EDITORIAL

Comelec officials orchestrating ‘creeping victory’ for TU bets?

The Commission on Elections is undertaking covert steps to orchestrate a “creeping victory” of Team Unity senatorial candidates tail-ending in the national canvassing of the May 14 votes according to the Citizens’ Caucus for Effective Governance.

The CCEG is a network of development non-government organizations, policy think-tanks and citizens’ movements working towards the deepening of Philippine democracy, grassroots empowerment and sustainable development.

The Citizens’ Caucus, since its inception in 2004, has been documenting the progress of elections in the country, and their impact on the people. CCEG members include the Convergence for Community Centered Area Development, Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, the La Liga Policy Institute, Rural Enlightenment and Accretion in Philippine Society, and the Kilusan para sa Makatarungang Lipunan at Gobyerno.

The group is now saying the “Maguindanao vote, delays and postponement of canvassing in several towns and provinces, the holding of special elections, the slow action and even reluctance in attending to reports of election irregularities. All these reveal a pattern of special operations being implemented by the Comelec to manipulate the results of the polls.”

“First, the Comelec tries to condition the minds of the public to accept the very slow and delayed completion of the whole election and counting processes, then, the agency selectively counts ballots that slowly but consistently add thousands of votes to TU bets who had been dwelling in the tail-end of the magic 12.”

The CCEG in a statement: “Evidently, the target beneficiaries of these special operations are the TU bets who had been ‘maintained within close points-distance from the magic 12,’ but who would later on creepingly dislodge winning GO candidates in the 8-12 ranking.” The Citizens’ Caucus expressed alarm at the statement by Comelec that “it will not be able to proclaim the winners in the senatorial and party-list elections on its self-imposed deadline.

Commissioner Rene Sarmiento was quoted as saying “The poll body expects to complete the canvassing by the first week of June, as it still has to hold special elections in several towns of Lanao del Sur and afterwards, in Lanao del Norte,” saying the Comelec estimates “some 100,000 votes to be cast in Lanao del Sur alone, enough to affect the bottom rungs of the 12 winning senators.”

“So, what will happen in the days going to the final count that was even moved further? Is the Comelec conditioning our minds that more GO candidates will be dislodged by TU bets?” asked Citizens’ Caucus. The proclamation of the senatorial candidates would answer the question.