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Credibility is foremost EDITORIAL 05/20/2010

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Credibility is foremost



EDITORIAL
Click to enlarge
05/20/2010

Revelations about massive fraud in the recent automated elections that, if true, make the “Hello Garci” scandal look like child’s play, have been surfacing in volumes that are now difficult to dismiss, putting the mandate on potential president Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino in great doubt.

Noynoy, who has been quick in picking a fight with almost everybody in the government, could have used the supposed overwhelming mandate he got from the elections to claim his entitlement for support despite his abrasive ways. Now, that too seems to be in doubt.

The claim the other day of the mystery man who said he was one of the cheating operators appears questionable enough since based on what he said of 5 million votes shaved from both administration Lakas-Kampi-CMD candidate Gilbert Teodoro and Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) bet former President Joseph Estrada and 2 million votes from Bangon Pilipinas candidate evangelist Eddie Villanueva, it would appear that nearly the entire vote tallied by Noynoy was from the cheating operations except for 1 or 2 million or none of the actual votes were counted and what is appearing at the official tally are all manipulated votes, which to say the least, is one helluva syndicated operation.... MORE  

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100520com1.html


Fraud will out FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 05/20/2010

  Fraud will out



FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
05/20/2010
That fraud marked the automated polls can hardly be denied even if it is being vehemently denied by poll officials. But the blame really falls on the Commission on Elections, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), and even members of Congress who were so gung-ho over automated polls and not bothering to insist on checks for the entire system, including the Comelec’s cavalier attitude in doing away with the important security checks.

And that is where the big problem of the credibility of honest elections comes in.

It cannot be denied that the Comelec and Smartmatic did a shoddy job of ensuring a fraud-free poll.

For one, there was always the question of Comelec’s refusal to reveal the source code from where the machines’ instructions come, to the other IT watchdogs, such as CenPEG and some other IT groups. Why not, when that is what the law states, and if the Comelec and Smartmatic tasks were aboveboard?

Then too, there was really no reason for Comelec to do away with the anti-fraud devices, to the point of doing away with the UV ballot security markings with the claim that the transparent ballot box would erase the UV markings, which was its reason to change from the transparent plastic to a black box.... MORE  

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100520com2.html


Scandal-tainted British parliament eyes fresh start focus 05/20/2010

Scandal-tainted British parliament eyes fresh start



focus

05/20/2010

LONDON — Britain’s newly elected lawmakers face a huge battle to rebuild trust in “the mother of parliaments,” after a scandal over greedy expense claims rocked the previous incarnation of the House of Commons.

Leaked documents last year revealed that members of parliament (MPs) had claimed public money for moat cleaning, tennis court repairs and dog food, prompting an outcry and even court action against a handful.

Record numbers of MPs quit rather than face the public at this month’s general election.

Many who did fight on — such as former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who inadvertently claimed public money for adult films viewed by her adults — were ousted.

This meant 232 new lawmakers out of 649 took their seats on the Commons’ famous green benches as they met this week for the first time since the May 6 poll.

Along with finding an office, recruiting staff and remembering to refer to colleagues as “the honororable member,” one of the first things the “newbies,” as they call themselves, will have to learn are the new rules on expense claims issued by the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA).... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100520com3.html


Whistleblowers come out MR. EXPOSE Amb. Ernesto Maceda 05/20/2010

Whistleblowers come out



MR. EXPOSE
Amb. Ernesto Maceda
05/20/2010
Four whistle-blowers have come up to confirm that syndicates have successfully implemented plans to cheat the election results in different parts of the country.

Lawyer Melchor Magdamo, Dr. Anwar Serrano and IT expert Ernesto del Rosario were presented to media by former Solicitor General Frank Chavez after they had executed affidavits attesting to the operation of these syndicates with the blessing of Comelec officials.

Magdamo used to be on the staff of Comelec Chairman Jose Melo while Serrano is a PPCRV coordinator. Del Rosario used to head the Comelec’s Information Technology Department.

The 4th whistleblower was interviewed by ABS-CBN reporter Sheryl Mundo and shown on TV Patrol, saying that the votes of Gilbert Teodoro were shaved by 5 million, Erap Estrada by 4 million and Eddie Villanueva by 2 to 3 million. The unidentified whistleblower’s video was presented by Buddy Cunanan, son of Belinda Cunanan and a Manila Times columnist at a CBCP forum. He said their cheating scheme was planned and in place three months before the elections and they were offering guaranteed votes at P20 per vote. At least seven candidates have already revealed that they were offered guaranteed votes by brokers representing the syndicate.... MORE  

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100520com4.html


Women power in Pangasinan BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 05/20/2010

Women power in Pangasinan



BLURBAL THRUSTS
Louie Logarta
05/20/2010

If Makati Mayor Jojo Binay, the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino’s vice presidential candidate, is at this point leading the Liberal Party’s Sen. Mar Roxas by a slim 800,000 votes, it probably can be attributed to the color of his skin (a dark, dark brown), his height (short) and his facial features (pangit). As compared to Roxas who is tall, fair-haired and handsome (just ask his wife Korina); and most of all being incredibly wealthy (mother Judy hails from the billionaire Araneta family which virtually owns all of Cubao, QC).

In trying to justify Roxas’ playing second fiddle to Binay, his campaign strategists have been insisting that his running mate Sen. Noynoy Aquino had junked him down the homestretch. Binay, they claimed, was really the Aquinos’ vice presidential choice. Because it should be recalled that Binay was a totally devoted supporter of President Cory, and was one of those instrumental in bringing her to power in 1986. As the saying goes: Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

But playing Monday morning quarterback, what the Roxas camp sorely failed to take into account was the mindset of Filipino voters most of whom are from the masa who naturally and subconsciously side with the underdog. Look at what happened in 1998 when the phenomenon of Sen. Erap Estrada, a local Tinseltown idol, registered a landslide victory over establishment types like Speaker Jose de Venecia, Sen. Raul Roco and Cebu Gov. Lito Osmeña, with the biggest margin ever in the country’s history.

In the current vice presidential derby, the underdog role was a perfect fit for the kanto-boy-who-made-good Binay who was one of the pesky street parliamentarians who brought the Marcos regime to its knees in 1986.
The way I see it, there was no junking done by the Aquinos. If indeed there was any junking, it was done by the Filipino electorate who saw themselves transfigured in Binay and not the aristocrat Mar Roxas. So guess whom they voted for.... MORE  

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100520com5.html


Cotabato ’65 COMMENT 05/20/2010

Cotabato ’65



COMMENT

05/20/2010
Let’s take a respite from the prevailing election-related tensions by revisiting election year 1965. Contending were the Liberal Party (LP)’s candidate for president Diosdado Macapagal and his running mate Sen. Gerardo Roxas (Mar’s dad) for vice president, as against the Nacionalista Party (NP)’s tandem of Senate President Ferdinand Marcos for president and his running mate Fernando Lopez for vice president.

It was generally an NP landslide that year which saw Marcos easily reaching an early won position, and Lopez enjoying a virtually insurmountable lead. It was all over bar the shouting with a relatively small number of votes left to be counted in Cotabato province. Convened in Sen. Jose Roy’s house were top NP campaign strategists who had confirmed an intelligence report that the Liberals’ reputed head of their dirty tricks department, DND Secretary Macario Peralta, would be flying to steal a win for Roxas with manufactured ballots.
A worried Marcos gazed out the dining room’s window and, his hand superstitiously rested on a grenade fragment embedded in his shoulder — an act he was wont to do whenever pondering a conundrum — asked Roy to form a three-man task force to dissuade Roy’s childhood friend from Moncada, Tarlac from carrying out his sinister plot. In an hour, Roy, Roquito Ablan and a Cotabato businessman named David Ghent were at the Manila Domestic Airport taking off on board a chartered plane.
Within minutes after touching ground at the Cotabato airport, the three were having a chat with Roy’s Kumpare Salipada Pendatun, the province’s governor in the latter’s mansion. But they failed to elicit Pendatun’s cooperation who said it was “beyond (his) power to interfere with the Defense secretary’s functions.” Dejected, they left the mansion and contacted leading members of the Ilocano community for an action-plan bull session. After an hour, the three returned to the airport with a contingent of supporters.... MORE  

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100520com6.html


Just asking VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 05/20/2010

Just asking



VIEWPOINTS
Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
05/20/2010
First, a plain and clear disclaimer: This is definitely not a search for perfection. Neither is this a posture of pessimism or negativism. This is but seeking rhyme and reason in the just concluded automated elections.

Among other things, there are sayings like “First impressions do not last.” “One robin does not make spring.” “It’s not over till the fat lady sings.” And so on — all essentially conveying the same message. Thus it is that the Comelec-Smartmatic team was in no time praised even blessed for a job well done. There were a lot of warm congratulations extended, and many tight hand-shakes were made as well.

But as the dust begins to settle, there are worthwhile questions raised here and there, in the same way that there are reasonable doubts expressed now and then. Far be all these from sour-grapping. Neither is it about a “hard-to-please” posturing. Much less is this fomenting social discontent possibly productive of social disorder. This is but about some things that are either rather hard to swallow or difficult to accept according to sound reason.

Why was such a basic and elementary component of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) such as thousands of CFCs, proved to be suddenly kaput and wherefore had to be thus suddenly “reformatted?” What is the real reason a good number of voting returns came in fast for canvassing — while the rest is taking a turtle pace to arrive to be likewise canvassed? Why it is that not all PCOS are accounted for? Except for those few destroyed by presumed rebels, where are the rest? Why is it that no less than some 60 of them were found in the wrong place but at the right time — after the elections?... MORE  

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100520com7.html


Speaker to sue Comelec, Smartmatic, et al. By Charlie V. Manalo 05/20/2010

Speaker to sue Comelec, Smartmatic, et al.


By Charlie V. Manalo
05/20/2010
Saying the mounting reports of automated election fraud from all over the country can no longer be dismissed as minor glitches in an otherwise generally credible elections, Speaker Prospero Nograles yesterday said he was filing criminal charges against the Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials, Smartmatic, the National Printing Office and even some of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI).

In a statement, Nograles said that with the evidence and testimonies presented and which continue to pour in from all sectors, including those of a whistleblower caught on video claiming he had participated in a nationwide criminal conspiracy to steal millions of votes to ensure the election of candidates who paid millions to win, point to one truth: The 2010 automated election is the most tragic subversion of the will of the Filipino people in the nation’s history.

Yesterday, during a weekly forum, a newspaper columnist showed a 30-minute video of a masked man claiming he was part of a group who sold the election results to the highest bidder, shaving the votes of administration bet, Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro and former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada by at least five million votes each.

If Nograles pushes through with his plan to sue the aforementioned, he will be the second in a week to have filed charges against the poll body. Last Monday, former Assemblyman Homobono Adaza filed an eight-page complaint against the very same entities Nograles would be suing before the Office of the Ombudsman.
.... MORE  

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100520hed1.html


Erap would have won if Cory didn’t die—Palace By Aytch S. de la Cruz 05/20/2010

Erap would have won if Cory didn’t die—Palace


By Aytch S. de la Cruz
05/20/2010

Even Malacañang has publicly acknowledged the political strength of former President Joseph Estrada as it recognized the fact that he could have easily reclaimed the presidency had it not been for the “sympathy votes” gathered by Liberal Party presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, owing to his mother, former President Corazon Aquino’s death.

President Arroyo’s political adviser, Prospero Pichay, told reporters yesterday that Estrada could have been in Aquino’s lead position today if the death of Cory Aquino did not occur during the pre-election period.

“Cory Aquino died and it was the destiny of Noynoy Aquino to become president of this country; otherwise, if Cory did not die, Erap would have been the president of this country,” Pichay said.

Pichay’s admission came simultaneously with the realization that party machinery no longer serves as the determining factor toward ensuring victory for candidates running for national positions.... MORE  

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100520hed2.html


GMA turns down calls to run for Speaker By Aytch S. de la Cruz 05/20/2010

GMA turns down calls to run for Speaker


By Aytch S. de la Cruz
05/20/2010

President Arroyo is not interested in the fourth highest-ranking position in the land.

According to presidential political affairs adviser Prospero Pichay Jr., the outgoing Chief Executive and incoming Pampanga representative has rejected an offer to be the candidate of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD for Speaker in the House of Representatives.

Pichay, at a news briefing yesterday in Malacañang, said Arroyo instead wanted to play a role similar to that of Sonia Gandhi who heads a powerful Congress party in India but not necessarily holding a high position in government.

“The President said that she would rather let us choose from among the members of Lakas-Kampi-CMD our candidate for Speaker,” he added.

Pichay, however, said Arroyo’s allies are keeping their fingers crossed that she would eventually change her mind and dream bigger than just becoming the next Sonia Gandhi.... MORE  

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100520hed4.html


Enrile calls on Lacson to clear his name 05/20/2010

Enrile calls on Lacson to clear his name


05/20/2010

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has urged Sen. Panfilo Lacson to return to the country and clear his name from the murder charges filed against him for the killing of former publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

“I encourage him to come back and clear his name and participate in the activities of the Senate,” Enrile said in a media interview Tuesday night.

Enrile said he has no information regarding the whereabouts of Lacson since the latter left the country last Jan. 5, three days after the Bureau of Immigration put him on its watchlist.

The murder charges were filed based on the complaint filed by the daughters of Dacer — Carina Lim, Sabina Reyes, Emily Hungerford and Amparo Henson — following the execution of affidavit of former Senior Supt. Cezar Mancao on Feb. 14, 2009.

Lacson denied any involvement in the killings, but he has not been seen in the Senate since the double murder charges were formally filed against him last Jan. 7.

The lawmaker has been reportedly seen in Hong Kong and later in Australia.... MORE  

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20100520nat1.html


PNP working closely with CAAP in probe of chopper crash in Lucena 05/20/2010

PNP working closely with CAAP in probe of chopper crash in Lucena


05/20/2010

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is coordinating closely with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) in the ongoing investigation into the helicopter crash that killed Quezon Gov. Rafael Nantes and four other persons in Lucena City last Monday.

PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Leonardo Espina said Director General Jesus Verzosa has ordered the PNP’s Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) in Quezon province to forward all evidence and witnesses’ testimonies gathered from the crash site to the CAAP.

“We will help in gathering of evidence and testimonies from the crash site. All evidence on the possession of the SOCO team will be presented to CAAP,” said Espina.

Aside from Nantes, also killed during the helicopter crash were his security escorts Army M/Sgt. Alfred Dominguez and PO3 Randy Roperez, pilot Capt. Nestor Sanchez and civilian Rowena Navales, 14, who was a resident of one of the three houses hit by the ill-fated aircraft in Jael Subdivision in Barangay Iyam, Lucena City.... MORE  

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20100520nat5.html


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