Bautista marital spat: A very grave situation

Little do most Filipinos realize the magnitude of the marital spat between Commission on Elections Chairman Andy Bautista and his estranged wife, Patricia, because most people regard the juicy details as just another telenovela for their entertainment. I submit that only a few pundits realize the gravity of the situation because since we started using the Automated Election Systems, Comelec has become open to one of the biggest corrupt practices.

In the past, Comelec officials had to come up with small time corruption on the purchase of paper, pencils or the ballot boxes and of course their usual fare in helping candidates win their elective positions for a price. But the 2010 presidential elections under the watch of former Comelec chairman Jose Melo changed all that. It allowed Comelec to stare at the billions of pesos that was paid to Smartmatic, which no doubt is a very tempting situation. I’m not saying that chairman Melo was corrupt, but it certainly created a new scenario for Comelec officials with the aid of Smartmatic to cheat in the national elections.

Someone said that automated elections are fail-safe and cannot be rigged. Well, after the May 2010 elections, I wrote articles questioning the election of Joel Quiño vs. former Compostela mayor Ritchie Wagas, where the people of Compostela demanded a recount right there inside the municipal hall. But the Comelec refused the demands of the voters and instead sent the ballot boxes to Manila. In the end, after a long-drawn court battle, Ritchie Wagas was able to prove that he won the 2010 polls, but he did not take his post since it was less than a month before the 2013 elections.

Incidentally during the time of Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes, Comelec was questioned about the purchase of luxurious beds for their summer home in Baguio City. Chairman Brillantes arrogantly admitted before Congress that the beds were luxurious, but not overpriced! But that was the end of the investigation simply because Brillantes could do more harm to the Congressmen questioning his luxurious beds!

Then came the 2016 elections, which proved once more that the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines or the Optical Mark Reader machines couldn’t count properly. Hence we have the election case between Vice President Leni Robredo and former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Hence if the Automated Election System was supposed to be fail-safe, why then are these questionable results coming out of the woodwork?

So last Monday when Patricia Bautista spilled the beans against her husband Comelec Chairman Bautista, this did not surprise me at all! As we learned from the words of our Lord Jesus Christ taken from the evangelist Luke 8:17, “There is nothing hidden that won’t be exposed. Nor is anything concealed that won’t be made known and brought to the light.” In a verse later on Luke 12: 3, “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed nor secret that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the house tops!”

The latest headline news on this issue is the proposal to have a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigate this case. But like what I said, congressmen and senators owe their elections not through the votes of the Filipino people but through the misuse of Comelec officials of the PCOS or OMR machines. What if Chairman Bautista will finally break down and confesses his crime? It will throw our democracy out of balance that we have people in the halls of power who shouldn’t have those powers! Call them de facto officers!

Today one third of the Philippines is under Martial Law. There is fighting in Marawi City and in areas where the New People’s Army are active and we have an explosive political situation with the marital spat of the Bautista couple. At this point, the Filipino people should demand that Andy Bautista take a leave of absence and for Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte to call for an Agrava-type independent investigative body of people that cannot be held hostage by the Comelec Chairman. If Bautista is impeached, then I suggest that we hold a snap election without using the PCOS or OMR machines so we can be sure our leaders are properly and honestly elected!

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