E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Go to the election returns
Sunday, 06 06, 2004
Confronted with the Opposition’s voluminous and incontrovertible evidence on massive election fraud, which includes charges of tampered CoCs and SoVs, Malacañang’s apologists strangely point out that, in case of conflicting figures in the CoC held by Congress and the copies in Opposition hands (even when there is evidence of obvious alteration in the Malacañang copies), resorting to the precinct-level election returns (ERs) to determine the veracity of the votes cast as appearing in the CoC would entail a tedious and lengthy process. They say it would take the joint committee 14 years to appreciate every one of the country’s ERs even if they would have to spend a mere 10 minutes with each return. They added even if only 20 percent of the country’s ERs were to be reviewed, it would still take three years to go through an estimated 59,092 election returns (20 percent of 295,459 established precincts by Comelec’s count).
It does not take a genius to figure out Malacañang’s strategy for hiding the truth and ramming the proclamation of Gloria down the nation’s throat. By one sweep, Malacañang is peddling a contrived scenario of a rather terribly long and tiresome process of opening and reviewing ERs.
There are currently 226 congressmen and 23 senators in our legislature. Minus the members of the joint committee, we have 215 congressmen and nine senators who are relatively free for other tasks while the canvassing goes on.
Would it not be a wise and efficient move to delegate the verification of the accuracy of the contested CoC through a thorough review of the ERs to our otherwise idle lawmakers? They can be formed into some 70 teams, each can be assisted by their staff and some accountants in going through the contested documents. Comelec can have its provincial, city and municipal officers on standby for these teams as resource persons on call, while Malacañang, the Opposition, Namfrel, PPCRV and other election watchdog groups can field their own representatives to ensure transparency. The teams can then include their findings in a report to be submitted to the joint committee. This way, what would otherwise take three years can simply be accomplished in just over three weeks.
Malacañang made a serious exaggeration when it made the claim it would take 10 minutes to appreciate a precinct-level ER. This is not true. We must bear in mind that what is in question here is the accuracy of the CoC and SoV, not the ER. There is, for the purpose of Congress as a National Board of Canvassers, a presumption of regularity in the accomplishment of the ERs, and what is required of the Congress in the opening of ERs is merely to copy the figures for candidates for President and Vice-President and have these tabulated. Ordinarily, it would not take 30 seconds to recopy the votes for the nine candidates appearing in the ER but granting some extra time to ensure an accurate copying and tabulation, let us assume that every return would require about two minutes. Recalculating, we would end up with 28 working hours, or three-and-a-half (3.5) working days, for every team to accomplish its task and make its report to the joint committee.
What, indeed, is Malacañang afraid of? The Senate president’s Freudian slip, to the effect that if the ERs are opened Fernando Poe Jr. will win, answers the question.
Rufus Rodriguez, who has a lock on the ERs for Mindanao showing the massive fraud, has a proposition: Open all the ERs in Basilan, where Tipo-tipo, Basilan, Sumilip, Tuburan, etcetera are now as famous as Datu Piang in Maguindanao and SND in Lanao del Norte. If Malacañang can show even a single ER to be consistent with the SoV by precinct, the Opposition will concede and Gloria can have the presidency. Basilan is a classic example for massive cheating: All the ERs bear out a win for FPJ, but the SoV and the CoC tell a different story. And this is replicated in the 25 hot spots that the opposition has identified. The latest we heard, the municipal election officers are on the run, pursued by a warlord to part with their copies of the ERs and the SoVs.
By all means, let us go the ERs. After all, the Constitution, Republic Act 7166 and the rules of the joint committee allow this.
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Go to the election returns
Sunday, 06 06, 2004
Confronted with the Opposition’s voluminous and incontrovertible evidence on massive election fraud, which includes charges of tampered CoCs and SoVs, Malacañang’s apologists strangely point out that, in case of conflicting figures in the CoC held by Congress and the copies in Opposition hands (even when there is evidence of obvious alteration in the Malacañang copies), resorting to the precinct-level election returns (ERs) to determine the veracity of the votes cast as appearing in the CoC would entail a tedious and lengthy process. They say it would take the joint committee 14 years to appreciate every one of the country’s ERs even if they would have to spend a mere 10 minutes with each return. They added even if only 20 percent of the country’s ERs were to be reviewed, it would still take three years to go through an estimated 59,092 election returns (20 percent of 295,459 established precincts by Comelec’s count).
It does not take a genius to figure out Malacañang’s strategy for hiding the truth and ramming the proclamation of Gloria down the nation’s throat. By one sweep, Malacañang is peddling a contrived scenario of a rather terribly long and tiresome process of opening and reviewing ERs.
There are currently 226 congressmen and 23 senators in our legislature. Minus the members of the joint committee, we have 215 congressmen and nine senators who are relatively free for other tasks while the canvassing goes on.
Would it not be a wise and efficient move to delegate the verification of the accuracy of the contested CoC through a thorough review of the ERs to our otherwise idle lawmakers? They can be formed into some 70 teams, each can be assisted by their staff and some accountants in going through the contested documents. Comelec can have its provincial, city and municipal officers on standby for these teams as resource persons on call, while Malacañang, the Opposition, Namfrel, PPCRV and other election watchdog groups can field their own representatives to ensure transparency. The teams can then include their findings in a report to be submitted to the joint committee. This way, what would otherwise take three years can simply be accomplished in just over three weeks.
Malacañang made a serious exaggeration when it made the claim it would take 10 minutes to appreciate a precinct-level ER. This is not true. We must bear in mind that what is in question here is the accuracy of the CoC and SoV, not the ER. There is, for the purpose of Congress as a National Board of Canvassers, a presumption of regularity in the accomplishment of the ERs, and what is required of the Congress in the opening of ERs is merely to copy the figures for candidates for President and Vice-President and have these tabulated. Ordinarily, it would not take 30 seconds to recopy the votes for the nine candidates appearing in the ER but granting some extra time to ensure an accurate copying and tabulation, let us assume that every return would require about two minutes. Recalculating, we would end up with 28 working hours, or three-and-a-half (3.5) working days, for every team to accomplish its task and make its report to the joint committee.
What, indeed, is Malacañang afraid of? The Senate president’s Freudian slip, to the effect that if the ERs are opened Fernando Poe Jr. will win, answers the question.
Rufus Rodriguez, who has a lock on the ERs for Mindanao showing the massive fraud, has a proposition: Open all the ERs in Basilan, where Tipo-tipo, Basilan, Sumilip, Tuburan, etcetera are now as famous as Datu Piang in Maguindanao and SND in Lanao del Norte. If Malacañang can show even a single ER to be consistent with the SoV by precinct, the Opposition will concede and Gloria can have the presidency. Basilan is a classic example for massive cheating: All the ERs bear out a win for FPJ, but the SoV and the CoC tell a different story. And this is replicated in the 25 hot spots that the opposition has identified. The latest we heard, the municipal election officers are on the run, pursued by a warlord to part with their copies of the ERs and the SoVs.
By all means, let us go the ERs. After all, the Constitution, Republic Act 7166 and the rules of the joint committee allow this.
Ano ang ikinatatakot nilang mabunyag sa taong bayan?
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