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Sunday, September 05, 2004
Abalos, 6 commissioners' ouster sought
FORMER Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Christian Monsod said Saturday that civic groups are now working for the ouster of Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. and his six commissioners because of poor leadership and credibility problem.
According to Monsod, it was the commission's "poor leadership" that put the Comelec's credibility in jeopardy thus a reform in the leadership is needed in the poll body.
He said it is now the time to appoint commissioners that are impartial, competent and honest; refine the permanent system of continuing registration; modernize the system through automation with more flexible legislation and decentralize and delegate functions.
"The Commission has a credibility problem of its own making. It did not even command the respect of candidates sufficiently to conduct presidential debates and the violence and casualty were too high to ascribe to local rivalries," he lamented.
Citing the recent May 10 polls, Monsod said Comelec should have made it sure that before the election period the programs were supposed to be implemented had been prepared.
While he noted that there are some valid reasons on the delays or the nullification of the modernization projects the fact that two Commissioners with questionable credibility were appointed as members of the Comelec en banc further added to the dilemma.
But because of the Comelec's men in the field the May 10. 2004 elections had been saved from being a disaster.
"The vast majority of them (Comelec field personnel) did their job well despite the unnecessary poor leadership.
Monsod said that it is not proper to declare that there was "conspiracy" between the Comelec, the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) as well as the government.
According to him, if the opposition lost during the May 10 polls is because of their own fault since their failed to put up enough people that would ensure that cheating such as "dagdag-bawas" (vote padding and shaving) would not occur during the canvassing.
"As expected but nonetheless regrettable, the opposition did not really have the machinery to protect their vote. Alleging massive fraud is a poor substitute for hard evidence," the former Comelec chairman added. (Marie Neri)
(September 5, 2004 issue)
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