring about election failures and voters’ disenfranchisement, it is political conspiracies that will decisively set back the peaceful transition to power and the installation of a new government leadership.
Elections are a means toward making democracy work and the coming automated election is no exception. In the Philippines, however, elections are decided not by the electoral process per se but by various political forces linked to ruling political dynasties that are out to subvert this exercise by means of fraud and violence in order to grab – or retain – political power.
Whether the elections are manual or automated, there have been sinister moves made over the years by forces identified with the administration in a bid to install permanent rule thereby insulating powerful leaders from their accountability to fraud, corruption, human rights violations, and other misdeeds. Equally dangerous, however, are insinuations of a military intervention due, so it is claimed, to a possible election failure.
Election failure will most likely result in a constitutional crisis to which there are legal processes that can be resorted to. But military intervention will bring back authoritarian rule that will undermine constitutional processes and civilian supremacy.
These conditions and dire scenarios require greater vigilance by citizens’ groups and the rest of the Filipino people. Greater vigilance by an aware, critical, and organized citizenry will ensure not only the guarding of votes and prevent widespread voters’ disenfranchisement. More than ever, greater vigilance is needed today to ensure the peaceful transition of power based on the sovereign will of the people.
Prof. Bobby Tuazon
Director for Policy Studies
Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
Hulaan niyo kung sino tinutukoy ng COMELEC??? 😛
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/186984/comelec-vows-holy-week-shocker-for-bets-exceeding-airtime-limit
Maaring dalawa ang ma-disqualify dahil nag exceed sa allowable airtime KUNG seryoso talaga sila. Then ididisqualify nila yung nasa 3rd ranking sa survey dahil di eligible to “run again”. Ang matitira ay yung 4th in ranking pababa. Hmmm…….
Maraming way para Gloria forever at isa ito (ang mag disqualify) sa mga paraan. Ang naiisip ko ay magwawala ang mga tao dahil pag na disquallify ang mga iboboto nila. Chaos in the streets, etc… state of emergency… pasok ang militar headed by none other than AFP-COS Bangit. New SC CJ rule emergency legal… ayos ang buto-buto. 😛
It’s good to call for peoples vigilance, why not?
The problem is one time or another as history shows, some so called watch-dogs and organizations who call for them are supporters of other candidates which only mean that they are only there to guard, massage and trend the votes of their favored candidates.
Who will in turn watch the actions of these organization?
Tularan natin si Josie Lichauco sa kanyang katapangan, sabi nga ng unang presidente ng United States na si George Washington “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence-it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
How elections in US were rigged? You will see it at 7:00 point of video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VASkndcUM3Q&feature=related
The rigging of US elections. This one is a better video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEzY2tnwExs
Here’s another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7tjnuG-l6g&feature=related
The video on post #11 shows how the rigging is done.
So, that means Villaroyo is the new president if there is no failure of election.
Tularan natin si Josie Lichauco sa kanyang katapangan, sabi nga ng unang presidente ng United States na si George Washington “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence-it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
“Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.” —Thomas Jefferson
“Hulaan niyo kung sino tinutukoy ng COMELEC???
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/186984/comelec-vows-holy-week-shocker-for-bets-exceeding-airtime-limit“ – Mike
Si Noynoy ang target niyan. Kesyo si Noynoy mismo ang nag-place ng ads habang yung kay Villar, Nacionalista Party daw.
Ano’ng gagawin nila? Ididisqualify si Noynoy at yung buong Nacionalista Party? Papaikutan lang niyan ang batas, ididivide yung oras sa lahat ng kandidato ng Nacionalista at voila! Walang lumagpas sa kanila, kahit pa si Villar.
Pero teka, yang balitang yan e tungkol sa paglagpas ng allotment sa ABS-CBN tapos yung balita e galing sa GMA News. Hmmm…
Sabi ng GMA News, wala raw report from Komolek na lumagpas ang airtime ng 2 top candidate sa kanilang istasyon! Pero ampotsa,. hindi ako nanood sa ABS at GMA lang ako… pero nabibingi ako sa paulit ulit an political ads ni Villarroyo!
bakit hindi din nila basahin yung batas na bawal ang political ads before campaign period! putsa, number 1 sila Villaroyo at Gibo dyan!
nawala ‘yung post ko?
may nagmumulto?
may kaluluwa ba ang baboy?
Ito ‘yun, eh.
Ulitin na lang.
Ano ang tawag n’yo dito?
Walang kahihiyan?
Manhdi at wala na talagang kahihiyan?
Gahaman sa lahat ng bagay?
Hindi na tinatablan dahil nga ubod at sagad na sa kawalanghiyaan?
Please naman.
Ano nga ang tawag dito?
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=561739&publicationSubCategoryId=63
ipinost ko ule for the second time again ‘yung nawala, nawala ule?
nang si hudas ay nadulas bakit kasama ‘yung aking post na lumipad?
150 child warriors na-recruit ng NPA
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=561645&publicationSubCategoryId=92
Satur Ocampo, Liza Masa. Ted Casino. At mga kasapi ng makakaliwang grupo. Ano’ng masasabi n’yo dito?
Baka naman sasabihin ninyong black propaganda lamang ito?
Hindi ako panig sa gobyernong dahil sa kapalpakan sa paghirang sa bagong hepe ng Sandatahang Lakas gayundin sa bagong hepe ng Hukbong Katihan kasama na ang mga bagong itinalagang mga PMA’ers ’78 sa iba’t ibang sangay ng hukbo sapagkat maliwanag itong pagpapalakas ng puwersa at pagpapatibay ng bakod ni gloria, subalit hindi rin ako kumporme sa ginagawang paggamit at pagsasanay ng NPA sa mga kabataan upang maghasik ng karahasan laban sa kapwa Pilipinong ipinagsisigawan nilang kanilang ipinagtatanggol at pinangangalagaan kuno ang kapakanan. Para ano?
What’s all this noise from Namfrel? Namfrel has long lost its credibility. It’s a creation of CIA. It’s composed of the elite, civil society, Makati Business Club. It used to be chaired by a Cory loyalist, Jose Concepcion. It’s no different today. Same dog with different collar. Nariyan lang iyan hindi para bantayan ang boto ng bayan kundi bantayan ang boto ng mga Aquino. Buti na lang hindi na-accredit ng Comelec this time.