Dagdag-bawas and wheeling-dealing

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

by March  Fianza

BAGUIO CITY -- Domecio Y. Cimatu Jr., 68, Philippine News Agency staff and writer during the Marcos years, former “last” director of the defunct Office of Media Affairs-National Media Production Center (OMA-NMPC) that was reinvented to become the Philippine Information Agency in 1986 so that he became its “first” director.

He was former Managing Editor of the Baguio Midland Courier and Past President of the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club. Prior to all the above, he was a dignified and well-recognized newsman who was connected with local and national publications. These were his “official” positions as a member of the press or the so-called Fourth Estate.

But I also caught him as a happy-go-lucky guy in the early 80s when I tagged along his groupee of cool friends belonging to different persuasions. Sometimes they struggled into getting themselves in danger.

Domcee was cool then. One time, at a presscon hosted by then information minister Gregorio Cendana at the old Pines Hotel, he lightly bumped a waiter who was carrying a tray of wine and glasses by the poolside. The next scene was a soaked waiter, and swimming wine bottles and glasses.  

Another scene that happened in front of me took place at the Rumours. For a bad word he said, the late Columnist Baboo Mondonedo poured beer on his head. I saw Domcee leave then return with a vengeance and a glass of beer he got from the other restaurant that he splashed on Baboo’s face.

Then one late evening drizzle, I was having hot coffee at Luisa’s Café when suddenly, customers were running out to the sidewalk. Outside were two familiar characters. Domcee and the late Jose “Peppot” Ilagan were challenging each other to a fistfight that never happened under the drizzle that turned to rain.

Domcee, the unpredictable, bade us goodbye early morning of last Tuesday, May 14, 2019 after a lingering pain. Memories of him will be kept in our hearts. For sure, his friends Bembo, Peppot, George Jularbal, Bagnos, Baboo and the rest of the gang already welcomed him. Our loss is their gain.

***

The recent elections was called by many observers as a freak one because it is rare and incomparable to past elections. Except for those who harped of being short of financial resources as they approached the end of the campaign, candidates and their supporters who knew they campaigned well were alarmed that their opponents garnered more votes than them.

For example, Benguet Governor Pacalso won in the municipalities of Bokod, Tublay, Itogon and La Trinidad; still his supporters displayed dissatisfaction while other constituents in these towns were equally surprised.  

In fact, there was no convincing reason for an electorate to vote for a candidate who is not known in many municipalities, especially in the first district where even his shadow has not been seen. That is why many were surprised of the election results.

To prove their point they referred to comments made by municipal bets who were likewise surprised why the governor’s votes were reduced, even while they claimed that his performance as chief executive in the province was “very good”.

They expressed concern why the number of votes for Gov. Pacalso decreased despite 1,024 infrastructure projects worth around P1billion implemented in all 13 towns from 2016 to the early part of this year.

In addition to infrastructure programs, health and social services improved and became more accessible in this administration. In short, there was improbable and no believable reason for the decrease in the number of votes for an incumbent official.

This brings to light reports of vote-buying in so many styles, paying barangay kapitanes with sums of money, manipulation of the automated elections and secret dealings with people linked with election officials resulting to possible vote-shaving and dagdag-bawas.

Local and national elections in Benguet which were always said to be honest, orderly and clean can now be described as dishonest and the dirtiest ever.

Proof of these descriptions started as the election practice more than a decade ago by a local chief executive who distributed vests to senior citizens’ associations, silyasi, tsinelas and parachute tents to private organizations.

This practice was again employed in the 2016 election when a provincial treasury was practically raided for election use, in addition to contributions advanced by public works contractors to a congressional candidate.

Relative to the incredible election results in Benguet, there were reports of faulty vote-counting machines (VCMs), ballot paper, ink, and SD cards in last Monday’s elections.

With this situation, election watchdogs are asking the Comelec to reconsider its decision six years ago to “unbundle” the automated election system which apparently contributed to problems in last Monday’s elections. Around 961 VCMs malfunctioned nationwide.

Moreover, political watchers and supporters of candidates in the polling places experienced waiting for hours before getting additional results.

They were later informed about a seven-hour gap on the first two transmissions of the poll results that boosted the figures of the poll tallies from 0.4 to 90 percent completion.

In addition to the faulty VCMs, ink, ballot paper and SD cards was the presence of a “meet-me-room” or queue server that received transmissions of election results from VCMs before these were sent to the Comelec transparency server.

The “meet-me rooms” hosted undeclared servers and intercepted figures from the VCMs to the Comelec servers. This was in violation of the Omnibus Election Code as this was an intervention by the undeclared queuing server.

In the previous manual elections, the ballot boxes were delivered directly to the municipal board of canvassers after manual counting witnessed by the voters inside the polling precincts.

In the case of the automated elections, the VCMs should directly be sending election returns to the municipal board of canvassers, and not passing through the “meet-me-rooms” that hosted undeclared servers.

Sending VCM results to the municipal canvassers should have been the right move in order to remove doubts about the transparency of the elections. I wonder why the Comelec cannot follow simple procedures.

After the “purposeful” faulty decisions were done, it could be possible that candidates in Baguio, Benguet and other parts of the Cordillera were either cooperative or innocent victims.