Senatorial candidate Koko Pimentel finally made good his threats of filing Electoral Sabotage charges against persons guilty of “Dagdag Bawas” (Adding / Subtracting Votes) schemes.
Atty. Pimentel filed charges against Atty. Lilia Radam, Provincial Election Supervisor for South Cotabato. This new law - Republic Act 9360 or The Electoral Sabotage Law - has a maximum penalty of LIFE IMPRISONMENT for those found guilty of the charge.
An ANC anchor who was interviewing Atty. Pimentel asked the candidate why is he filing charges only against Atty. Radam when “you and I know that” other people are involved here.
The anchor obviously wanted to ask why the candidate did not file charges against the higher-ups. Atty. Pimentel naturally answered that he has evidence against Atty. Radam and that he could not possibly charge other senatorial candidates without any evidence to support his claim.
The anchor’s question may sound shallow but there is something here. Filipinos, including media people, are always sympathetic to the “small fry.” If some small fry is caught doing a bad thing, many Filipinos tend to dismiss them and demand that the big fish must be caught.
I suppose that this feeling comes because the average Filipino relate to the small fry. This means that the average Filipino is not averse to doing petty corruption. But this is absolutely the thing that feeds a corrupt society – letting the small fry go because the big fish cannot be caught anyway.
But then, when it comes to elections, Election Supervisors are not small fry. They can make a candidate win or lose. According to Atty. Pimentel, Atty. Radam’s colleagues in the Board of Canvassers reportedly signed blank canvass sheets upon the order of Ms. Radam. This has BIG implications.
BIG MONEY
During the early stage of the campaign, I was told of the going rate to be paid to COMELEC officials for the Senatorial and Party-List candidates. After the elections, some people like Senator Biazon and former Senator Coseteng made statements about the going rate for votes. It is only now that I realize how much money a person like a Chair of the Board of Canvassers of a Province or a Provincial Election supervisor can actually make.
If a province has say, 350, 000 voters, the Board of Canvassers could very well ask candidates to put up 2.5 million pesos for 250,000 guaranteed votes which reduces to a mere 10 pesos per vote. If 4 senatorial or party-list candidates pay up, that would be a cool 10 million pesos.
COMELEC higher officials, with a network of Provincial Board of Canvassers chairs or provincial election supervisors, could end up with a great deal of money after election day.
If the province is in Mindanao, which means that it would be counted in the later stages of the canvassing period, the Board could very well jack up the price, especially for the candidates battling for the last few slots. According to Senator Biazon, in the last elections, the price went as high as 2,000 pesos per vote.
REASONS FOR MANUFACTURING OF VOTES
Why would people manufacture votes? Is it because of poverty? Is it because government people are paid so low that they need to cheat to make some money when opportunity arrives? The answer is really simple — people cheat or manufacture votes because it can be done and nobody gets caught.
The so-calle Hello Garci scandal proved to all and sundry that even if top officials like the President of the Republic and a COMELEC Commissioner are caught red-handed, they still go scot-free.
ANCHOR’S QUESTIONS
Going back to the ANC interview with Atty. Pimentel, the anchor’s final question was something like this: “What if COMELEC will not take it upon itself to act on these alleged election offenses?”
How in the world could that anchor ask that question when the interview was all about Atty. Pimentel’s filing charges against Atty, Radam et al for alleged election offenses? Atty. Pimentel had to repeat all over again that he actually did file charges and did not wait for COMELEC to, motu propio, file charges against erring COMELEC officials.
Either the anchor did not understand what the interview was all about or what he meant was that what if the COMELEC would not act on Pimentel’s charges – at least, not until after all the votes had been counted and the candidates proclaimed.
KUDOS TO PIMENTEL
Just for filing Electoral Sabotage charges against erring officials, Koko Pimentel deserves to be a Senator of the land. Of all the candidates, he is the only one who dared test the efficacy of the Electoral Sabotage Law. While so many are crying foul play, only Atty. Pimentel chose to file charges against election officials. Hurrah for the young Pimentel!