“Observers, they say they are.”
For a foreign country to get involved in an election in the name of observing its “democratic process” may appear counterproductive to what it seeks to achieve. Anybody who volunteers to offer his services to help the Philippines in its electoral exercise is up to something contrary to what our people expect to happen. The traditionalists have their misgivings to the proffer of the US embassy to assist in the conduct of our electoral exercise when strictly speaking, the holding of an election is something nobody should be allowed to participate or interfere.
Allowing a foreign government to assist the country in the conduct of our electoral exercise in the name of doing us a favor amounts to allowing others to carrying out our sacred obligation as an independent state. Foreign assistance to hold an election constitutes a violation of our sovereignty more so because this particular election has reference to the election of our leader who will lead the country. Their participation, even as an observer, violates our basic right as people and as an independent republic.
To begin with, one reason why our relations with other countries, particularly with the US, have badly deteriorated is the habit of American policymakers to interfere in the guise of assisting us in democratically holding our electoral exercise. Such assistance or participation is anachronistic to our claim of independence. No matter how the foreign observers conduct themselves in wanting to project themselves as impartial and neutral, there will always be complaints of irregularities, cheating or fraud. There will always be a party who will feel aggrieved by the result of the election. Even an observer who issues a statement in support for or against any of the protagonists could automatically pull him out of his status as an independent observer.
The complaints of irregularities become now the entry point of foreign observers to meddle in our electoral contest. From an observer status, he now becomes an active party to an event which otherwise he has no business participating in. The party who feels aggrieved can question the result of the counting. This explains why the opposition easily calls on the US to initially act as referee and later on prejudge the result because of misplaced reverential respect. Their attitude about the policy particularly with China is more than enough to forewarn our people of the policy direction where the opposition candidate is heading.
What the foreign observers are doing does not really matter. After all, it is not their duty to prove the allegation but to solely discredit the authenticity of the election result. This is why the opposition is so eager to see the government invite foreign observers from the US and from Western Europe. They are concerned about making sure their interests coincide with their investment in this country such that the outcome of the election could not affect their business dealings here.
Even the popularity of the top candidate can easily be pulled down. Any statement to present as rule-based often becomes mere presumptions. The claim is often accompanied by their monopoly and control of the media. This is enough to overcome the belief that the more popular candidate lost to a foreign stooge. The men of the Church vouched how exceedingly honest and holy their candidate is.
If US can succeed in convincing a substantial number of people that the opposition candidate won, they can demand to annul the result of the election or to sow intrigue to some adventurist members of the Armed Forces to overthrow the duly-elected President, which reason why they insist in being allowed to observe, or a process of making a monkey out of our own foolishness. There is no way their stooge can be defeated as she claims despite being illogical and mumbling on what word to say.
Today, they fear the old electoral cheating done in the 2016 election can never be repeated. The head of the Comelec who is now on the run in the US did not have the nerve to return for fear his “padrino” is no longer around to defend him. According to the charge’s d’affaires of the US embassy, Heather Variaba, the embassy “looks forward to discussing with Comelec of being part of any election process or observation program that Comelec hosts.”
The US now sees a loophole of talking directly with the Comelec instead of asking the permission of the President which has exhibited much distrust to US policies. More than that, the US wants to discuss its participation as observer with the Comelec. Curiously enough, Variaba strongly reacted when asked of any possible “Manchurian candidate” among the six presidential aspirants. The term “Manchurian candidate” was lifted in a movie of the same title to denote a person, especially a politician, being used as a puppet by an enemy through the manipulative power of brainwashing, disloyalty, and corruption.
The US reaction was telling because it could not enumerate instances where the US meddled and got itself involved in election fraud that ultimately led to the overthrow of the democratically elected government. One need only to be reminded how Cory Aquino whom Robredo idolizes as holy vandalized the name of the late President only to be overthrown in a coup d ‘etat in 1986. The world needs only to recall how the US interfered in the election in Ukraine and is now pushing the world to the precipice of global war. The charge of a Russian invasion is an attempt to whitewash the antecedent events that happened in Kiev when it instigated the pro-Nazi elements to stage a bloody riot that killed 130 civilians and 18 policemen. The election protest against the elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, ultimately led to his ouster.
After the ouster of Yanukovych, the US then acted as overlord and began pressuring Ukraine to join NATO. The US-installed government then proceeded to ban the Russian language and newspapers in Ukraine notwithstanding that more than 30 percent of the inhabitants are Russian speaking. Likewise, the US wants to remove the Russian naval base at Sevastopol which historically belongs to Russia. In short, the problem in Ukraine all began when the US intervened in the election of that country in 2014.
It cannot be denied that some candidates are openly seeking the support and assistance of the US. Political soothsayers predict the US will do everything not to let down the expectation of their surrogate candidate. One can see the conduct and pronouncement of the US-controlled media. Realists however see more danger of the US losing against the more popular candidate. The US fears it could result in the changing of the equation to politically contain China in the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean. The defeat of a US candidate could also result in the hasty relocation of the five US military bases it worked hard to be renewed before the term of the Noynoy Aquino administration expired.
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