Ducky Paredes

“In India, where there are more voters than in the Philippines, they use an Indian-developed, Indian-manufactured and Indian-programmed machine for their elections and everything works hunky-dory.”

by Ducky Paredes

We will be holding an election in May 2010, which will be the most expensive ever for our country even at only a little over P7 billion just for the lease of the automated equipment which will buy us the results, which will not mean any real change for the Philippines considering the most likely winners, who will be (if the surveys are right) as traditional as the tradpols that these leaders are.
Thus, what are we really paying for? The Chairman of the Commission on Elections is wrong to have opted for precinct-level automation. The cheating is difficult to do when the votes are manually counted at the end of the voting. Partisans of all the candidates are there for that count. Thus, while some chicanery will happen, the wholesale cheating is traditionally done at the municipal, provincial and regional canvassing of votes.
This time around, there will be no precinct count. Instead, at the end of the voting, the machine will spew out the results for that precinct. While the actual counting of each ballot slowly allows the partisans to accept the inevitability of defeat, this time around, it will be some sort of a shocker, that out of a thousand votes, their candidate took just all of 20. The number of police at each polling place should be increased since poll violence at the precinct level when the machine prints out its numbers is a distinct probability at just about every precinct.
It would have been actually better, less expensive and practical if the Automated Counting Machines (ACMs) bought for the 2004 elections had been used. Sure, the Supreme Court ruled that the seller should return our money and take back their machines. The one thing wrong in the SC’s thinking, however, is that any freshman year law student knows that the sale to the Comelec was a perfected sale. As soon as the contracted ACM’s were delivered to the Comelec, tested by the Department of Science and Technology and passed by the DOST – at the rate of 100% for every one of the more than 2,000 ACMs – the sale was done. We own those ACMs; so, why not use them?
Why not? Where is the kickback in doing it that way?
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An IT maven has informed me that there is no way that Smartmatic can deliver more than 80,000 scanner-ballot box-printer-communicators for just a little over P7 billion. He sees the problem of testing each of the over 80,000 machines and delivering these make-do contraptions to even our most far-flung barrios and bringing them back to Manila to ship back to the owners as a very expensive operation. At the very least, according to my expert, it can only be done at from P9.5 to P10 billion.
What happens if it turns out that Smartmatic and its peripatetic partner – TIM – are not able to deliver what they promised. Sure, they will have to answer to the Comelec and the courts; what really matters, however, is what then do we do about our elections.
Thus, the better alternative is actually if some temporary restraining order (TRO) or other (e.g., an act of God) could force us back to the way we have been doing our elections and for full automation to be done at some future time using Pinoy machines and Pinoy-written programs. In India, where there are m ore voters than in the Philippines, they use an Indian-developed, Indian-manufactured and Indian-programmed machine for their elections and everything works hunky-dory. You can never convince me that the Indian IT person is heads and shoulders above our own IT guys. We’re as good as the rest of the world, except that automation done by Pinoys will never produce for the decision-makers the kind of money that they can make from buying of leasing from foreigners. Why else would Congress write our automation laws that limit what we can use to foreign machines?
As long as we borrow our technology and lease equipment for our elections, we will never have a system that will work to everyone’s satisfaction. Why? Because the change that it needed in the way that we vote is for the voter to regard his vote with some importance and some worth – at least more than the P200 for which he will sell his vote if anyone is buying.
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Actually, it may be better all round, if the bidding had totally failed and the next elections done the traditional way – manually counted. Sure, there will be some cheating; but cheating is also not precluded just because we use machines.
And, heck, does it really matter, considering the quality of our choices whether tweedledee or tweedledum becomes the next President? In a sense, having Gloria for another couple of years may even be a better deal since, anyway, whatever she wants for herself is probably already safely tucked away in some secret bank account. There really should be nothing more that she could possibly still need. In fact, it is even possible that, already sated, she will finally become the President that her supporters had hoped for when they moved to depose her predecessor.
On the other hand, the next President – unless we choose one who will want to truly change our values and the way that this country has been operating since the colonists left us to run our own country – may actually turn out as even a worse alternative, if he will begin a new round of deals to provide just rewards for himself, his family and his cronies.
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On Friday, July 10, 2009, the Third Leg of the SMC Senior Tour for members of the Federation of Philippine Amateur Senior Golfers, Inc, will tee-off at the Aguinaldo Golf Course at 6:30 in the morning.  FPASGI President Clyde Fernandez promises a grand time, raffle prizes and good food.
This tournament is exclusive to FPASGI members. If you are 55 or over and are a member of a golf club, you are welcome to join the FPASGI. This Friday’s tournament is also a send-off for the FPASGI team that will be leaving this month for Thailand for the 2009 ASEAN Senior Golf Championship where for the first time in a long while the Philippines has a good chance of bringing home the bacon.
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“In many ways, I came to understand the importance of fatherhood through its absence—both in my life and in the lives of others. I came to understand that the hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his children is one that no government can fill. We can do everything possible to provide good jobs and good schools and safe streets for our kids, but it will never be enough to fully make up the difference.” – Barack Obama
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hvp 07.07.09)