At last... some light at the end of a tunnel; What it is to be a Filipino?

The Supreme Court has ordered the Comelec to answer several petitions seeking to cancel its contract with the PCOS. The government has to answer why it is renewing the P1.8-billion deal for the purchase of 82,000 (PCOS) machines for next year’s automated elections.

This move can open the floodgates for information on just what happened during the May 10 elections. It is more than a questionable contract. It is about a questionable election. Finally we will hear why on May 10 there was a failure of election.

By renewing the contract of the questionable PCOS machines the new Comelec chairman and officials may have unwittingly overplayed their hand.

“When Smartmatic-TIM should have been reprimanded for these defects which damage caused amounts to millions of pesos and maybe even disenfranchisement of voters, respondent Comelec even awarded them by favoring the purchase of these defective PCOS machines,” the group added. The issue of what exactly happened in the May 10 elections will inevitably be revealed because it is essential to the petitioners pleadings. 

With the possibility that there may have been a failure of election, Smartmatic-Tim needs more than a reprimand.

Officials may have ignored and even ridiculed Filipino computer experts who worked hard to expose the anomalies.

Government officials exhorted the public to accept the results of the election without question. I remember during the Congressional canvassing, the reason given was “if we do not have a president by the end of June, we face a catastrophe.” It stopped all debate.

However much one wanted to know what really happened, interests both here and abroad would not allow it. But intrepid Filipinos would not be so easily intimidated into forgetting there were unanswered questions about the Smartmatic-PCOS electoral system. Members of the AES Watch among them Edmundo Casino kept this column informed of developments.

Midas Marquez, the SC spokesman, said the respondents were given 10 days to comply with the order. Felix Carao Jr. of AES Watch said the Comelec-Smartmatic deal should be declared null and void since it was issued in violation of Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

The Comelec’s option to purchase the PCOS machines had expired on Dec. 31, 2010.

“Comelec also committed grave abuse by entering into the contract despite incontrovertible findings of glitches, malfunctions, bugs, and defects of the Smartmatic PCOS machines and related paraphernalia,” AES Watch said.

Another source emailed this column. “The entire IT community in the Philippines concludes, with extensive documentation, that nobody really knows who won in the 2010 elections — at all levels.

“First, there were no signatures on all elections returns — as ordered by Comelec. Paniniwalaan mo ba ang eleksyon returns na walang pirma?

“Second, Comelec ordered that the scanners to detect whether ballots were fake or authentic should not be used.

“Third, the voter did not get any verification from the PCOS machine on which he voted for.

“All of these anomalies violated the law.

“A foreign observer group concurs with the findings of the IT community and has questioned the legitimacy of the electoral results.”

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The discussion on Interaksyon ,the online portal of TV5 was started by broadcaster Arnold Clavio. He said the Azkals (some of whom have mixed parentage) were not even Filipinos. With millions of Filipinos working abroad he should have expected his remarks would kick up a storm. The discussion has gone worldwide to ask “What it is to be a Filipino?”

One of those who answered Clavio was Veronica Pedrosa who is as Filipino as can be. “I was born in the Philippines, of Philippine parents, and I only carry a Philippine passport. I do not claim any other nationality. But when I speak in the Philippines my belonging is questioned.”

She grew up in London and it was another 15 years before she was able to return due to my family’s political activities. Naturally, she would have a British accent derided by some misguided Filipinos.

“It wasn’t just the unauthorized biography of Imelda Marcos that my mother had written, but my parents’ dissident activities,” she explains her family’s exile.

In a way, Clavio’s unfair remarks have made children of mixed marriages or Filipinos living abroad the opportunity to make a stand instead of keeping quiet about the unfairness.

“It’s one reason that I’ve made it a point to battle and try to stay on camera in the highly-competitive business of international news broadcasting. I think it’s important that Asian women are seen by a global audience in roles that help question the stereotypes and force an examination of what we are actually saying and doing.”

“I’ve particularly followed Malaysian academic and activist Farish Noor through his column ‘The Other Malaysia.’ He’s been a disciplined public voice that questions notions of nationhood and culture. I heard him speak once and he said something that I’ve always remembered: that he is very wary of statements of culture that demand you behave in a certain way. As in, ‘You can’t do that, it’s un-Malay.’”

She proposes a solution.

“To paraphrase one description of his work, could we try “to craft a language through which Philippine people can see themselves for the closely interdependent communities that they are? That we all exist within a rich, vast and multi-dimensional global history, in the wider world way beyond the echo chamber of the mainstream Philippine media and politics? Could we, by doing so, see our society for what it really is and even try to fix it?”

“So here’s my two cents worth to your question “What is a Filipino?” I think it’s more about what we stand for than how we look or sound, and that covers a multitude of follies but also, perhaps, the occasional glorious moment of collective and decisive rejection of bigotry, cruelty and exploitation. Nationality and sense of belonging are about a sense of direction - the future.”

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The statement on responsible mining and the challenge from anti-mining groups came from alumni of the University of the Philippines College of Engineering, not the department of the College of Engineering. 

The group opposed “a blanket moratorium on mining activities in the country.”

They would sit down and discuss any issue on mining, with any government, religious, educational or professional institution and as a start, hereby invites, in all sincerity, the member-schools of CEAP, including the various Ateneo Schools to a dialogue, the statement said.