E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Truth or skewed consequence
Sunday, 09 12, 2004
It has been three months since Gloria was proclaimed by an overeager National Board of Canvassers, whose haste was too suspect. The niggling suspicion that an election had been stolen is now even more palpable in the results of the recent SWS survey which reflects an ever growing popular conviction that Gloria cheated her way to the presidency, and further belies the claim that the canvass for the presidential votes was on the level and beyond reproach.
The truth is still out there.
Sadly, in this day of the manufactured spin aimed at the 15-minute attention span, the vibrancy of truth seems to grow less by the passage of time. To most people who could not care less, truth becomes a decrepit and unreliable old man who still manages to keep on going for a certain length of time but there is no life in him. Truth, in this case, is no longer news - just a doddering old man going weakly into a tunnel of impenetrable gloom and no one cares to shine a light on his path.
Such are the truths held by Roberto Verzola.
Except for the Tribune, no other media outfit cared to give print space or air space to the presentation of Verzola on why the Namfrel Quick Count for the May 10 elections is not believable. Armed with newsworthy figures that belied Namfrel’s claim to objectivity, Verzola questioned Namfrel for not citing the major discrepancies between the results of the national canvass and the Namfrel tally. He identified the discrepancies as largest in the provinces of Basilan, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur and Sulu, where FPJ won the Namfrel tally but lost to GMA in the national canvass. Something’s wrong with this snub, and I am not going to venture a guess why, for millions of reasons and the powers be damned.
Lest Verzola’s credentials and motives be construed as being partial to the FPJ camp, it is well to emphasize that he was on the side of Bro. Eddie Villanueva during the elections. He is one of the trailblazers of the country’s information highway, having set up the first online system at the Senate and the House of Representatives in 1991, and has received industry recognition as “Father of Philippine E-mail.” He knows whereof he speaks.
So when Verzola presented figures and graphs culled from nowhere else but Namfrel data, one is bound to agree with him that, clearly, a skew has been committed in favor of GMA. “Skew” means “to distort,” or “to twist.” In the case of Namfrel’s tally, it refers to withholding the canvass of the votes of a candidate while maximizing the count for his opponent, in order to reflect a winning margin for the latter. In short, you distort the final results, and give it a twist of truth by claiming the unavailability of votes to be counted.
When Namfrel released its terminal report on July 2, 2004 - with 82.98 percent of precincts counted, showing GMA leading FPJ by around 681,000 votes - the tally for GMA’s top bailiwick Central Visayas was well ahead of Southern Tagalog; the tally for GMA’s Western Visayas was ahead of FPJ’s NCR; GMA’s CARAGA was ahead of FPJ’s Central Mindanao; Bicol (GMA winning) was ahead of FPJ’s Cagayan Valley; and, the overseas vote tally (GMA winning) was ahead of FPJ’s Ilocos.
Verzola estimated that four million votes were left uncounted in FPJ areas and only 1.1 million in GMA areas. From a careful analysis of the Namfrel tally, he then made the conclusion that GMA could not have won, and that the Namfrel tally showed clear signs of manipulation through selective tabulation in favor of GMA, making her appear to be the winner.
Namfrel has been accused, and rightly so, of keeping the truth from the public by not releasing a breakdown by province or by region of the number of precincts it had tallied. This is a COMELEC requirement for accreditation, that should have been part of Namfrel’s system design and regular reports from the beginning.
In a seeming travesty of its slogan, Namfrel has lit a candle to shine only on places of its own choosing while the rest of the populace cursed the darkness. Even today, it appears to be keeping the truth from the public. It did not include in its system design a provincial or regional breakdown of precincts counted. It has not released this breakdown despite strong demands by the public. It has continued to refuse to release this information, and has kept silent on the major discrepancies between its tally and the national canvass.
Namfrel clearly skewed the results. The truth is the exact opposite of the results that Namfrel is peddling.
Namfrel counts a great many good men and women among its ranks. The thousands of volunteers who risked their safety and their lives, hoping they could contribute toward a complete and honest citizens’ count, should now make themselves heard. They should ask their officials - the chairman, secretary-general and the head of the systems group - to shed light to these issues. They should demand that the breakdown by province or region of the number of precincts covered be released to the public. This small piece of information will get us closer to the true results.
But as Alexander Solzhenitsyn says in Candle in the Wind, “when the truth is discovered by someone else it loses some of its attractiveness.” So, if Senator Nene Pimentel is to be believed, one cannot expect NAMFREL to level with the electorate, more so if a foreigner were to dictate how this poll watchdog should take this latest assault on its credibility, if at all there remains any.
Namfrel’s figures stink. What its leaders -including that foreigner - did in the last elections, was execrable. The Comelec should consign these subversives in our electoral system to a tunnel at the end of which they could see the light - coming from a non-stop speeding train.
Solzhenitsyn and Pimentel notwithstanding, it is never too late to display the truth. The elections may have already been finished, the presumptive winners proclaimed, and have already assumed office. But even then, the truth must out, anytime, if only to prove to amused observers elsewhere in the world that we are presently ruled by a government under a big cloud of doubt as to its legitimacy. Only by so being aware shall we, come next election, be more vigilant to protect the truth.
For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
Namfrel has been accused, and rightly so, of keeping the truth from the public by not releasing a breakdown by province or by region of the number of precincts it had tallied. This is a COMELEC requirement for accreditation, that should have been part of Namfrel’s system design and regular reports from the beginning.
In a seeming travesty of its slogan, Namfrel has lit a candle to shine only on places of its own choosing while the rest of the populace cursed the darkness. Even today, it appears to be keeping the truth from the public. It did not include in its system design a provincial or regional breakdown of precincts counted. It has not released this breakdown despite strong demands by the public. It has continued to refuse to release this information, and has kept silent on the major discrepancies between its tally and the national canvass.
Namfrel clearly skewed the results. The truth is the exact opposite of the results that Namfrel is peddling.
Namfrel counts a great many good men and women among its ranks. The thousands of volunteers who risked their safety and their lives, hoping they could contribute toward a complete and honest citizens’ count, should now make themselves heard. They should ask their officials - the chairman, secretary-general and the head of the systems group - to shed light to these issues. They should demand that the breakdown by province or region of the number of precincts covered be released to the public. This small piece of information will get us closer to the true results.
But as Alexander Solzhenitsyn says in Candle in the Wind, “when the truth is discovered by someone else it loses some of its attractiveness.” So, if Senator Nene Pimentel is to be believed, one cannot expect NAMFREL to level with the electorate, more so if a foreigner were to dictate how this poll watchdog should take this latest assault on its credibility, if at all there remains any.
Namfrel’s figures stink. What its leaders -including that foreigner - did in the last elections, was execrable. The Comelec should consign these subversives in our electoral system to a tunnel at the end of which they could see the light - coming from a non-stop speeding train.
Solzhenitsyn and Pimentel notwithstanding, it is never too late to display the truth. The elections may have already been finished, the presumptive winners proclaimed, and have already assumed office. But even then, the truth must out, anytime, if only to prove to amused observers elsewhere in the world that we are presently ruled by a government under a big cloud of doubt as to its legitimacy. Only by so being aware shall we, come next election, be more vigilant to protect the truth.
For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
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