Wednesday, January 10, 2007 Carvajal: Comelec smokescreen By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
THE Comelec is summoning a not so negligible number of voters to explain why they registered many times in different Comelec registration centers in Metro Manila. How they are going to do this really beats me.
For if these voters got around the screening process (if there was any) to register many times then chances are the Comelec will never be able to find them much less question them. If my hunch is right that is the first and last we will hear about the incident.
My hunch is that it is all a publicity stunt, a smoke screen and the Comelec’s version of grandstanding. Because if it were not, you would have to wonder why the Comelec would take pains to publish an incident that paints “incompetence” in bold letters across it’s forehead. Typically not unlike many government agencies, the Comelec’s idea of competence is in reporting and going after electoral law violators and not in preventing them.
The Comelec should instead investigate their staff and make them explain why such multiple registrations happened or were allowed. If the system or lack of it (how can I forget the chaos when I re-registered) is such that these multiple registrations can happen, then Chairman Benjamin Abalos and the commissioners should put themselves to task for not coming up with a foolproof system.
Why should I not think this is all a publicity stunt when the Comelec has never been effective against flying voting and many other election anomalies? Come election time there will be many flying voters, many times more than flying registrants. The Comelec will simply go through the motions of running after them then drop the issue. If at all, they will prosecute only the losers.
I suspect the Comelec is trying to condition the people to think it is really watching the electoral process when in fact its inefficient, outdated and chaotic system negates that. I am sure the multiple registrations in Metro Manila happened in many other places throughout the country. Flying voting will continue unabated this coming election with the Comelec unable (unwilling?) to do anything about it.
Congressman Francis Escudero thinks the coming elections will show what the people think about President Arroyo, but I think not unless the present Comelec gets revamped first. How can we have election results that are truly reflective of the people’s will when we have a Comelec we cannot trust because the President, who is accused of cheating with it, has refused to reform or revamp it?
It’s all a smokescreen, a façade of righteousness to mask what they intend to do for some candidates. If you think this is too farfetched, blame it on this discredited Comelec’s lack of credibility about which it is not doing anything either.
