Annoying candidates

EDITORIAL

If you are annoyed by the traffic jams and noise pollution caused by campaigning candidates, don’t vote for them.

This was the advice of Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista, who reminded the public that judgment day for irritating candidates is on election day.

“At the end of the day, if (people) are annoyed by these noises from the campaign, then they should not vote for the candidates,” Bautista told reporters when asked for comment on the practice of many local candidates who drive in convoys around neighborhoods while playing loud campaign jingles.  

Bautista said this is a form of noise pollution, which the public should not be made to suffer. He noted that voters being inconvenienced by the closure of roads should not vote for the candidates behind them.  

“I think it’s the local government that closes the roads. If it is causing inconvenience to the public, then the voters should also not vote for the candidates behind them,” he added. The public has been experiencing such nuisances since campaign period for local polls started on March 26. 

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III recommended Thursday to the Comelec to consider using the P26-million budget for the compensation of tutors and their staff, instead of buying shirts for teachers doing election duties.

“I have not heard a clamor or even a request for these (shirts) from any BEIs (Board of Election Inspectors) member or from the ranks of the public school teachers. Hence the question is: why are we going to spend for these items?” Pimentel said.

Pimentel, chairperson of the Senate committee on electoral reforms, questioned the move of the poll body to allocate more than P26 million to purchase “bib vests” for the BEIs and support staff to wear as uniforms at the polling places.

“Grabe, ang Comelec di na alam anong gagawin sa pera nila (Wow, the Comelec don’t know what to do with their money)… P20 million to be spent for something to be used for just one day? Such an additional layer of clothing might even make an already very warm day a lot hotter,” he added.

“Comelec should abandon this plan and simply add the P20 million to the total compensation package for all those serving in the elections. Simple,” Pimentel said.

The poll body has started the bidding contract for a total of 354,053 bib vests, with PiliPinas logo and initials “BEI” in front and “Comelec” and Board of Election Inspector” at the back.

The Comelec will also be buying 6,158 collared shorts for its employees for a contract pegged at P1,231,600 or P200 per shirt.

This, as the alleged hacking incident that defaced the website of the Comelec on March 27 would not affect the outcome of the May 9 polls, an official of the National Bureau of Investigation said.

NBI Cybercrime Division chief Roland Aguto said the website does not contain crucial data related to the upcoming election, aside from the voters’ master list which is located in the website’s precinct finder database.

“The voters’ list is public record anyway,” he said. He explained that even if the hackers got the entire precinct finder database and added or deleted names, the Comelec has the master list that could not be changed.

“Unless it would be uploaded on a fake website, it might sow confusion. But as I said, the Comelec still has the original master list,” said Aguto.

He also allayed doubts that the hacking would cause disenfranchisement or deprive some voters of their right to vote.

NBI and Comelec officials held a briefing at the agency’s headquarters  which included the submission of the website’s activity log.

The NBI is trying to identify and locate the hackers and find out if they downloaded or tampered any data. Aguto gave assurance that the NBI and the Comelec are closely coordinating with each other.

In the meantime, Aguto advised the Comelec to review its website after the incident, check their databases and strengthen its firewall, or a software program that prevents hackers from infiltrating a website or a computer system. Even with government officials’ pronouncements that there wouldn’t be cheating during the elections, the public is skeptical with some saying even a candidate who is down in surveys could come out as winner.