The voting for Elections 2007 is now over, except for some parts of the country where elections were suspended, as usual. For this election, some 200 election-related violent incidents were recorded, including about 114 people killed. Just today, there were more than a dozen people killed all over the country. And all the other horrible election practices are back as usual.
MASSIVE DISENFRANCHISEMENT
All over the country, including right here at the National Capital Region, countless people could not vote because their names could not be found in the Voters’ List. Yet dead people are listed while some people are listed more than once.
This disenfranchisement of millions of Filipinos first gained prominence in the 1998 elections and it has continued since then. Yet nobody seems to really care. No independent investigation has been done about this phenomenon.
The media and the government officials keep on trumpeting the sanctity of the ballot, the right of suffrage, etc. Yet when millions are not allowed to vote, nothing is done about it.
But what is even more disheartening is to see how some election officers (teachers) refuse to let some voters exercise their right to vote because of some technicality.
In Bukidnon, an elderly lady in her 70s was not allowed to let her daughter help her vote. She could hardly see anymore and has a hard time writing but the teachers / election officers insisted that she vote by herself without the aid of anyone because she is not illiterate. Only illiterates have the right to have somebody help them vote.
The elderly lady pleaded but the teacher refused to change her mind. She ended up writing only one name in the ballot because she could not read the candidates list and had difficulty in writing. The presence of the TV crew did not make any difference for her.
HUGE TURNOUT?
COMELEC has announced that there is a huge 75% turn out of voters. This excludes the millions who were not in the Voters’ List all over the country. This huge turn-out figure appears to contradict the scenes shown on TV. Right in Metro Manila where the precincts are very accessible, the TV images showed many people even refusing to vote. In one precinct, the tricycle drivers just outside the schools / voting precincts would rather ply their trade than vote. The drivers said they could not afford to lose a day’s worth of income. And that is in Metro Manila.
In the provinces, there were so many reports of killings. In one school in Cotabato, the reporter showed the school practically empty. The reporter said that the foreign monitors even came earlier than the voters. One of the teachers there said that it has always been like that - low turn-out.
Funny thing is, none of the anchors or reporters even notice the discrepancy.
JULIUS ON CAYETANO
ABS CBN anchor Julius (Babao?) seemed to be scandalized by reports that Boards of Election Inspectors (BEIs) in parts of Metro Manila were counting the votes CAYETANO for Alan Peter Cayetano. Julius kept on insisting that COMELEC declared that all CAYETANO votes (without given names) be considered stray votes. His co-host, the supposedly intelligent Cheche Lazaro kept on agreeing with him.
Finally, they were able to interview COMELEC Commissioner Rex Borra who said that although the Legal Dept. had made a memo declaring that CAYETANO surname only votes should be invalidated, the BEIs can make its own decision. Julius seemed to be scandalized further.
It was a good thing that Alan Peter Cayetano went to the station and explained everything to the anchors.
ABS CBN news officials in their promotional ads for the HALALAN 2007 broadcast claimed that Filipinos should make their public and election officials accountable and that ABS CBN is the medium for it. But who would make ABS CBN anchors accountable to the people?
For a few hours, Julius Babao was acting as if the BEIs that did not invalidate the CAYETANO surname only votes were committing a heinous crime. Yet anybody with common sense and knowledge of English would immediately know that counting the Cayetano votes in favor of Alan Peter is the logical thing to do. First and foremost, the COMELEC already ruled that Joselito Cayetano is a nuisance candidate. But in bad faith, COMELEC issued the ruling only in May 11 so that by virtue of the 5-day rule, the ruling would only be final and executory in May 16, 2 days after Election Day. It is a clever way of declaring Joselito Cayetano a nuisance candidate yet spoils all Cayetano surname only votes.
Julius was actually doing a frantic call, wittingly or unwittingly, to the teachers / election inspectors to count CAYETANO votes without given name as stray votes. It was also a call to the COMELEC officials to do something about it. True enough, Alan Peter Cayetano said that a COMELEC official, an aide to the Chair, was going around voting precincts telling the teachers / election inspectors to count CAYETANO votes as stray. Julius’s call may not have prompted that official’s action, but if that official heard Julius’s anxious announcements, he would have doubled or tripled his efforts.
So why was Julius doing it? Was it his concern for the "rule of law" as he understood it? Or did he have something against Alan Peter Cayetano? He kept on saying that by counting the votes, the others may have grounds for protest against Alan Peter later on. That was a very illogical statement. If the votes were counted, nobody could challenge them afterward unless a miracle happens - i.e., Joselito would file a motion for reconsideration and the Supreme Court will rule that Joselito was a legitimate candidate. Is Julius hoping for that very very unlikely scenario?
EXIT POLLS
The survey takers are again up to their old tricks. In the US, exit polls are taken as soon as the voters cast their votes. And they are tabulated immediately. According to a Pulse Asia officer, they interview people not in the voting precincts but in the people’s HOMES. Now, it is not easy to just come and knock on people’s doors and ask them how they voted. Filipinos would be very suspicious, because the survey takers could be from political camps and with vote-buying and the complex patron-client relationships in Philippine politics, the voters would be very wary of anyone who claim to be survey takers. The Filipino voter would rather answer surveys in neutral territories like just outside the voting precincts.
Also, how random is it to choose which homes to knock? Especially, in the provinces, the homeowners might be very suspicious of alleged survey takers.
Moreover, it would take Pulse Asia more than 24 hours to announce their results for Metro Manila. With today’s computers, this should be done in a few hours at most. Again, these Exit Polls smell fishy.
With politics as dirty as it is in the country and with graft and corruption a national epidemic, it would really be better if we can do away with survey-takers or pollsters during Elections. The pollsters can do their job anytime, except during elections. They are just additional variables to the already complex political equations.
New Zealand and Singapore have banned exit polls. We should do, too.
POSTPONED ELECTIONS
True to form, elections in several Moro municipalities in Lanao del Sur, del Norte, Basilan and other Moro places were again, suspended. As usual, these places shall be the battleground later when the last two senatorial slots would be up for grabs. The real sentiment of the voters in these areas would never be known because when the elections in these areas would finally be held, votes or cheating would go to the highest bidders, as exposed by the Garci tapes and subsequent Senate hearings.
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