Finally, somebody is asking the right questions! Who voted for whom? How many voters registered and how many voted in the precinct level according to the Election Returns?
Former Senator and senatorial candidate Anna Dominique Coseteng has a record of all Election Returns for the just concluded elections (but still counting) and she is asking why the numbers do not coincide with COMELEC official results.
Ms. Coseteng’s records show that as of 1:00 pm of June 1, 2007, only the votes of 936,000 voters were counted out of 5 million registered voters in the National Capital Region (NCR) or Metro Manila. Yet, according to COMELEC official results, more than 30 candidates, including Ms. Coseteng herself, got more than 1 million votes from NCR. Ms. Coseteng then asked where all the votes came from.
As my Arab friends would say, it came from the air!
How many people really voted?
Ms. Coseteng says that according to her records, there were 45 million Filipino registered voters, of which only 17 million voted. This is a VERY low turn-out – 38%. NAMFREL announced earlier that turn-out appeared to be around 50 %. COMELEC is saying that voter turn-out is from 65% to 75%.
There are only about 80 million people in the country, most of them children. Millions did not bother to go through the hassles of re-registration. And with migrant people all over the country including domestic helpers, drivers, unskilled workers, millions do not vote. And millions more were systematically DISENFRANCHISED. They simply could not find their names in the voting precincts. The Foreign Observers called it “deliberate mismanagement” by COMELEC. There cannot possibly be more than 30 million Filipinos who voted; unless, you count the underage people who normally vote in Mindanao.
Just before the elections, there were reports that the in some areas in Mindanao there were increases of up to 40% in the number of registered voters. These probably included the ghosts, the birds and the bees! In fact, right in Metro Manila, during Election Day, many people told TV reporters that their long dead relatives are still in the list!
GO lawyers score Shariff Kabunsuan COC
According to news reports:
Leila de Lima, counsel for GO bet Alan Peter Cayetano, said COCs from the municipalities of Barira and Kabuntalan did not specify the number of voters who cast their ballots. She said that without it, it would be difficult to determine if the number of votes received by senatorial candidates in the COC was correct or padded.
From the same report, the COMELEC’s answer was:
Lawyer Josslyn de Mesa, chairman of the SPBOC, said: "Walang report na binigay ang municipal canvassers kaya wala rin kami maisulat (No report was provided by the municipal canvassers that’s why we could not write anything down)."
The COMELEC’s simple answer was quite brief and to the point – They were not provided with the figures so they did not put any. But should that kind of answer be allowed? It should be COMELEC’S job to fulfill all the requirements otherwise the pertinent document should be invalidated.
But there are other ways of validating the COC’s. First, there are the ER’s. The ruling party, the Dominant Opposition party (Liberal Party or its coalition, Genuine Opposition) and NAMFREL should have copies of the ER’s and Statements of Votes. The Comelec’s citizen arm, the PPCRV has Certificates of Votes. The ER’s, certificates of votes and statements of votes contain all pertinent data.
According to the Omnibus Election Code:
ARTICLE XVII
Sec. 203. Minutes of voting and counting of votes. - The board of election inspectors shall prepare and sign a statement in four copies setting forth the following:
1. The time the voting commenced and ended;
2. The serial numbers of the official ballots and election returns, special envelopes and seals received;
3. The number of official ballots used and the number left unused;
4. The number of voters who cast their votes;
5. The number of voters challenged during the voting;
6. The names of the watchers present;
7. The time the counting of votes commenced and ended;
8. The number of official ballots found inside the compartment for valid ballots;
9. The number of valid ballots, if any, retrieved from the compartment for spoiled ballots;
10. The number of ballots, if any, found folded together;
11. The number of spoiled ballots withdrawn from the compartment for valid ballots;
12. The number of excess ballots;
13. The number of marked ballots;
14. The number of ballots read and counted;
15. The time the election returns were signed and sealed in their respective special envelopes;
16. The number and nature of protests made by watchers; and
17. Such other matters that the Commission may require.
Copies of this statement after being duly accomplished shall be sealed in separate envelopes and shall be distributed as follows: (a) the original to the city or municipal election registrar; (b) the second copy to be deposited inside the compartment for valid ballots of the ballot box; and (c) the third and fourth copies to the representatives of the accredited political parties.
All the Opposition party should do is present the ERs, statements of votes or certificates of votes of the pertinent precincts and compare the results with those in the Provincial Certificates of Canvass.
The fact that the opposition lawyers could not produce these documents mean 1] They do not have them or 2] They do not want to.
If the reason is the first, the question then is why don’t they have copies of ER’s or Statements of Votes?
LACK OF REAL POLITICAL PARTIES
After Martial Law, there had been no real political party with nation-wide grass roots membership. UNIDO was a Laurel affair, LABAN was Peping Cojuangco’s group, PDP was Nene Pimentel’s clique, NP and LP were skeletons of their former slaves. Marcos’s KBL simply collapsed after Marcos left the country.
I first realized that there was no such thing as a real political party in the Philippines in 1988 or so. At that time, UNIDO was THE political party. Once, I accompanied my eldest brother to a lunch at Vice President Laurel’s house. There were some politicians there including Congressman Jose de Venecia who was trying to be in the good graces of the Laurels after being a Marcos man.
The topic of the conversation was the coming anniversary of UNIDO. Doy Laurel wanted the occasion to be held at his Kuya Pepito’s house. My brother suggested that it be held in a hotel so that it would not give the impression that UNIDO is nothing but a Laurel affair. Doy agreed. Doy and Celia then gave instructions on what to do for the anniversary.The others present did not matter. I realized then that UNIDO was Laurel and Laurel was UNIDO.
PDP was a small party of Nene Pimentel in Cagayan de Oro which was used by Peping Cojuangco to merge with his LABAN to give the impression that PDP-LABAN was a nation-wide party.
By 1992, Pimentel’s PDP split up with Peping Cojuangco’s LABAN. Cojuangco formed the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) while Pimentel joined forces with Salonga, who revived the Liberal Party. Laurel revived the NP and merged it with UNIDO. Peping’s cousin Danding formed the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC). Ramos, who was anointed by Cory Aquino did not have a party. His newly formed party LAKAS was not even registered with the COMELEC. He had to ask Manglapus’s National Union of Christian Democrats (NUCD) Party to endorse him.
The clear proof that there is no real political party in the Philippines is this year’s elections. The NP headed by no less than the incumbent Senate President and the LP headed by the immediate past Senate President could not even form their own slates, even if they joined forces. Incumbent Senators were looking for a party to get them!
IMPORTANCE OF POLITICAL MACHINERY
Senator Coseteng said that a day after Election Day, she received calls asking her if she wanted to have her votes “protected”. When she heard the prices from different places, she said she gave up any hope of winning because, she said, other candidates can pay higher prices.
Why would anyone have to pay to have their votes “protected”? It is because the Omnibus Election Code is followed in the breach, not in practice.
The Omnibus Election Code’s ARTICLE XIV titled Board of Election Inspectors states:
Sec. 164. Composition and appointment of board of election inspectors. - At least thirty days before the date when the voters list is to be prepare in accordance with this Code, in the case of a regular election or fifteen days before a special election, the Commission shall, directly or through its duly authorized representatives, constitute a board of election inspectors for each precinct to be composed of a chairman and a poll clerk who must be public school teachers, priority to be given to civil service eligibles, and two members, each representing the two accredited political parties. The appointment shall state the precinct to which they are assigned and the date of the appointment.
There are 224,748 precincts in the country. This means that the Opposition party must have that number of people to be designated as Board of Election Inspector member one month prior to Election Day. They need at least the same number to act as poll watchers. That is already around half a million people.
ARTICLE XIX of the Election Code titled Canvass And Proclamation states:
Sec. 221. Board of canvassers. - There shall be a board of canvassers for each province, city, municipality, and district of Metropolitan Manila as follows:(a) Provincial board of canvassers. - the provincial board of canvassers shall be composed of the provincial election supervisor or a senior lawyer in the regional office of the Commission, as chairman, the provincial fiscal, as vice-chairman, and the provincial superintendent of schools, and one representative from each of the ruling party and the dominant opposition political party in the constituency concerned entitled to be represented, as members.
Cities, districts and municipalities shall also have their own Board of Canvassers. This means that the opposition party must have at least 81 people, preferably lawyers to be members of the Provincial Boards of Canvassers, 220 people for the District Boards, 118 people for the City Boards and 1,510 Municipal Boards. Plus, the party should also field at least the same number of additional poll watchers.
In a 2-party system, fielding BEI and BOC members and poll watchers can be easily done. The local candidates can facilitate matters quite easily. But in a multiparty system where national candidates have practically nothing to do with the local candidates, this can be a huge problem.
Besides, in a two-party set-up, there’s an even chance that the government officials manning the various BEIs and BOCs were appointed by the opposition party when they were the ruling party.
No current political party has the capability to field all the necessary board inspectors and canvassers and watchers. Coalition of parties do not help. It merely adds to the confusion. Those running for national positions – President, VP and senators — could hardly expect the party representatives in the BEIs and BOCs to protect their votes because these people would prioritize the protection of the votes for their local candidates, except for the ruling party whose people comprise the majority of the BEIs and BOCs.
There is one party that can field all the necessary personnel – the Government. The COMELEC fields all the BOC chairs. And the Justice Department fields the fiscals. The Education Department brings in the schools superintendents for the BOCs and the teachers for the BEIs.
And if the political parties cannot field their Board representatives, the chairs simply appoint their own people. Or worse, if they don’t like the party representatives, they simply order a substitution for whatever reason they could think of.
So why don’t they (Oppositionists) have copies of ER’s or Statements of Votes? The answer is simple, they were not given any. The Dominant Opposition Party or the coalition itself (GO) did not have people in most of the BEI’s. And even in the various BOCs.
There were reports that Liberal Party poll watchers were not given ER’s. This means that the LP/GO watchers were not even members of the BEIs. There were also reports that the NAMFREL representatives were not given copies of ERs.
Interestingly, in a recent ANC talk show (Crossroads), Sen. Biazon said that there are only three people in a BEI. As quoted above, the Omnibus Election Code states that BEIs are composed of a chairman, a poll clerk and representatives of the two accredited political parties. That makes 4 people. Either the law had been amended or the senator was thinking of the BOCs.
But the BOCs are composed of 3 government people and 2 party representatives. If the senator was thinking of the BOCs, then he probably doesn’t know that there should be 2 party representatives.
The GO coalition is a very loose alliance of paper political parties. They could not possibly have the resources or even the inclination to field in all the BEI and BOC members they needed. Or worse, they may not even know that they were entitled to representation in those BEIs and BOCs.
In this 2007 election, it looks like that both political parties or coalitions did not have representatives in most BEIs and COCs. This is understandable because even in the Team Unity, the political parties (KAMPI and LAKAS) were competing against each other.
PAST ELECTIONS
In the present set-up of the Counting mechanism, the odds are heavily stacked against the Opposition. In the senatorial elections, the opposition senatorial candidates are doubly vulnerable because 1) their parties could not field the necessary election personnel and 2) the local poll watchers and candidates would be more concerned with the local elections such that the window of opportunity for cheating in the senatorial or presidential posts doubles or triples.
In the 1987 senatorial elections, there was a sitting President. She insisted that she wanted a clean sweep in the Senate elections for her to fulfill her mandate. Most government personnel had been changed and everybody and his cousin were eying government posts either in the regular agencies or in sequestered companies.
The big guns of the Grand Alliance for Democracy like former Senators Tolentino, Kalaw, Almendras, Teves and Lagumbay and former Secretaries and Ministers Ople and Tatad, etc. went down in defeat to the small guns of Cory’s Alvarez, Rasul, Romulo, Lina, Pimentel, Herrera, etc.
Out of 24 winning candidates, the government won 22 seats. Only the very popular Joseph Estrada and long-term Defense Secretary / Minister Ponce-Enrile won from the opposition. Ponce-Enrile barely made it to number 24, and that was only because there were threats that if he wouldn’t make it, he would attempt another coup d’etat.
I went to some of the GAD campaign sorties and I saw how the people were so crazy about Erap Estrada. Some women were even screaming. I never saw that in UNIDO campaign sorties. I attended both parties’ ‘miting de avance’ and some sorties because my relatives ran for senator under both parties. It was the first time that I realized that the votes in the ERs might have nothing to do with the votes in the COCs or even in the actual ballots.
(Recently, somebody said on TV that during the counting at the precinct level, some teachers read out the names by rote; i.e., instead of reading the names written on the ballot, they just shouted out the names of the favored candidates from memory.)
Some of the UNIDO senatorial candidates were complete unknowns. How could a person who lost in his/her own hometown or did not top in his/her birthplace garner 8 million or more votes from people who didn’t even know him/her?
I remember watching Heherson Alvarez on TV during the early stages of the counting. He was asked to what he attributed his No. 1 showing in Davao. He said he didn’t know. He said that it was perhaps due to their party’s tri-media (press) conference there. He even said that when he spoke, most of the people had already gone so his great showing in Davao was a complete surprise to him.
Of course it was a complete surprise to him. It was simply unbelievable. For every person in Davao who knew Alvarez, there were least a thousand who knew say, Almendras. I believe that Alvarez was no. 1 there and in some other places because his name starts with an A and it was first name that BEI and BOC people filled up.
During the 1987 campaign, I went to Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro and Davao City. There simply was no outpouring of sentiment for Cory and her team. The EDSA “revolution” was an enigma to those people. Some people even asked me if it were true that during the EDSA event, nuns took off their habits (clothes) to stop the tanks from attacking. They still could not understand how the army tanks could be stopped by people.
Movie actress Lani Mercado went to the media crying for help because her father-in-law’s (Ramon Revilla’s) votes were not being counted.
If there was no cheating in 1987, why was it that in the next senatorial elections, movie actor Ramon Revilla who was no. 33 in 1987 was no. 2 in 1992, beating all the 1987-elected senators? Were the 1987 voters totally different from 1992 voters? Were they not the same voters, except for the first-timers who could not be more than a million?
According to statistics, topnotcher Jovito Salonga garnered more than 1000% of the number of voters in some places. I believe it was even registered in the Guinness Book of World Records.
1992 Presidential Elections
In the 1992 elections, there was no sitting President-cum-candidate like in 2004. While the administration candidate had the edge because of the government machinery, the people running the machinery could easily be persuaded.
The LDP had money flowing, mostly through campaign contributions. It was the biggest party, most organized, and had the most financial backers. It was also supported by the Catholic Church.
The LDP was so strong that Senatorial candidate Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo forgot all about delicadeza or common decency and left the Liberal Party for LDP. At that time, her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, was the figure head of LP. The old man simply muttered that he couldn’t control his daughter.
Just a year or so before, Liberal Party was THE party. It had the most number of senators including the Senate President himself. But just after Salonga’s greatest triumph – the removal of the US military base in Subic, his star suddenly fell courtesy of the pro-US forces that went vehemently against him.
The Marcos vote was divided between Imelda Romualdez-Marcos and billionaire Danding Cojuangco who formed the Nationalist People’s Coalition. Danding “persuaded” (reportedly at a steep price) the popular Erap Estrada (another Marcos loyalist) to withdraw from running for president and instead run as Danding’s Vice Presidential candidate.
Laurel and his UNIDO / NP were shadows of their past glory. Cory Aquino’s first job as president was to politically emaciate her Vice-President, the man who gracefully gave up his own presidential ambitions in 1986.
Laurel had greater chance of being President in 1986 than in 1992. He was at the peak of his popularity and he had UNIDO, the Dominant Opposition Party. Had it been a 3-way affair in 1986, he would have gotten more votes than Cory simply because his party would have been entitled to election inspectors and board canvassers. Besides, Cory would have backed out if she was left without a party.
And the surprise of the year was Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who still claims that she was robbed of the Presidency by the administration candidate and eventual winner, Fidel Ramos.
There were actually two administration candidates – LDP’s Mitra and NUCD’s Ramos. While Cory’s choice was Ramos, Mitra’s LDP had most of the congressmen and local politicians. The LDP machinery had more than enough money and people to man the various BEIs and BOCs. It was the Dominant Opposition Party while the NUCD was the ruling party.
This was a truly free-for-all fight. Ramos had the executive government machinery behind him while Mitra had local political machinery. Mitra and Cojuangco had the money and huge financial backers. Imelda and Miriam had personal charisma and popularity. Miriam had some financial backers, too. Salonga and Laurel had no money, hardly any financial backers. They only had the long-suffering Liberal and Nationalista / Unido loyalists. Quite importantly, Ramos and Miriam had good political strategists with them.
In one report I heard, a small plane that Salonga was riding had to be pulled (or pushed) to make it start! At least Salonga could afford a private plane. Laurel’s NP was running on empty.
In terms of intelligence, charisma and political leadership, it was the best batch of presidential candidates ever. But most of the Filipino people couldn’t care less.
1992 and the Senatorial Race
Since there was no sitting president, the time was ripe for election manipulators to flex its muscles. And the best field to manipulate was the Senatorial race. The presidential race was keenly watched by avid supporters of all sides, except for those who couldn’t even afford poll watchers like Salonga and Laurel. But the senatorial race was wide open with about 170 candidates. I believe this was the time when many election inspectors, supervisors, board chairs, and other election officials realized that they, too could profit from elections.
Ramos was the ruling party’s standard bearer, but his party did not have much money. Their senatorial candidates were on a budget. The LDP, on the other hand, had money overflowing. NPC, too had lots of money. The executive government’s election machinery – Comelec officials, BEIs and BOCs – need only to concentrate on the Presidency. The senatorial field was fair game.
It is easy to see that enterprising election officials could make quite a lot of money with the LDP and some NPC senatorial bets.
NONE of Cory’s men – her Cabinet members - fared well in the 1992 senatorial race. Only her women did – Ramos’s sister, Leticia Ramos-Shahani and the Moro lady senator, Santanina Rasul.
I do not know why Rasul won. She did not have enough resources. My guess was, at that time, a lot of people were confused between Leticia Shahani and Santanina Rasul. Both women have Muslim or Hindu-sounding surnames and Christian-sounding given names. Rasul’s slogan was “Ang Puso ng Senado” (The Heart of the Senate), which seemed quite un-Moro-like.
Can anybody explain why the so-called Cory Magic could make 22 senators in 1987 but only 2 in the next election (1992)? Again, were not the 1987 voters the same as the 1992 voters, except for the first-timers?
Sixteen (16) candidates won from the well-oiled ‘opposition” LDP party, 2 from the “ruling” party, 5 from NPC – 4 of them veteran politicians, and one re-electionist senator from LP.
This is also the time when entertainers got their big boost for Philippine politics. The top 2 winners were actors – comedian Tito Sotto and action star Ramon Revilla. Joining them was basketball legend Freddie Webb and former basketball team manager and one-time movie actress (she co-starred with Erap in one movie) Nikki Coseteng. They all joined re-electionist senator Orly Mercado, former TV talk show host and TV commercial actor.
This was also the time when Special Elections went center stage. Special elections were held in Lanao and other places. Special operation teams were thus formed by some parties to negotiate with election operators.
From the Martial Law era up to 1987, institutionalized cheating was one-sided. But in 1992, the cheating was opened to everyone. Of course, not everyone knows the mechanics of it so not everyone could avail of it.
SUBTLETY IN CHEATING
Cheating should never be done blatantly like in 1978 or 1987 or 2004. Smooth operators know that the best way to add / shave votes was to add votes to your favored candidates while shaving them from candidates belonging to third or fourth parties who probably have no poll watchers and certainly no BEI or BOC members and no ER and COC copies.
In the 1992 elections for example, candidates from NPC, KBL, NP and LP candidates were very vulnerable because they did not have election inspectors, Board canvassers and not entitled to ER and COC copies. At least NPC had money. KBL, NP and LP could not even field enough poll watchers.
In the 2007 election, there was basically a 2-party fight. The other parties were too insignificant. In this fight, the votes shaved will come from the two main parties. And this is where the surveys will have its role.
The more intelligent manipulators will simply shave off votes from the “losing” candidates according to surveys. And with the Media practice of showing only the votes for the top 15 candidates, the lower ranking candidates will be lost in the minds of the people and therefore fair game for the manipulators.
Thus, Sonia Roco is justified when she asked how many votes she really got.
When opposition lawyer “De Lima also questioned how TU candidates Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri, Sultan Jamalul Kiram and Cesar Montano were able to receive a higher number of votes compared to other candidates in Kabuntalan” (see here), I was quite shocked. Does she want everyone to believe that everybody in this archipelago vote the way Metro Manilans do?
CREDIBILITY OF ELECTION RESULTS
Suspicions of cheating can only be cleared if people can get to see how the people really voted. If the votes in say, Bicol or Bohol show that Sonia Roco who is from these places failed to make the top 6, then there is something very wrong about it.
The people write their choices in the ballots. How these will be reflected in the Election Returns depend upon the honesty, discipline and even courage of the Boards of Election Inspectors (BEIs). And how the ER results are reflected in the municipal, district, city and provincial Certificates of Canvass depend upon the honesty, courage and discipline of the corresponding Boards of Canvassers. These involve so many people and a lot of time. The margin for cheating is simply HUGE.
There can be relatively clean and peaceful voting, but what about the counting? If elections are not credible, then there is, properly speaking, no participative democracy.
2007 ELECTIONS
Thanks to the Hello Garci controversy, the public and the media learned about some of the mechanics of cheating. There were a number of NGOs or POs like PPCRV, Lente, Kontra Daya, etc. The advances in communication technology (cellphones, digital cameras, videos, blogging, etc. ) made it easier to publicize any form of cheating.
The presence of foreign observers, who stayed after Election Day and observed the counting at the polls and the first few days of canvassing also made a difference.
The Media did not rely merely on COMELEC and NAMFREL although their Media Count stopped at a mere 8 to 10% of the votes. They gave full coverage to Election issues and the special elections.
The fact that the senatorial candidate was a 2-party fight made the DAGDAG BAWAS difficult. Any significant vote-shaving would immediately be noticed by the other party. The third and fourth parties (Kapatiran and KBL) were too insignificant. Besides, Kapatiran’s votes came mostly from NCR where the media and NGOs were most visible.
Media presence in the COMELEC national canvassing is also a big factor in minimizing cheating. COMELEC officials have to be wary about making biased decisions.
This is the first election since 1971 that the true will of the people (at least nationally, and in most provinces) is most probably reflected in the official election results. Bravo to the Filipino people! Bravo to the Media (both traditional and alternative)!
But, in order to sustain the momentum, the questions of Ms. Coseteng and Ms. Roco still need to be answered. And all erring COMELEC officials need to be prosecuted and be punished accordingly.
Hopefully, the time of institutional cheating is over. That leaves us only the old fashion way of cheating — buying off the voters directly. At least in this way, the legitimate voter is still the one voting. Voting is not done for him by unknown people.