What did Smartmatic fix in the PCOS machines?

The Philippine STAR news last Sunday reported that last Friday the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has taken a “Damn the torpedoes” attitude and signed a contract with Smartmatic International Corp. with its Filipino partner Total Information Management Corp. to purchase and reuse the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines for the coming 2013 polls. Comelec Commissioner Lucenito Tagle’s excuse for their deciding to purchase the PCOS machines was that Smartmatic agreed not to increase its price and to correct the deficiencies and glitches during the May 2010 polls.

Comelec didn’t care to tell us what those glitches were all about and I suspect it had something to do with the reality that what the PCOS machines digitally reported would not tally with the number of votes cast in the ballot boxes. My case in point is the electoral complaint in the town of Compostela, which had no election problems when we were using the manual count, but now that the Comelec was using the PCOS machines, the voters in Compostela were denied their elected leaders for a whole 22 months!

In this country where corruption is the norm rather than the exception, I dare say that the Comelec is up there when it comes to election fraud. During the revelation of the tapes of the Hello Garci scandal in 2005 with then President Arroyo, our people were appalled that she would talk to a Comelec officer. But there was no howl last week when Comelec Commissioner Sixto Brillantes was photographed with President Aquino? What were they talking about? Was Commissioner Brillantes reporting to “His Boss?” After all, Brillantes was lawyering for the Liberal Party wherein P-Noy was their standard bearer.

As the STAR report goes, “Brillantes assured the public that Smartmatic was able to do the ‘major corrections’ in the machines, especially on the aspect of security. Our people have inspected the machines and they found them in good condition. Smartmatic maintained them well because they were hoping that we will exercise our option to purchase.” What is glaringly missing in that statement is what were these security problems that Smartmatic had fixed?

It is easy enough to open a bodega of thousands of PCOS machines and anyone in Comelec can declare them to be in good condition. What matters to us is not the outside... but the innards of this PCOS machines because as the group called Tanggulang Demokrasya (TanDem) already pointed out, the PCOS machines were digitally rigged, which is why it has resulted in so many electoral complaints all over the country.

As our fellow columnist Carmen “Chit” Pedrosa wrote in her Sunday column, “Edmundo Casino of Automatic Electoral Watch has continued his campaign for a more serious and thorough investigation of the May 10 elections. As things stand now those in charge of conducting clean elections stole the elections instead through the automated system. In his email to this column he cites three instances that should be investigated and answered: CF Cards found in Cagayan de Oro dumpsite testified by Archbishop Ledesma.

Changing of the erroneous 256 million registered voters to 50.3 million as done in the National Board of Canvassing caught in video footages collated in the Tandem short flick; and why Cotabato election polls showed Colombian votes in the machines. These questions should not be left unanswered or tossed flippantly by the Comelec and its officials.” When reporters demanded from Brillantes some answers, his curt reply was “So sue us!” What brazen arrogance coming from one who should be assuring the Filipino people that the problems of the PCOS machines were fixed.

Since Commissioner Brillantes asked for it...he is supposed to get it yesterday when AES and many people from the academe and civil society vowed to file in the Supreme Court a petition for certiorari, prohibition, and mandamus with a prayer for a TRO to stop Comelec and Smartmatic from ever fooling the Filipino people again. Once more, the Aquino regime faces another potentially disturbing crisis that this country doesn’t need!

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Last Thursday we wrote about the power crisis in Mindanao, to which the Aquino Regime hasn’t lifted a finger to alleviate the critical situation. As if on cue, my good friend Ben Rosario of the Manila Bulletin came up with a report last Friday dubbed “Energy Bills Frozen.” I always had faith that Energy Czar Rene Almendras is a no nonsense official and would do what he has to do to solve the power crisis in Mindanao. But his hands were tied!

Now it can be told that the Department of Energy (DoE) could only do something if Congress moved the 40 bills and resolutions that would have addressed the power situation. As Ben Rosario wrote, “but there appears to be no urgency to act on them despite the looming power crisis in Mindanao.” Yessir, but there was urgency by 188 Representatives in impeaching CJ Corona!

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Reflections of the Spirit

Citizen Y  By YOLY VILLANUEVA-ONG