There should be no dilemma

A concerned friend asked me what I thought about the wrongly called Napoles scam. It is about senators whose PDAF were diverted and suspected to have been used for other purposes. The senators concerned are accused of  stealing the people’s hard earned money by using a foundation and its fake projects allegedly administered by a certain Janet Napoles. I think there is no question that this is brazen corruption that must be dealt with. 

But what about the still unresolved issue of the Smartmatic PCOS fake elections of 2010 and 2013? Between the two issues to which must we devote more time and attention?

Both are pressing and urgent issues facing the country’s survival and stability. There should be no dilemma. But a distinction can be made on principle.

For me the Smartmatic-PCOS fake elections are paramount because these seek to destroy the basis on which our independent republican democratic state is based – the people’s sovereignty through periodic elections.

Without real elections we might as well close shop. If the Smartmatic-PCOS elections in 2010 and 2013 are unresolved it will be repeated in 2016 with frightening repercussions for Filipinos (including businessmen who have generally kept quiet). Without people’s sovereignty the demand for an investigation of the senators or the impeachment of the Comelec chairman is empty.

At the heart of the matter is how Smartmatic-PCOS elections were devised precisely to destroy the power of the people to remove unacceptable government and to demand the protection of the state. We now have anarchy predicted by thoughtful citizens early on. The pattern will destroy the Philippine state, its people’s sovereignty and its institutions.

How do we resolve the issue of the 2010 and 2013 fake elections with each passing day to 2016? We will merely empower officials of the Napoles scam type who are not fit to govern.

It is war – the government against its own people or Salvador de Madriaga “a people can be colonized by its own government.”

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I was at the Kapihan sa Rembrandt where IT experts and plain citizens met to discuss the fake elections. The invitation was for a press conference but it was wrong to call it that since mainstream media will never tackle the issue the way it should. There were some cameramen and probably some inside stories will be printed. If there were real freedom of the press in this country this is headline stuff. There has been a deliberate avoidance by an oligarchic press to tackle the issue head on and we all know why. So let us not pretend.

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We should be grateful to concerned citizens who continue with the task and duty to question the Smartmatic PCOs elections. I told Edmundo Casino, an IT expert, that it is remarkable how the advocacy has grown in leaps and bounds. More and more people are now asking questions. But as the fiery Ado Paglinawan said we must do more. He suggested a nationwide signature protest.

With all the evidence being gathered from different parts of the country it is clear the same methods for fake elections were used from 2010 and 2013. It is a formula using an automated electoral system for fraud. Is it government policy to continue with fake elections since Comelec itself has stonewalled all questions and protests?

Melchor Magdamo a former Comelec official, said in the meeting more ballots than required were printed. As a former Comelec official he was shocked that the electoral body tasked to conduct elections should abuse its authority to print millions of extra ballots.

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The 60-30-10 pattern which means that the entire country from barangays to municipalities to provinces and regions voted uniformly points to a pre-programmed result. This statistically impossible result defies all reason and common sense. The fake elections were lutong makaw. Now you know why the Comelec could not show the source code.

Particular attention is now being paid to how Grace Poe could have garnered the votes that Comelec claimed she did or is she being put up as the next presidential candidate through machination. Here is Ado’s take on this “Poe phenomenon”:

 â€œLast May 18 the Comelec reviewed some 129 certificates of canvass (CoCs) wherein eventual topnotcher Grace Poe garnered 20 million votes but in the June 7 CoCs in which 58 percent of votes has been canvassed, the votes for Poe were added only with more than 100,000 votes.


The votes were being manipulated when 304 CoCs showed some 94 million people were able to vote.

 â€œThe adjustment was defective since instead of Poe’s vote increasing, these were reduced as the canvassing progresses and there was a time that her votes went down to 16 million,” Paglinawan said.


In case people are not aware:  the fake election’s result is not yet over. There are still 18,000 precincts left to be canvassed by the Comelec since only 59,667 clustered precincts has been shown to have undergone tallying.


With these evidences of fraud through automatic electoral system we have to move to the  next step: look for the motive. What was the reason to kill the people’s sovereignty?

 Edmundo Casino ventured that the fraud committed in 2010 were identical to 2013. That means a pattern of fraud has been devised for any national election in the Philippines from hereon.

 â€œWe are being fooled by the Comelec because the program they used in 2010 is the same program used in the May 2013 elections,” Casino said.

The government cannot continue to ignore the restive citizenry. The conflict is joined. There is Ado’s signature campaign for one. An even more radical move came from former Biliran Congressman Glen Chiong who said he would not pay his taxes to a bogus government.

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Just in case you have not read it in Facebook there will be a Paella Gigante Festival  at the Casino Espanol at T.M Kalaw today at 3 p.m. It is a fundraising event for the  Sociedad Española de Beneficencia (SEB).

“This is not just about the biggest paella ever made in the Philippines, nor the sangria, the tapas or the live music. It is mainly a muestra de solidaridad by the chefs, the people behind the event and those who attend it,” SEB Executive Director Laura Hidalgo-San Jose said.

I will be there to autograph and sell “The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos” books to help SEB.

For more information on the Paella Gigante Festival, groups or individuals can contact the SEB office at (+632) 8430742 and (+63) 916-3188793.