Two Political Deaths
A gardener told another that it is now quite clear: “Si Roxas inilibing ni Yolanda sa Tacloban, si Binay naman sa Makati nailibing sa Parkingan.” [“Roxas was buried by Typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban while Binay got buried at a Makati parking building.”]
There is a superabundance of evidence to prove either part of the statement true as far as the court of people’s opinion is concerned.
In this court, is there any doubt left as to Roxas’ ineptness and sickening egotism during the Yolanda onslaught almost a year ago? And, equally, is there any doubt at all regarding Binay’s City Hall type of corruption that may have yielded for him humongous sums of money?
These two politicians heretofore considered top contenders for the 2016 presidential election — Cabinet Secretary Mar Roxas and Vice-President Jejomar Binay — are now out of the race, whether they know it or not.
Who seems to know it, however, is President Benigno Aquino III, who wants to be called “PNoy.” Of late he has been reported talking of extending his term in terms that he has not made clear.
But the Freudian slip, if you will, the thought that found utterance intending to junk the Constitution sponsored by his less unpopular mother may have eo ipso classified him as her unworthy successor. It probably also ensured that he won’t ever make it at all except to have shocked the world with the equivalent admission that he, too, could resist anything but temptation.
For almost a year now, since the failing grade PNoy got during the Yolanda exam, the temptation does not go away to ask for more time. Such faith has he in his PR-made popularity and the dubious accuracy of his claims to glory that he really thinks he can still do it – wage a revolution from the Center. Well, somebody else did it before with proper preparation and lots of audacity. Does PNoy have enough time to make a whole nation believe in his indispensability to the common good? “He alone is good. The Marcoses, the Macapagals – everyone else is bad.”
His six-year term is way past four and Omar Khayyam’s line is on the wall: “The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on…” Stars may fall, suns burn out, seas dry up – yet time moves on, irreversibly. With one exception or two, most Philippine presidents found it a terrifying thing to have been at the pinnacle of power and then realize that time is up…just about. In addition, a new tradition has begun: his two immediate predecessors went to jail. What’s to protect him or who’s to keep him from such a presidential fate?
Well, there’s Roxas, leader of his ruling party – or even Binay, erstwhile family friend and arch-rival of Roxas. But, as of today, they are no more.
However, there’s still the team PNoy, aka Hyatt Ten, aka favorite officers and officials of the ship of state. “Stick together mates. The Captain will defend you against any and all attacks.” Hasn’t he been doing just that? He sure has filled the role of Great Protector and Defender of the Corrupt in his Administration to the hilt. Why? Is it not because they really are his Rock and his Protection?
Does an aware populace want Abad’s shining head? No way will PNoy ever allow you to touch it. Do they want purest police (Purisima) axed? Are you kidding? PNoy appointed them all and to attack their integrity and competence is to attack his infallible judgment in appointing the right people to the job. He did not err. He could not. “The perception that his mates are not doing well, — all that is nothing but the work of loyalists to past regimes who cannot stand the greatest administration ever known by the Filipino nation – the straight-path PNoy administration.”
But can anyone really be sure, as in absolutely sure, regarding Binay’s political demise? And can’t Roxas ever be resurrected at all? PNoy has been working so hard for the Roxas cause without ever publicly attacking Binay. Who’d care now as to whether PNoy was the real author or not of the project to bury Binay? Who financed the operation? Who brought the witnesses up and coordinated their star performance and made mincemeat of the BBC, the Binay Broadcasting Company?
But again, Roxas and Binay are dead. Why dwell on them? Because in their new order no one ever dies who has absolute faith in the PCOS machine. This is one major predicate of the National Transformation Council (NTC) and it will play loud and clear on October 1st at the Mariners’ Court, ALU-TUCP Compound at Pier 1 in Cebu City. And the NTC, Cebu version, will shout from the rooftops ever so loudly again: “Reject the cheating system! Affirm the Power of the People!”
The great work today, according to the NTC, is not choosing between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, between Roxas and Binay, Aquino and Marcos, Arroyo and who else. It is about the system of choosing. It is not about personality change but about system change. It’s about a people repenting of their sins of omission and commission and transforming themselves into a new creation.
The Biggest Fraud
All gardeners know that the oligarchic structure of our society is the root cause of all our social problems. We live in the classic set-up of a few rich daily getting richer while the majority hardly make it out of the poverty trap. But the real solution must still be political in nature – the assertion of power by the majority populace, or the practice of truly democratic politics.
The question, however, is: can there be democratic politics in an electoral setting where people do not know – cannot know – what happens to their votes, “whether freely given or freely bought?”
For two straight elections now, voters could not know what happened to their votes. More particularly:
Smartmatic hid the PCOS source code from experts’ review. On Election Day its technicians, not the Board of Election Inspectors (or BEI), activated the machines in 82,600 precinct clusters.
Voters did not see how their votes were counted. The BEIs could not verify what they signed for.
The Comelec and Smartmatic removed the safeguards against fraud: like ultraviolet light to detect fake ballots, and BEI’s passwords, etc.
The PCOS that was already vulnerable to internal manipulation had fraudulent results. For instance, contrary to traditional voting preferences due to regionalism, religion, and economic class, the 2013 senatorial race showed a 60-30-10% trend for administration-opposition-independents— uniform in all provinces, districts, cities, towns, and precincts.
To cover up the fraudulence, Comelec had to stop the canvass. Had the Comelec completed the canvass, which they conveniently stopped without justification, there would have been “more ballots cast than total number of voters.” To hide or prevent this, the Comelec had to stop and did stop the precinct count at 56% and the canvassing at 42%. It also had to lower the number of ballots cast from 38,998,998 to 31,568,679.
The NTC will reiterate in Cebu: “We don’t want any more fake leaders. We must junk the PCOS that in 2010 and 2013 were fast only in producing FRAUDULENT results. And we want these changes NOW. FORGET THE FALSE HOPES OF 2016. THE TIME FOR TRANSFORMATION IS NOW.” FINIS