Saturday, May 05, 2007 Carvajal: Who’s gonna watch the Comelec? By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
A fundamental obstacle to a clean and honest election can be found in the candidates themselves. Many who have dubious past records are openly violating every rule in the book during the campaign period and are likely to shift into high gear with their overspending, vote buying and other illegal tricks as the election approaches.
A second fundamental obstacle is the peace and order situation. Already there’s one too many politically motivated killings with more forthcoming in all probability. Then there’s the military hedging on its non-partisan role in the elections even as they suspiciously deploy fully armed soldiers in depressed areas of MetroManila.
The third and biggest obstacle is the Comelec whose credibility has been hopelessly compromised by the Garci affair. They should have been decent enough to resign when the Garci issue came up instead of coolly and unabashedly carrying on as if their official robes have not been mudded up with hints of corruption.
Now there are signs that the Comelec is up to something fishy again. This time it has to do with the party-list issue. The Comelec spokesperson assured listeners the other night that they will abide by the decision of the Supreme Court and come out with the list of party-list nominees. Considering their negative credibility, the truth of that statement remains to be seen.
What strikes us as odd is why it takes a Supreme Court decision to make them reveal the names of nominees. Is there truth to what is bruited about that some party list groups are fronts of the administration while others are formed to sell bloc votes? And all this with the knowledge of the Comelec?
Akbayan brought the issue to the Supreme Court alleging that the Comelec has violated their own 8-point guidelines in the accreditation of party lists, that in fact many party-lists do not represent marginalized and unrepresented sectors of society. If the Comelec is quick to disqualify nuisance candidates why are they dragging their feet in disqualifying nuisance party-lists of which presumably there are many.
Of the three, the first problem is the easiest to manage. There are signs that people will choose their candidates wisely. The second problem is harder because of selective exceptions to the gun ban. Also, if the military’s non-partisanship is questionable, then we have a big problem in our hands because we know where the military’s loyalty lies and why.
But the most formidable problem of all is the Comelec. We could vote wisely and the military could keep the peace but if the Comelec does another Garci, then this country is going to the dogs. So, who’s gonna watch the Comelec? We the people will just have to do it somehow.
