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Thursday, January 15, 2004
Polls stay on sked: Glo
By Jeanette P. Malinao & Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporters
With Aledel G. Cuizon
ELECTIONS must go ahead on May 10 even if the votes have to be counted manually, President Arroyo said yesterday, while the country’s largest business group warned that a postponement will rattle investors.
Field offices of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Cebu are bracing for a manual count, after the Supreme Court nullified Tuesday the Comelec’s contract with a private supplier of automated vote-counting machines and election forms.
Comelec 7 Assistant Director Marshall Rubia said their preparations may have been geared for the automated counting, but they will easily adjust to manual operations.
“We’re a veteran at that,” said Rubia.
Cebu City Election Officer Simaco Labata said automation may still be used since the Supreme Court (SC) ruling does not prohibit the use of the machines.
But with only four months before the elections, there may no longer be time for the commission to enter into a contract with other suppliers, he said.
Labata was in Tagaytay City in Cavite yesterday to join the meeting of Comelec officials on how to go about the May 10 elections.
“Hopefully, there is still a remedy for this but the problem is, who will supply the machines? We still have to have a bidding before we can purchase but we don’t have time for that anymore,” Labata told Sun.Star.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce of Industry, the country’s biggest business organization, supported the High Court’s decision to nullify the contract, on account of bidding irregularities.
No postponement
But the chamber, in a press statement, also said the election should go on as scheduled, because “business can’t live in uncertainty, and postponing the elections will only hurt investor confidence.”
In an ABS-CBN interview, former Comelec commissioner Christian Monsod urged that the elections be postponed to May 31, to give the poll body enough time to prepare for a manual count.
Up to 40 million votes will have to be counted.
But President Arroyo called on Comelec to “focus its efforts and capability to implement the elections as scheduled,” for the sake of political and economic stability.
“The future of our democracy is at stake,” said Arroyo, who is facing five challengers for the presidency this May.
In an emergency meeting with Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos and senior political leaders following the High Court’s ruling, Arroyo asked the poll body to prepare for a manual count.
Abalos separately said Comelec will appeal the court ruling.
Abalos and other Comelec officials are also facing a possible investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman, over the invalidated contract with Mega Pacific Consortium.
Comelec officials have said the computerized system would have allowed it to finish the vote count in 30 hours, unlike in previous elections when it took several days, even months, before the winners were named.
Embarrassing
While many local officials welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling, Cebu Vice Mayors’ League President Ricardo Ramirez expressed “disappointment” over the development.
“We could have joined other developed nations in leaping into using modern-day technology. It’s one good chance that we Filipinos have blown away again, and it’s not doing good to our country’s image. We Filipinos proved again to be an embarrassment to other countries by going back to our pre-war system of elections,” said Ramirez.
Meanwhile, Capitol consultant Gwendolyn Garcia and Ronda Mayor Mariano Blanco joined those who prefer the manual count. “At least we already know what kinds of fraud to expect and can watch out against them,” said Gwendolyn.
But Rubia, for his part, said one advantage of the computerized elections would have been to ease the pressure on teachers from the time the votes are cast to the proclamation of a winner.
What Comelec needs to do if it decides to revert to manual counting is to update election officers on the procedures. The law allows them to tap private school teachers in case of a shortage, said Rubia.
In a separate interview, Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano said that while we must abide by the High Court’s ruling, remedies must be taken so the May 10 elections will not be affected.
Ouano, Lakas-CMD spokesman in Cebu, added that if the election will be postponed, there should be a “valid reason” for doing so. (With AFP)
(January 15, 2004 issue)
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