IN ONE or two occasions, I personally asked former mayor Alvin Garcia if he will run again for mayor come 2010. He was consistent in his answer. That’s if poll automation will push through, he said.

Now, we are certain that poll automation will push through. The question is again asked, will Alvin run? Cebu City south congressional aspirant Atan Guardo is saying there is a strong possibility. Until he files his certificate of candidacy in November, we won’t be certain that he will.

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There are several considerations considering the present political situation in the city. But one major stumbling block to his candidacy had been removed. For Alvin, crucial maneuvering at the Comelec level led to his defeat by only a few thousand votes in 2001. With poll automation, this won’t be possible anymore.

For the opposition, several factors would be considered in determining who will run for mayor. I think the personalities would be secondary to ensuring the defeat of Mayor Osmeña’s mayoral candidate.

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Will poll automation automatically eliminate cheating? I don’t think so.

Sure, it will remove some forms of cheating. With the speed of the counting and elimination of red tape, corrupt election officers at the local level who have no access to the programming of the machines could not manipulate the results.

However, we know that traditional political machineries designed to convert support into votes are based on vote-buying. I am not talking about the giving of various items or money today or even weeks before the election. I am referring to the last minute special operations when the official campaign period ends.

Poll automation won’t be able to weed out voters who vote based on who gave them party sample ballots with P50 to P300 attached.

There are also occasions when voters are paid not to show their faces at the polling precincts to shave off votes for the competition. I heard that vote buying for some politicians had so developed that they employ surveys to know whom to buy and by how much to be able to win. For these politicos, poll automation will be an advantage because the general public would be lulled into thinking that he won fair and square. By the time the competition assessed what happened, he would already be declared winner.

I think the only way we could counter this is more vigorous voters’ education programs by such groups as Dilaab and the formation of anti-fraud vigilantes who would actively hound party paymasters to disrupt vote-buying efforts of trapos.

At the national level, all political parties along with independent poll watch groups should vigilantly check the programmers and the programming of the counting machines. We should make it very difficult for a few corrupt men to tamper with the machines.

And I hope that rumors about Smartmatic’s Venezuelan connection are not true. President Arroyo reportedly was there recently.

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With the constant pressure of cutting costs on Cebu City’s services and increase revenues to be able to pay the huge SRP loan, Mayor Tomas Osmeña had long wanted to get rid of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) despite the political costs. However, with the political reality of strong opposition candidates, city officials now came up with a compromise. They now decided to limit CCMC’s services to only serve Cebu City residents. They could save on the huge costs without the political repercussions that could spell disaster come election time.

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Peter Allan Señeres, the manager of Cebeco II, responded positively to the lament of Tony Inoc, owner of the San Remigio Beach Club and a recent recipient of a business award, regarding difficulties in pushing for the development tourism in the north. He said he will send a team to look into the transformer near the resort. He will also look into the load requirements of the town with this thrust to develop tourism.

I was there during a recent mass wedding event at the beach club when the place experienced two brownouts. The reception that evening was attended by local officials led by San Remigio Mayor Mariano Martinez. During the mass earlier that day, Sen. Mar Roxas’ fiancée Korina Sanchez motored all the way to San Remigio town, which is three hours from Cebu City, to represent the senator. Both were wedding sponsors.

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Congratulations to Rotary of the East’s new president Ely Baquero who had a powerful cast of guests led by Press Secretary Cerge Remonde during his recent induction at the White Gold House last Friday.

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