The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is starting its canvassing of the Maguindanao votes today despite the obvious, transparent, clear, palpable, evident frauds committed by the powers that be in the May 14 elections there.
Teachers / Chairs of Board of Election Inspectors had come out to say that they were abducted and forced to sign already filled Election Returns and Certificates of Canvass (COCs). One such Maguindanaon teacher was gunned down. Maguindanao Provincial Election Supervisor Lintang Bedol could not produce the municipal certificates of canvass (COCs), statements of votes (SOVs) and other election documents because he claims that they were stolen from his office.
Yet now, the COMELEC is still counting the copies (not the original) of the Municipal COCs.
In the initial count reported in the media, Chavit Singson topped the Maguindanao vote, which gave the administration candidates a sweep of the top 12. Now, even that has changed. Zubiri now is number one. How very convenient!
Garapalan na! The COMELEC appears to have thrown delicadeza out of the window to insure one more vote in the Senate for the administration.
Personally, I do not want Mr. Pimentel to win because his father is already in the Senate. There is simply nothing extraordinary for father and son to deserve two seats out of a mere 24 seats in the Senate. It is the same for the brother-sister team of Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano.
However, insisting on counting tainted COCs is simply too horrible for my taste. After all that had happened, there is nothing in the world that could convince a right thinking mind that the Maguindanao COCs are “genuine”.
Koko Pimentel should not have insisted on the exclusion of the Magundanao votes. Disenfranchising a whole province on mere assumptions is quite draconian. He should first show that there really were no elections held there. The ERs and COCs are tainted and allegedly illegally and fraudulently filled up. He should have insisted on opening the ballot boxes and counting the ballots themselves. But the ballots are the ORIGINAL documents. The ballots can show if elections were really held in Maguindanao last May 14. Or, it could prove that the ballots have no correlation with the numbers in the ERs or COCs.
Of course, Pimentel would not be sure what the ballots really contain. But it would be a better strategy since the Justices or the lawyers for the administration could not raise the defense of disenfranchisement.
From logic and experience, it could be surmised that most Maguindanaons did not even vote for 12 senators, while some probably voted only for local candidates. Also, Pimentel’s (father’s) name is quite known in Maguindanao which means he had the advantage of name recall. There is a great chance that Zubiri would not have a very big lead over him, which would still make him (Pimentel) win over Zubiri in the over-all count.
Because the Supreme Court practically sided with COMELEC, this will now set another precedent in the electoral process. Coupled with the Garci tapes, the legacy of this year’s Maguindanao vote can only be one thing – dirtier elections next time around. Next time around, there would be no holds barred. All the election special operators of the land will sell their services to the highest bidder because they would never go to jail anyway even if they would be caught.
Senator-elect Trillanes should not have called Zubiri a cheat. He was not the cheater. Others cheated for the administration. He is simply the lucky / unlucky guy who would benefit most from the cheating.
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COMELEC declares Failure of Election in Maguindanao
Lintang Bedol, Lilian Radam, and Yogie Martirizar “Missing”
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