Brillantes signed P300-M contract to spite critics

READERS REACT: to last Monday’s call for an independent probe of the Mamasapano massacre, in lieu of the PNP’s very limited fact-finding:

Gertrude Llavares: “[Suspended PNP chief Alan] Purisima is silent about his reported planning of the botched commando raid. Senators and Malacañang spokesmen won’t press him to reveal the President’s role either. The Army reports that [Special Action Force Dir. Getulio] Napeñas did not give specifics on how to rescue his trapped men. [Interior Sec. Mar] Roxas calls the massacre of the 44 SAFs a ‘mis-encounter’ with cease-fired Moro separatists. It’s obvious: Napeñas alone will be made to take the rap, then cleared when the public forgets.”

Jimmy P.: “Too many investigations: by the AFP, PNP, NBI, MILF, joint ceasefire committee, Senate, House of Reps. All designed to complicate and confuse — a whitewash.”

Noel Gongon: “The PNP ‘fact-finding’ is actually to whitewash the faults of the highest police and civilian officials. There will be no justice for the SAF 44.”

F.T. Ferrer: “If P-Noy will appoint the eminent citizens to the Truth Commission, then it’s still whitewash.”

Ben Hur Ong: “I’m intrigued by your penultimate paragraph — on the possibility of US forces hatching the SAF mission. Any more details if Philippine authorities merely adopted it? Even its codename, ‘Wolverine,’ sounds imported. I don’t think that word is in the vocabulary of Filipino soldiers. I would believe it had they codenamed it ‘O-Plan Pugad Baboy.’”

To last week’s items on the massacre’s effect on the Bangsamoro Basic Law pending in Congress:

Edgardo J. Tirona: “Watch out. Malacañang’s next commissioned poll might say ‘80% of Filipinos are for peace with Islamist separatists.’ With the public ‘idiot-ized,’ bribed legislators will then enact the BBL. This, despite the treachery of terroristic MILF-BIFF who butchered 44 of our best policemen.”

Roy Bustamante: “Roxas and Purisima have long been feuding. P-Noy let the suspended Purisima plan and execute the SAF raid, and kept Roxas out of the loop. Roxas now knows whom P-Noy trusts. So what is he still doing there?”

Dr. J.Y.: “Please check: there were 53 SAF dead: five officers, 48 non-coms. The Human Rights Commission should also investigate the mutilation of corpses.”

(Hmm, could the nine additional fatalities be the SAF’s local scouts persistently being murmured to have been left behind? — JB)

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“Go to Jail. Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.”

That dreaded orange Monopoly card comes to mind in light of what Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. just did.

His term ended Monday, Feb. 2, so he had to step down, goodbye, good riddance. But if crusaders for clean elections think they can now all breathe again, they’re wrong. For, like a brat, Junior did something bad. Three days before he was to leave, he signed the first P300 million of Smartmatic Corp.’s total P2-billion rip-off to inspect and clean the 82,000 voting machines that it leased-sold to the Comelec in 2010-2013.

“The contract had not been signed, but [critics] kept attacking us, so I signed it. Now I dare them to bring it up to the highest court of this land, and I will fight for it to the end,” Junior sneered in farewell to the Comelec staff. “Last Jan. 30, I signed the contract with Smartmatic despite all the criticisms. Despite all of the attacks, I still signed the deal with Smartmatic. I did not have to sign it, but I signed it.”

Junior’s words smack of malice and belligerence — attitudes totally uncalled for in public service. The Constitution and the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act state: “Public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.” Junior’s act was — by his own “sutil (bratty)” admission — prideful, unjust, malevolent, irresponsible, and selfish. In short, contrary to law.

There’s more. Events leading up to the deal were alarming. It came when the very accuracy of the precinct count optical scanners (PCOS) was under fire. No less than computer experts of the Dept. of Science had found in the 2013 ballots “mysterious digital lines” that likely produced “accidental senators.” Private info-technologists, mathematicians, statisticians, social scientists, 25 Catholic bishops and other religious-civic leaders called for public testing of the machines against insider manipulation. Too, with Smartmatic having broken the Election Automation Act many times over, lawyers and political parties wanted it blacklisted from the bidding. Yet Junior spitefully dumped the open bidding to negotiate directly with Smartmatic behind closed doors.

It gets worse. Junior ignored reason and rules. The Comelec legal division had called for the bidding because the Comelec was not bound anyway by its purchase terms to have the PCOS serviced exclusively by Smartmatic. The agency’s bids and awards committee also had received offers from competitors. The Government Procurement Policy Board had ruled that, for transparency, negotiations be resorted to only if no comparable supplier and price are available. Yet Junior still signed.

Here’s the clincher. The contract was sneaky. Last Dec. 23, when Filipinos were on Christmas break, Junior led four commissioners – two of them also retiring Feb. 2 – in affirming the negotiation. He announced the done deal on Jan. 5. At first he said the two-phase PCOS refurbishing was for P300 million then P1.5 billion, or P1.8 billion in all. The next day he said it should be P2 billion, with the extra P200 million for a supposed third phase. That means he didn’t know the work details, only the amount he wanted to give away.

There’s a law against such midnight dealing. So the Monopoly rule holds for Junior: “Go directly to Jail. Do not collect.”

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Question: What’s that only thing to match the Aquino admin’s rashness: hurried SAF raid; berating bishops in front of the Pope; hiking train fares without improving facilities and service, fighting the Supreme Court for outlawing his presidential pork barrel?

Answer: its slowness to act on grave concerns: jobless because exclusivist growth; price surges of rice, vegetables, garlic, onion, pork; heinous crimes masterminded by Very Important Prisoners; daily street assassinations; dirty mines by Chinese pretending to be “small-scale”; rehab for victims of super typhoons and Moro uprisings; Customs reforms; port congestion; non-replacement of erring appointee-friends and party mates; non-prosecution for pork-barrel plunder of senators other than three oppositionists — and more.

The lassitude goes on. Last Monday, not only the Comelec became headless, but also two other constitutional Commissions: on Audit and on Civil Service. The terms of COA chairwoman Grace Pulido Tan and CSC chairman Francisco Duque III have lapsed. That of a fourth constitutional body, Commission on Human Rights chairwoman Etta Rosales, will also end in May.

Malacañang has done no vigorous search for outstanding replacements for the four constitutional chiefs and two election commissioners. What’s it up to? Does it think Filipinos too stupid to accept just any last-minute partisan instead of prestigious appointees?

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E-mail: [email protected]