What fails the Comelec

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza

BAGUIO CITY -- In a country such as ours, we cannot avoid elections as our Constitution allows it to happen every three years. In addition to that, we also hold our barangay elections in every three years.

In a country of men full of drive, we cannot avoid opposing views. And the objective to win an election is so strong that supporters as well as their leaders resort to fraud. But Commission on Elections is kind. It sends no one to jail.

I really pity the Comelec for all the criticism they get every time there is an election. Kaasi da met! But who really is responsible for the continuous palpaks that we see on elections?

There are many factors that contribute to election problems. Although for me, I find it unreasonable for the Comelec to give the same familiar answers to the same age-old questions, as if they were unfamiliar of the bad situation they were in. In fact they were in very bad situations every election time – for the longest time.

It seems like the Comelec wants to tell us that it is always the first time for them to conduct elections every time.

What voters encountered, aside from bad weather, power outages and incidents of violence that were unavoidable and could not be blamed on the Comelec, were ancient problems that have been there for as long as when elections started in the country.

To name some, these were: 1) delay in bidding election material and printing of ballots; 2) delay in delivery of ballots and other paraphernalia; 3) walking far distances to remote precincts to deliver election paraphernalia; 4) delivery of ballots that are intended for other barangays; 5) delays in the opening of precincts; 6) confusion in the voters' lists or missing names of voters; 7) voters’ names were already signed by other persons; and 8) three-termer barangay officials were allowed to file their certificate of candidacy (COC).

All of these were confirmed based on personal experiences of no less than senators Chiz Excudero, Bong Revilla and Kiko Pangilinan.

Sen. Bong Revilla was surprised with the conduct of the barangay and SK elections saying “akala ko graduate na tayo sa mga ganyang problema pero mukhang mas grabe pa” (I thought we have “graduated” from those problems but it looks like they have become more serious).

Sen. Chiz claimed that like the rest of the voters, he was not able to vote because his barangay received ballots that were meant for another voting center and that local Comelec officials could not even use misplaced ballots without approval from Manila.

For Sen. Kiko, he cited the Comelec’s clear lack of preparations and said “it seems a lot more could have been done to ensure greater preparation on the part of the Comelec.”

But I agree that incidents of violence that erupt before, during and after elections cannot be avoided as these involve outside factors. However, such incidents are enough reasons that are considered before declaring poll failure.

Even the Department of Education said that there election task force received numerous complaints from board of election tellers in all regions who reported that actual voting were unable to take off on time because of the late delivery or non-delivery of election paraphernalia. That was the biggest problem faced by the teachers.

In trying to see the age-old problems one by one starting from what was said about the delays in bidding out election paraphernalia and the printing of election material, those running the Comelec have only themselves to blame if their schedules were not followed, according to Chiz.

Naturally, delivery of election material was expected to be delayed too. Walking far distances to deliver election paraphernalia to remote precincts may not also be a good excuse for late elections, considering that distances of remote voting centers are known facts.

In other cases, voting was delayed by the “shocking” delivery of ballots intended for other barangays. If simple instructions for directions of deliveries cannot be complied with, how can people expect Comelec to do other tasks?

Almost all barangay polls were characterized by missing names of voters, people getting confused with the voters' lists while voters complained about precinct tellers who allowed unknown persons to vote under other names. This is not new as it has happened in the past local and national elections.

Lastly, a Comelec official said it is merely ministerial on their part to receive the COCs of candidates whether they finished their three terms or not. However, according to the DILG, it has furnished the Comelec the list of three-termer officials, meaning, these candidates are automatically barred from filing their COCs.

Comelec chairman Melo expressed dissatisfaction over delays in the bidding process for election paraphernalia and supplies, and felt dismayed over delays in the printing of official ballots because the printers of the National Printing Office are “antiques.”

But they knew all along that the machines were antigo, and as people in charge of Comelec they knew exactly when to have things bided out and when to have the ballots printed – depending on the speed of the antique NPO machines.

After the humiliation it got from the 2004 and 2007 election fraud, Comelec had all the time to straighten itself and show that it can do its job better. But they keep on encountering the same mistakes and so they keep repeating their old answers.

That is why former Comelec chairman Christian Monsod said: “When answers are not forthcoming or clear, doubt or suspicions about possible fraud arise, when the causes may just be incompetence or inefficiency.” – marchfianza777@yahoo.com