Justice must be done come hell or high water

There is no doubt that Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte is the busiest President this country has ever known. Today he has so many things on his plate from the recently concluded 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which held a summit a week ago. Then there’s the still raging war against Maute terrorists in Marawi City and last week we learned that even quarreling couples go to him for advise. Of course, the Bautistas were not an ordinary estranged couple as Andy Bautista is chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

It’s a puzzlement that I don’t hear cries of impeachment against the Comelec chief for his alleged ill-gotten wealth, except the complaint filed by the not-so-credible Atty. Oliver Lozano who must hold the Philippine record in filing impeachment charges at the drop of a hat! How I wish the impeachment complaint vs. Andy Bautista would be filed by a credible personality!

What we are hearing are cries for a Senate Blue Ribbon investigation, which in my book is a total waste of time and effort. What this nation needs to do is to slap an impeachment complaint against the Comelec Chairman and in the course of his trial, we would know whether the evidence that his wife Patricia made public on HeadStart before Karen Davila was a fabrication or not.

Are our legislators scared of the dire consequence that an impeachment case against the Comelec chairman might result into? As the Latin dictum reminds all of us, “Fiat Justitia, Ruat Caelum,” Let Justice be done, though the heavens fall! If Patricia Bautista’s evidence are found to be true, then our legislators have to convict the Comelec Chairman. Of course, there’s no telling what Andy Bautista would do when this happens… he might just tell the whole damn truth and let the Ship of State sink with him!

Frankly speaking, I don’t think that Patricia who is a very quiet person would falsify any evidence against her husband before the media circus that this brouhaha has turned into. Incidentally, Andy Bautista has said that he doesn’t like to turn their marital spat into a media circus. But since Patricia appeared with Karen Davila on ANC, he too appeared before Karen Davila the very next day. Then last Friday I was surprised that Andy Bautista then appeared before Pinky Webb on CNN Philippines. Nope, I don’t think that CNN was able to bring Patricia Bautista for an interview. Hence, Andy Bautista is making a bigger media circus out of this issue!

If pundits who have been questioning how the Comelec used or misused the automated election system since the 2010 elections as we have long suspected has allowed Comelec officials like Andy Bautista to become extremely rich and the proof is right there before our very eyes, all that the Senate impeachment judges need to do is verify and validate these evidence.

On a worse case scenario, the Supreme Court (SC) may end up nullifying the 2016 elections from the Vice President down to the municipal councilor… then we can call for a snap elections by November, but this time, Congress must repeal the Automated Election Law for it has cost taxpayers billions in wasted money that ends up in someone’s pockets! So we should go back to the time-tested pen and paper for the next elections. We can speed up the counting process through a computerized reporting system.

The reason why we must return to the old pen and pencil was a report that I recalled from GMA News dated Dec. 12, 2012 about a former Comelec Lawyer named Atty. Melchor Magdamo who blew the whistle against the Comelec for a P690-million ballot secrecy folder contract.

Atty. Magdamo said that the ABC for the bid is anomalous because the service should only cost P70 to P80 million – or P500 for every 82,000 bundles of ballots. This should cost around P41 million plus labor cost of P30 to P40 million. Apparently nothing happened to that clear case of corruption because it would have embarrassed then Pres. Benigno Aquino,  whose mantra was “Kung Walang Corrupt Walang Mahirap.”

Thirty-one years after the EDSA People Power revolution, the ordinary Filipino has become frustrated with our rotten political system, where the Comelec through the help of Smartmatic could manipulate the national elections for a handsome fee and allow people who should never be elected in the first place to occupy seats of power and use the taxpayers’ money as if it were from their personal bank accounts!

This is why we laud Atty. Greco Belgica for filing that case against the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) which the Supreme Court declared as “unconstitutional” wherein cases against corrupt elected officials were filed. There are many more elective officials who are in the Janet Napoles dossier. But Justice is slow, giving the corrupt and the damned a great advantage!

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