‘Zombie voters’ could cause failure of elections

EDITORIAL

Recently, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) revealed the discovery of 40,000 voters entered as double, multiple, or dead registrants in Region 11 in Southern Mindanao. In Philippine election jargon, double or multiple registrants are called “flying voters” while dead registrants are called “zombie voters.”

PPCRV’s legal counsel Howard Calleja told the media, “What we discovered in Davao City and Davao del Sur is only the tip of the iceberg.” He said that the 40,000 invalid registrants could “make or break a local election.” However, if such a number also existed in all provinces, the nationwide total of zombie and flying voters could reach three to four million, enough to change the results of the presidential elections.

A few days after the PPCRV exposé, the office of Calleja was broken in. He told the media that what the burglars stole was the list of double, multiple, and dead registrants which has taken the PPCRV volunteers lots of time to compile. “There appears to be a concerted effort from some group to ensure that the Comelec’s final but unpurged voters’ list that is filled with double, multiple and dead voters stays unpurged,” he said.

According to sources close to Calleja, Calleja had been “receiving death threats allegedly from a son-in-law of a high ranking City Hall official in Davao City.” Another source said that the bigger suspects in the break-in are members of the Comelec “cheating syndicate.”

A recent news report stated that Comelec disclosed the discovery of 704,542 voters with double or multiple registration records. However, Archbishop Oscar Cruz of the Kontra-Daya watchdog group said that “the voters’ list is padded by no less than five million.” That’s 10% of the total registered voters. Could this be a harbinger to a massive cheating operation in the forthcoming elections on May 10?

This brings to mind the “Hello Garci” election cheating scandal during the 2004 elections when wiretapped conversations between President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo -- who was then running for president -- and Virgilio “Garci” Garcillano were recorded wherein Arroyo asked Garci about the status of one million votes he was supposed to deliver to her. Garci was then a high Comelec official in Mindanao who reputedly coordinated the manipulation of votes in the region with the help of other Comelec officials who became to be known as the “Garci boys.” After the 2004 elections, the “Garci boys” were promoted to higher positions in Comelec. Except for Garci, almost all of the “Garci boys” are still working in Comelec.

The “Hello Garci” tapes also revealed the alleged participation of several generals in the cheating operations in Mindanao. These generals -- known as the “Garci generals” -- included Hermogenes Esperon Jr. who was later promoted to Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Indeed, reward comes with “success.”

The recent appointment of Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit as the new Chief of Staff of the AFP has rekindled fear that the military would once again be involved in an attempt to manipulate the outcome of the elections.
Bangit’s longstanding subservient association with Arroyo has given rise to the perception that his loyalty to Arroyo was the overriding criterion for his appointment, passing over several senior and more qualified generals.

Bangit served as Arroyo’s senior aide-de-camp when she was Vice President from 1998 until she took over the presidency in 2001. From 2003 to 2006, Bangit served as the commander of Arroyo’s Praetorian guard, the Presidential Security Group (PSG). He concurrently served as Arroyo’s “spy master,” the head of the Intelligence Service of the AFP where he adopted the code name of “Emperor.” Prior to his appointment as Chief of Staff, Bangit commanded the Army, the military’s largest component.

Project Full Moon
Sister Mary John Mananzan -- who is co-chair of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP) -- suspects that the “Emperor” may have been appointed to manipulate the May 10elections. She mentioned a code name -- “Project Full Moon” -- for the alleged plot.

She said that it involves the hacking of the Automated Election System (AES) which will be used for the first time on May 10. In a text message to the media, she said: “National Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzalez will manage the May election cheating through Bangit and Brigadier General Romeo Prestoza.” Prestoza is Arroyo’s current “spy master” -- head of the Intelligence Service of the AFP.

With the May 10 elections less than two months away, there is widespread apprehension that things are not going to proceed smoothly. There are talks of “no election,” “no proclamation,” “failure of elections,” and, now, “Project Full Moon.” Comelec’s decision to provide the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) with a “watchlist” of multiple registrant voters as a preventive measure against flying voters is being protested by members of Congress.

They said that the estimated five million “zombie votes” could cause a “failure of elections.”Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez told the media: “There is no such thing as ‘watchlist’ in an election and I don’t understand why the Comelec is insisting on this. Kalokohan yan (That’s nonsense).”

Rodriguez said, “It will be very difficult for Congress to make a decision once the issue on these multiple registrants is raised during the canvassing.” Indeed, an impasse could cause an indefinite delay in proclaiming the winners in the presidential, vice presidential, and senatorial races. And this would lead to a “no proclamation” scenario wherein the line of presidential succession is invoked. Since there would be no President, Vice President, and Senate President after June 30, the next in line would be theSpeaker of the House of Representatives. If Arroyo wins her congressional seat -- which is expected -- and subsequently chosen by her peers in the House to be their Speaker, then she would become acting President.

Needless to say, the military would play a pivotal role during a constitutional crisis. As the “protector of the people and the State,” the military could impose martial law in the event that things would go wrong. In this case, it doesn’t necessarily mean “to protect the people and the State,” but to provide Arroyo with firepower, if necessary, to get what she wants -- political power!