Comelec reforms

Forget automation in the May 2007 elections – if there will be elections at all.

The Commission on Elections has only P700 million for the midterm polls next year. The best that it can manage on that budget is poll automation in three pilot areas: Metro Manila and possibly Cebu and Davao, according to Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, a recent appointee to the poll body.

For full automation, the Comelec will need about P1.2 billion, Sarmiento told me the other night.

The amount is close to what was paid by the Comelec to the private consortium Mega Pacific eSolutions for computers and voting software, which had already been delivered to the poll body when the Supreme Court voided the automation contract two years ago.

The Comelec has been trying to get back the money, but the consortium has been firm: No return, no exchange.

So we’re stuck with hundreds of computers and software rotting away in a Comelec storeroom. And come May 2007, we again have to endure one of the longest vote counts in the world. Perhaps we can set a world record, duly recognized by the folks at Guinness. Something positive should come out of this manual vote count, where ballot boxes are switched or stolen and votes are padded or shaved in many creative ways.

Sarmiento told me that, really and truly, the Comelec can handle partial poll automation next year — if the poll body can get hold of new vote-counting equipment, possibly from India.

Over one million electronic voting machines allow India to tally the votes of about 670 million people within a day after polling precincts close. A budget of about $300 million is set aside for the exercise.

In contrast, our notoriously slow vote count can take a month from Election Day to the proclamation of winners.

Electoral disputes can last until the approach of the next elections. It is not unusual to see public officials being kicked out and replaced by a rival who has been declared the true winner by an electoral tribunal just weeks before the start of the next campaign period.

In our country, a stolen mandate is irretrievable. Possession is nine-tenths of the law; no one gets punished for occupying public office while the real winner fights for three years to obtain a formal declaration of his victory. There is no compensation for the winner who is cheated of his mandate.

This sorry state of affairs has encouraged poll fraud. Candidates fight to win public office by hook and often by crook, knowing that crooked ways go unpunished.

After the election scandals of the recent past, we should now be on panic mode, trying to prevent a repeat next year of the "Hello, Garci" controversy and other election-related anomalies.

Instead what we are seeing are politicians preparing to exploit the old system that uses guns, goons, gold and dagdag-bawas to guarantee their victory.

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As a token, Congress might deign to approve additional funds for electronic voting machines that can be used in the proposed pilot areas for automation.

We don’t even have to buy new equipment, according to poll officials. Sarmiento, like his Comelec colleagues, insists that the Mega Pacific automated counting machines and software are functional. Using the ACMs, however, will not only go against the ruling of the Supreme Court but will also indicate that the tribunal erred in its decision.

So we’re saddled with a P1.2-billion white elephant, we face yet another excruciating manual vote count, and we see no rush to punish anyone responsible for this mess.

We flit from one scandal to the next, distracted by the travails of the chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the battle between the First Gentleman and Rep. Allan Peter Cayetano, the shameless effort to restore the full congressional pork barrel, and the sputtering effort to open that other expensive white elephant, the NAIA Terminal 3.

Already national attention has strayed away from the Guimaras oil spill, with those responsible likely to get away with a mere slap on the wrist.

With all those distractions, how can we expect public officials to concentrate on electoral reforms?

There is no sense of urgency to overhaul the voting system even among proponents of Charter change, despite knowing that any amendment or revision of the Constitution will require ratification in a national plebiscite. That plebiscite will have to be supervised by the same discredited Comelec.

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Sarmiento told me that there are in fact people of competence and integrity in the Comelec, and I believe him. No agency can be 100 percent rotten. These lower-ranking personnel are demoralized, he said, by the agency’s tainted image and are trying to implement reforms.

Changes are being instituted, for example, in bidding and procurement processes to comply with government regulations. Modernization may have to wait until the poll body gets enough funds. But the poll body is listening to expert advice from both local and foreign sources to promote transparency and accountability.

Whatever reforms are instituted, however, will always be overshadowed by the scandals involving top Comelec officials led by Chairman Benjamin Abalos. The Comelec’s integrity was compromised during their watch, and that integrity can be restored if they leave the poll body.

In this country, of course, stepping down to save the honor of an agency is unheard of. Quitting, even to give way to a thorough and impartial investigation, is regarded as an admission of wrongdoing. With elections just eight months away, Abalos can quit and return to politics. But he’d rather be impeached, and he knows congressmen are in no hurry at this time to impeach anyone, whether at the Comelec or Malacañang.

The mood at the Comelec, when faced with suggestions about quitting, is, "Kick us out… if you can."

Comelec reforms? For now this is an oxymoron. But two years ago I was also skeptical about reforms in the military. Perhaps the Comelec will also manage to surprise us. To be convincing, the reforms will have to include changes at the top.