Cheating for Leni?

With all the revelations from the camp of former senator Ferdinand Marcos that the Liberal Party engaged in massive cheating during the 2016 elections to get Vice President Leni Robredo elected, I recall a statement from an insider of the Aquino camp that “something had to be done” to make Leni win.

This was at a point when the votes kept on coming for Marcos and Robredo was far, far behind.

I was told by the insider that Aquino summoned them to Malacañang. And while my source never told me what was discussed there, it was apparently enough to make Robredo overtake Marcos. I then called my source to congratulate him.

I knew that the Liberals would feel compelled to “do something” to make Robredo win if their presidential candidate, Manuel Roxas II, did not win.

The Yellows tried their best to make him win, but the 1.6-million margin of Rodrigo Duterte was just too big to overcome.

As for Roxas placing second to Duterte, I, like many others wondered how that happened since survey after survey said he would have to settle for fourth place. He overtook Grace Poe and Jejomar Binay—a miracle!

Now everything seems to point to the likelihood that the Yellows, together with their cabal at the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic, cheated for Robredo and tried to cheat for Roxas.

The Marcos camp has found many pieces of evidence of poll fraud in Camarines Sur and Negros Oriental after they secured soft copies of ballot images from the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

In some of the images, even when two or more candidates were shaded in the vice presidential race, the votes still went to Robredo instead of being counted as “overvote.”

My gulay, there were also some ballots for Bongbong that were not counted and were regarded as undervotes. This explains why undervotes for the vice presidency went up to as many as three million. Robredo’s margin over Bongbong was 263,472 votes.

Ballot images were square instead of oval which voters shaded for their choice for that particular choice.

When will the PET end this protest and decide, once and for all, who the duly elected vice president is?

I have seen decisions on protests being handed down with only a few days or months before the next election comes. This is the biggest injustice of all!

In the case of Bongbong, I pray he does not wait too long. There are ifs and buts in his case, with no less than Associate Justice Benjamin Caguioa, former classmate of President Benigno Aquino III, as the ponente of the would-be decision on the protest.

Because of this, many things can still happen.

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I have read the 70-page petition of Maria Ressa’s Rappler to seek declaratory relief from the Court of Appeals with regard to the decision of the Securities and Exchange Commission to revoke their certification of registration. The SEC said Rappler violated the constitutional provision that says mass media should be 100-percent owned and controlled by Filipinos.

The Rappler petition was filed by its lawyers—ACCRA, one of the most prestigious law firms in the country. I can just imagine what the acceptance fee was.

So how can Rappler afford ACCRA?

They allege that the SEC’s decision was not arrived at through due process. There was a lack of formal investigation and Rappler was not given the opportunity to be heard.

Didn’t Ressa know Rappler had been under investigation for a time now because of its Philippine depository receipts?

Rappler argued that SEC had no findings that Omidyar Network, one of the two US firms holding Rappler PDRs, ever exercised its veto power and control over the media outfit.

Come again? When a foreign investor holding PDR has veto powers over a Philippine firm, isn’t that control?

The most ludicrous claim of Rappler however is that it is not in mass media, being the first all-digital news organization. But digital or not, Rappler is media! It has reporters all over. They cover Malacañang and all other beats.

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In an earlier column, I said that the upcoming indictment or former President Aquino for the deaths of 44 Special Action Force members in Mamasapano, Maguindanao was his comeuppance.

I can say the same regarding Dengvaxia. This is his second mortal sin against the people. No less than 830,000 school children and adults were put at risk, and at a cost of P3.5 billion, all in an effort to boost the candidacy of Roxas.

Sanofi Pasteur itself has admitted that those who received the vaccine would be at risk if they had no prior experience with dengue. They were made guinea pigs!

Sanofi Pasteur may have returned P1.0 billion for the unused medicine, but it cannot return the lives of the 26 who died.

Aquino, former Health secretary Janette Garin and former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad should be charged criminally.

To me this is another comeuppance.

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The best argument against government undertaking something against its role as regulator is the management and operation of MRT 3.

Clearly the government has no business being in business. Look at the daily glitches encountered by the MRT.

What I find difficult to understand is that there is an unsolicited proposal from Metro Pacific to manage, operate and provide service. Why is the Transportation Department taking its sweet time?

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of commuters suffer every day.