Make it easy on citizens, Digong tells appointees

“I, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully and conscientiously fulfill my duties as President of the Philippines, preserve and defend its Constitution, execute its laws, do justice to every man, and consecrate myself to the service of the Nation. So help me God.”

To that oath Filipinos will hold their new leader. Hopes are high. For nearly two decades three administrations had let them down. One promised “walang kaibi-kaibigan (no cronies)”; the next, “walang ko-korap (no thievery)”; the last, “wala nang wang-wang (no more elitism).” None was fulfilled. People lost faith.

Filipinos do not ask the government much. All they expect is equal treatment under the law; the rest they would do on their own. Yet even that was kept from them. Politicos plundered the national wealth, handing out mere leftovers. In time public welfare declined. Chaos took over the streets. The Republic crept close to death.

With one desperate heave Pinoys put up someone to in turn pull them out of the rut. “Rody/Digong” Duterte talks of change. He could be their last chance.

“Corruption and criminality ... drugs and breakdown of law and order ... must be stopped.” He reiterated in his inaugural yesterday what he says he can do. How? “By all means that the law allows.” Filipinos will collect on those words in the next six years.

Meantime, two immediate doables, by his appointees:

• Reduce requirements and processing time of applications from submission to release; remove redundancy; and

• Refrain from changing and bending the terms of contracts already approved and awaiting implementation; “abhor secrecy and advocate transparency.”

That addresses what Filipinos need for work: birth and marriage certificates, passports, driving licenses, vehicle registrations, character clearances. Even those basics are deprived from them, despite the fees they are made to pay.

Meantime too are two stabilizing policies:

• Treaties and international agreements shall be honored; and

• Inclusivity in the peace process.

Those are guarantees of global and domestic acceptance.

Duterte asks Filipinos for something in exchange. Says he: “For change to be permanent, it must start with us and in us.” Meaning, everyone must give up something for the better of the whole.

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The tiff between Comelec chairman Andres Bautista and the six commissioners has to do with the running of the election just past. Specifically, to whom must credit go for work they think was done well. Differences linger despite their en banc session last Wednesday. World leaders and international media commended the country for generally peaceful balloting. Naturally praise went to Bautista as head of the election body. In turn, the six commissioners blame him for three matters: nonpayment of teachers deputized for poll duty, exposure of millions of voters’ confidential personal data due to the hacking of the Comelec website, and damages arising from their belated removal of voting in malls for the elderly and handicapped.

Filipinos mostly believe there was large-scale poll fraud. Since the issues are so technical or legal, they prefer to leave them to the experts.

Remaining unanswered is the high incidence of “under-votes” – blank votes for President, VP, or party-list; and incomplete for 12 possible senators. For election statisticians, one percent under-vote is acceptable, five is suspicious, and ten very suspicious. The poll watchdog Namfrel found Election 2016 under-votes to be 17.9 percent in the Muslim Autonomous Region, 16 in Eastern Visayas and Western Mindanao, and 12 in Negros Island, yet zero among 188 overseas absentee voting centers. Several usually strong parties were edged out of congressional seats by unknown upstarts. The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, guardian of the Comelec count server, admits now to supposedly wrong tweets of results by the hundreds of thousands of votes.

There’s also the open manipulation of the public server by the chief technician of the foreign voting machine seller. That seller, Smartmatic, has fudged the server of three past automated polls – 2008, 2010, 2013 – yet the Comelec continues to buy its machines for billions of pesos. People suspect kickbacks.

A third fault was Comelec’s extension of the “absolute” deadline for campaign contribution and expenditure reports – to suit the ruling Liberal Party and its (lost) presidential candidate. The extension puts to question what rules are for. If people are not hooting loudly, it’s only because they want to move on from the divisive election campaign.

Meanwhile, Bautista disputes three documents being spread and misused in the continuing infighting with the six commissioners. First is the outdated list of his P2.3 million in un-liquidated cash advances since May 2015. An update on June 28, 2016 from the Comelec finance office shows only P135,000 un-liquidated. Even that amount, Bautista says he has asked his staff to explain the delay. His details:

• Aug. 7, 2015; “field consultative conferences and other pre-election activities”; P500,000; liquidation reports submitted Dec. 10, 2015; balance P119,404.12;

• Oct. 7, 2015; “preparation and monitoring of filing of certificates of candidacy”; P500,000; liquidation submitted Jan. 8, 2016; balance P14,037.73;

• Oct. 8, 2015; “field consultative conference (Reg. VIII) and distribution of financial assistance to Yolanda victims”; P200,000; liquidated Jan. 5, 2016; zero balance;

• Nov. 6, 2015; “official business travel to Egypt”; P169,508.40; liquidated Feb. 26, 2016; zero balance;

• Dec. 9, 2015; “official business travel to Taiwan”; P233,369.24; liquidated Feb. 26, 2016; zero balance.

A total of P133,441.85 must be returned, the finance office says.

 Another document is the letter of ex-commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, now back as election lawyer. Bautista shows no inconsistency and denial of due process to Larrazabal’s client in Lanao del Sur. On the contrary, the notices show quick action by Comelec field officers and the en banc on the poll protest.

Bautista also shows the legal bases for his issuing a travel authority to himself. The same points empower the Chief Justice, Ombudsman, and chairman of the independent Commission on Audit to issue their own travel clearances. Bautista proves the absurdity of the Comelec chairman signing the travel authorities of commissioners, yet needing to secure the signature of three of them for him to travel.

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