Monday, May 14, 2007 Mongaya: Let’s make today’s polls credible By Anol Mongaya Panahom
THE credibility of today’s election is crucial if our country should move forward, everybody agrees. However, we should not leave the elections to politicians and their wards alone. Machine politics for instance means organized fraud.
Ordinary voters should seize the situation and ensure the credibility of today’s electoral exercise. We should first choose wisely, preferring conscience than the money handed over by a political leader. Then, we should ensure that our conscience votes are counted and not allow “dagdag-bawas” artists some space to subvert the electoral process.
Here in Cebu City, there is the so-called “legal vote-buying.” This means having the more than usual number of watchers and canvassers per precinct. One may argue that having watchers and canvassers is necessary to make the voting process credible. Yes, if a political camp has only one or two watchers. But how about having more than 10 watchers and canvassers per precinct?
***
A friend living in Carmen town texted me that the political camp believed to be supported by a businessman building a giant resort in the town is buying voters at P800 each.
***
In the sixth district, the political grapevine is talking about a group of political operators reportedly set to make a congressional candidate win. The initials of the operators’ surnames are B, I, P, and S.
I’m not familiar with most of them except for B who is a known political operator for presidential candidates. A former politician who is a friend recognized P. Another editor said he saw P sipping coffee with a businessman inside a mall. P is reportedly a protégé of a former Cebuano election commissioner. He also mentored Garci during their heydays in Comelec.
If I believe all of the talks I hear regarding P, he won’t be effective today. He reportedly assured almost all the political camps that they would be affected.
Still, the alleged existence of this group is a cause for concern.
***
Is there a link between the discovery of a van full of arms in Lapu-Lapu City and this group of political operators? I won’t discount the possibility. The politicians respectively linked to the operators and the van are allies.
I hope police will get to the bottom of this case. They should also be vigilant because I hear more similar armed operations are underway all over the province.
***
I hope the Kontra Tikas group here in Cebu will look closer into the “dagdag-bawas” operation in the sixth district. I hope its members will not just wait for information to reach them. They should seek out then expose the truth about electoral cheating.
Only by exorcising our elections of Garci-like operators can we make elections credible.
***
Along with the last minute operations are the disinformation campaigns. I was particularly amused by the war of text messages in Mandaue City.
First, I got this text message saying Jonki Ouano was disqualified yesterday morning. Thirty minutes later, a counter text brigade circulated that Luigi Quisumbing has abandoned Jonas Cortes and will be supporting Jonki.
Both text messages are obviously false. However, I am sure that it will cause confusion among supporters of both political camps.
(Please check out “In Between Columns” at anol.blogs.friendster.com/anols_blog)
