Philippine politics gone MAD: Mutually assured destruction

The “theft” of state-owned LRT-2 rail tracks for use by private MRT-3 was hot talk at the transport department Wednesday. Old-timers recoiled at the brazenness of the misdeed. Stacks of the tracks, marked “From Line-2” and worth millions of pesos, were lying in plain view at the MRT-3 depot in North Triangle, Quezon City (Gotcha, 12 Nov. 2014). Either Sec. Joseph Emilio Abaya knows but cares not about the criminal effects, or his subs and maintenance contractors are running circles around him.

The installation of LRT-2 tracks at MRT-3 is yet another proof of non-upkeep by MRT-3 contractor, Global Epcom Services-Autre Porte Technique. Abaya hired Global-APT in Sept. 2013 at P685,041,298.95 for one year, to service the tracks, trains, signaling system, power supply, and stations. When the deal expired in Sept. 2014, Usec Jose Perpetuo Lotilla extended it for another year.

APT is the long-time manpower provider for LRT-2, which buys its own spare parts. At the MRT-3 that Abaya operates, the APT’s role also is manpower, while Global should procure the supplies — which it doesn’t do.

Instead of stockpiling parts, Global just makes APT recycle. Worn-out tracks merely are rotated like car tires, not replaced after a prescribed number of hours used. This imperils riders’ lives and limbs, as tracks may crumble and derail trains. Four times the MRT-3 had to stop operations last Sept. when train drivers spotted crushed or cracked rails.

Global is a revived firm of a high official of the Philippine National Railways and officers of the Liberal Party, of which Abaya is president.

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High officials went freaky this week from politicking. President Noynoy Aquino purposely avoided Tacloban on the anniversary of its flattening by Super Typhoon Yolanda. Knowing that political foes would heckle him there for slow rehab work, he went elsewhere to twit them for, well, heckling his slowness. VP Jojo Binay in a fit of pique backed out of a public debate with tormenting Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, earning him jeers from all over. For, it was he who had challenged Trillanes to a gab joust in the first place, in a fit of pique. Trillanes power-tripped, recalling how Binay had shirked too from a big event in 2007. He stated on national TV, with the coldness of a megalomaniac, that he and fellow-putschists had slipped assault rifles into the Makati city hall in a plot to kill then-President Gloria Arroyo, just that Binay got cold feet.

The freakiness was but a sign of the political pot about to boil. For weeks the P-Noy admin has been divided by early positioning for the 2016 election by Binay, Trillanes, and Sen. Alan Cayetano. Although VP wannabes Trillanes and Cayetano are Nacionalistas, Binay attributed their accusations of kickbacks and hidden wealth to Liberal presidency rival Mar Roxas. So he flayed the Liberals in the Cabinet for worsening criminality, costly staples, electricity shortage, railway mess, and pork barrel sleaze. Pissed, P-Noy stated publicly that Binay can leave the Cabinet as housing chief if he dislikes the admin’s drection. Whereupon, Binay promised to be a team player.

It’s just a momentary truce. For, Cayetano and Binay’s estranged ally Sen. Koko Pimentel are defying P-Noy’s admonition against accusing Binay in dribs and drabs. Meaning, they will continue to protract their probe of Binay till next year, despite the filing of charges before the Ombudsman. Meanwhile, the Liberal-dominated Senate is likely to clear party mate-Senate President Franklin Drilon of overpricing in Iloilo, precisely because charges already have been filed with the Ombudsman. Binay sooner or later will break from the P-Noy team and strive to unite the Opposition behind him to clash with the Liberals in 2016.

Waiting in the wings, however, is yet another Nacionalista, Bongbong Marcos. Despite all their pretensions to penury, the Marcoses have kept dictator Ferdinand’s huge stolen wealth. With an overflowing war chest, Bongbong just may conquer the divided admin, and retake Malacañang.

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It doesn’t help any that the Comelec is rigging the bidding for 41,800 additional voting machines and the refurbishing of 86,200 old ones. Being favored is Smartmatic, which supplied the faulty precinct count optical scanners in 2010 and 2013 for P9 billion. Not included is P4 billion more for warehousing and accessories to run the PCOS, like modems, CF cards, and cardboard ballots.

The PCOS lacks basic security features. There’s no digital password so only the Board of Election Inspectors can turn on the machines at the precincts. There’s no vote verification to enable the voter to check if his votes were read right, not just a blink, “Congratulations, you have successfully inserted your ballot.”

The PCOS malfunctioned in 2013. Neither the precinct count nor the national canvass was completed, so no random manual audit could be done post-balloting. Transmission of votes bogged down. Worse, the PCOS showed a consistent 60-30-10 percent trend for admin, opposition, and independent senatorial candidates in all precincts, districts, provinces, and regions.

Worst of all, Smartmatic broke the first provision of the Automated Election Law in supplying 72,000 PCOS units in 2010 and 14,200 more in 2013. That is, it hid the fact that it did not develop, so did not own, the PCOS operating software. Dominion Election Systems of Canada did. That’s why Smartmatic also broke a second provision of the law: it did not submit the source code for the past two elections.

For this, Smartmatic must be blacklisted, as the Citizens for Clean, Credible Election suggests. But Comelec chief Sixto Brillantes and his six commissioners are rushing to give the P7-billion resupply-refurbish deal to Smartmatic by Dec. 4. This, although he and two commissioners are to retire in two months on Feb. 2, 2015.

The members of the bidding committee seem to have been given special instructions to accommodate Smartmatic. They are stern in dealing with other bidders, but extra nice to Smartmatric execs. Their smile is unmistakably that of lips that have been greased before.

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