Into the breach

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Into the breach
Sunday, 05 23, 2004

The outburst of Senate President Franklin Drilon over the discovery last week within the premises of the Senate of envelopes containing unfilled certificates of canvass (CoCs) and statements of votes (SoVs) was understandable. After all, with the Senate teeming nowadays with a horde of armed security personnel and surveillance gadgets, including an APC, it should have been inconceivable for any outsider to intrude and plant evidence within Fortress Senate just so the effectiveness of these security measures would be subjected to derision of the public at large. The outburst was directed more at his chief security officer, under whose watch the intrusion took place.

I join Drilon in condemning this breach of security in the Senate. This should not happen to the institution - at any time, under any circumstance. It is as if the intruders have waggled their fingers on the face of anyone who loves the Senate, that they could do anything, the heavy security notwithstanding.

What was not expected of Drilon was the fingerpointing at the Opposition, as if blaming “one of Angara’s lawyers” as the author of the intrusion absolves Drilon’s chief security officer of any responsibility over the caper committed right under his very nose. It was pitifully precipitate of Drilon in putting the blame on the Opposition too soon after the discovery of the envelopes.

Between now and the actual opening of the ballot boxes during the national canvass, suspicions abound. What if in fact there had been a switching of ballot boxes? Or stuffing of ballot boxes with fake CoCs and SoVs? Who will benefit from the consequences of the intrusion into the Senate? Whose hands are dirty of the grime of this caper?

The integrity of the national canvass has been compromised. Here is a Congress - which will convene the day after tomorrow as a national board of canvassers for the presidential and vice-presidential elections – whose leaders cannot even guarantee that the ballot boxes containing the CoCs and election returns in its custody are beyond suspicion of having been tampered with. Hopefully, the discovery of the envelopes is providential, as it forced the Senate to adopt stricter security measures. But it did not help any that an unnecessary opening was made through the Senate kitchen several days later, fanning more suspicions that the chief security officer, a retired army officer, may not really be cut out for the job of securing the integrity of a prime Constitutional duty of his employer.

The signs are there for all to see who gets to benefit from this caper at the Senate.

Cancel out the Opposition. They would not dare take any self-defeating step at undermining the national canvass. They want their candidate, the real winner, proclaimed in accordance with the Constitution, and on time.

A “no-proclamation” scenario is developing, and this is the scary part. Imagine a situation in the Congress canvass where several ballot boxes yield CoCs that are proved to be fakes. The ensuing debates could be messy and interminable, with neither the side of the Opposition agreeing to the canvass of a CoC different from what the KNP holds, being the dominant opposition party, nor the side of the Administration party recognizing a CoC other than that brought out of the ballot box taken from the closely guarded depository at the Senate’s Recto Room. The impasse would admit of no other recourse for solution – the authenticity and due execution of the CoCs being under question - other than the opening of the thousands of ballot boxes containing still thousands of envelopes containing multi-paged election returns. Would the canvass ever end well before June 30?

Complicate this developing scenario with the proposed set of Rules governing the national canvass by Congress, which Rules are Constitutionally infirm in many respects, and tailor fit for long-drawn debates before its adoption, which may not happen soon enough, thereby again depriving Congress enough lead time to conduct the actual canvass.

What results from all these is a looming failure on the part of Congress to proclaim by June 30 a president and a vice-president. A constitutional crisis could ensue, if you ask me.

Such a situation could goad the usual adventurists to take stock of the situation and grab power if need be.

Yes, the adventurists should be factored in here, but Drilon obviously missed this scary consequence while he raged against the Opposition.

Or did he, really? Somebody in the Constitutional order of succession could become the interim president, a juicy prospect indeed for anyone who need not have to spend billions of public funds just to become president.

There is scarier endgame to what is happening at the Senate prior to the national canvass. As I write this, somebody carelessly whispered to me that someone could be, in the impersonal terminology of the Company, “terminated with extreme prejudice.” That careless whisper was something that made me afraid. Very, very much afraid.



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