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Friday, March 29, 2024

Comelec cannot renege on its duty

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The Commission on Elections has warned the Supreme Court that the election protest filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against the touted vice president Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo could cost more than P2 billion. In a manifestation it filed before the high court, the Comelec said it needs to secure the 97,366 units of vote-counting machines, the election management system and accessories it leased from Smartmatic-TIM Inc. It cited the lease contract from Smartmatic which would require it to pay to the tune of P2,078,304,225.76 on account of the election protest.

Whether the “financial breakdown agreed with Smartmatic in itemizing the cost of the goods should the total purchase option under the two AES (Automatic Election System) contract” is admitted by the Comelec is, frankly speaking, irrelevant. Rather, it is an insidious attempt to renege on its duty to conduct a recount of the votes for vice president in the last May 2016 election. The Comelec can never justify its inability to enforce what the Constitution has mandated it to do. It is beyond its power or even for the Supreme Court to pre-empt what the law tells them to do. Rather, the Comelec alone is to blame for circumventing what the Constitution has mandated it to do when it subcontracted to a private contractor the automation of our electoral system to one suspected by many as an arm of the Central Intelligence Agency to ensure that only their certified stooge of the US will win in the election.

The Comelec passed on its responsibility to Smartmatic to give it an excuse not to fulfill its obligation, or to put it bluntly, block the order for a recount issued by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal. That responsibility is on the shoulder of the Comelec officials led by that abrasive chairman Andes Bautista. Bautista cannot cite the huge amount as his convenient alibi because it would amount to denying the electorate of its right to question who was elected vice president with the unsavory consequence of being governed by one who cheated them of their votes and now boldly seeking to discredit and wanting to overthrow the duly elected president.

As supposedly competent people, the commissioners should have anticipated that there would be a protest demanding a recount of the votes. The possibility that Bongbong Marcos would file a protest even became certain because the election held last May was characterized by massive fraud and systematic cheating. In fact, everybody wonders, except those hypocrites who clothe themselves as responsible voters, just how could a candidate who was leading by almost one million votes in the early evening of the counting be overtaken by more than 200,000 votes by sunrise? Even fools questioned the methodology used in counting unless the Comelec would admit their machines faltered.

For Bautista to say that the Comelec failed to anticipate that a protest would be lodged and it would cost us that much is to admit criminal liability. The Comelec cannot give as reason the huge amount that will entail to conduct a recount because that is equivalent to telling the aggrieved candidate that Marcos’ petition cannot be entertained or that he can only blame himself for failing to come out with the required bond. Invariably, that alibi could lead to the nullification of the law and the dismissal of the petition, something that was not contemplated by the legislators when they enacted a law for the automation of our electoral system. It would be an unprecedented stupidity for the Supreme Court to render a law unconstitutional just because the Comelec now refuses to have it implemented.

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In fact, those people in the Comelec can be criminally prosecuted apart from their failure to make a recount as ordered by the PET. Malice is evident because the Comelec cannot act on the basis that it failed to inform the candidate of the amount he will spend to resolve his petition. Besides, the Comelec should have stated that requirement beforehand, meaning before the filing of his candidacy and not after the election was held because that could lead to the denial of his petition. These are questions that Bautista and his conspiring cabal should answer. They can only be prosecuted now because they are not allowed to give any excuse that could invalidate the electoral law or much more deny the losing candidates of their right to make a protest.

Interestingly, that portion in the contract with Smartmatic-TIM, Inc. that would require them to secure the 97,366 units of vote-counting machines, the election management system and accessories is already questionable because the contracting made by Comelec appeared to commit the poll body to permanently hire its services with the exclusive right to dictate the terms and the amount for their services only to be cheated by the result of the election.

It was lease contracts that Smartmatic-TIM, Inc. entered into with the Comelec. That means Smartmatic remains under obligation to preserve the automatic election equipment and records such as Voting Counting Machines (VCMs), Consolidation and Canvass System (CCS) units, Secure Digital (SD) cards (main and back-up) and other data storage devices totalling 92,509 clustered precincts used in the May 2016 election pursuant to obligation under the contract.

Whatever the outcome is, it is no longer the concern of the PET, much that it has already granted the petition. The Comelec now has no choice but to proceed with the recount of the ballots. The Comelec, as lawyers would say, is now “estopped” from questioning the order. It should have anticipated that possibility to happen. Moreover, these contemptible appointees of the graft ridden holier-than-thou administration should be the one to explain because the expenses that will be incurred to resolve an election protest appear to be open-ended amount. This alone is an indicator of possible graft in the contract the Comelec entered into with Smartmatic.

It is basic that all contracts involving the payment of money should clearly state the amount including accessory penalties, if applicable. More so, if the other contracting party is the government. In the end, the world will again be laughing at us because we exhibit our stupidity in bending our laws just to ensure that the lackeys installed by the US cannot be removed even by the legal process of a recount.

rpkapunan@gmail.com

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