For 15 years now, from that time we used electronic counting machines in our elections, there were always complaints and questions that were never answered adequately. A vicious cycle.
The electorate always ends up losing, unable to get answers from officials of the Commission on Elections who execute the rules, until the next election comes again.
Everyone I talked to about the last elections agreed that it was time Congress amended the Omnibus Election Code (OEC). Each one had new suggestions that had never been heard since the framers wrote the first provisions of the OEC.
Their ideas are reflections of the defects or weaknesses of the law that have tied us to grievances every election season. We never stop grumbling because our election rules are lacking or need revisions.
There was a suggestion to revert to elections every four years because three years of holding an elective office was too short. Working politicians barely warmed their seats when the next election was around the corner again.
Another guy said, a non-performing politician who, by all crooked means gets reelected for a second term would occupy their office for another three years. And he or she would continue to draw taxpayers’ money which does not correspond to his or her efforts, if there are any.
To curb election spending for campaign materials, the COMELEC has to introduce reforms on campaign financing. In past elections, the COMELEC was overwhelmed by the violations committed in displaying campaign posters.
To get rid of this, one proposal is for candidates to remit an amount to the COMELEC upon filing their CoCs and to announce the names of the candidates and the positions they are aspiring for in newspapers, radios, televisions, and on their website.
To have an organized posting area, the COMELEC could just shoulder the task of neatly displaying the names and faces of all the candidates. In that way, the required sizes would strictly be followed. More importantly, the poster display area will not be “chopsuey”-like.
Concerning movie personalities and sportsmen like Robin Padilla and Manny Pacquiao, a proponent said, such individuals should be disqualified from candidacy unless they stop practicing their trade or profession a year before filing their certificates with the COMELEC. Their movies should also be banned within the same period, and so with sporting events.
Also, Congress should not be tired of proposing to adopt the hybrid election system where voting would still involve shading an election ballot but counting would be done manually at the precinct level using the old “tara” style of counting votes. With electronic elections, fraud also became digitized.
For congressional districts, an appointed political caretaker should be disqualified from running for the congressional seat of that province in the next election after finishing the unexpired term of a deceased congressman that they were asked to occupy.
In the first place, the appointed caretaker had no previous intention to be a resident in the area, years prior to their appointment. Their presence in the province was due to necessity linked to their position as caretaker. The COMELEC should look into this.
Regarding electoral protests, the law requires a protestant-candidate to name the precincts where a physical examination of the ballots is done. Then a wider recount is conducted in case anomalies were found in the precincts that were identified.
But this manner is unwarranted as the protestant may not be able to identify the precincts where fraud possibly happened. If the precincts that were identified failed to reveal substantial anomalies, the court would no longer allow a wider recount even if there were documented reports of cheating in other polling centers.
To correct the system, COMELEC should instead do a recount in all the precincts of a certain polling school, to take away from the protestant the risk of misidentifying the particular precincts where election fraud possibly happened. Recounts should automatically proceed in cases where the difference of votes falls within an unbelievable range.
Congress should include a considerable percentage amount in the election budget to shoulder expenses for any vote recount so that a protestant-candidate does not have to spend, unless a recount goes beyond the margin allowed by law.
Undeniably, the staggering amount to be paid in election recounts places the protestant in a bind considering that there is no assurance from the COMELEC that the cases will be finished before the next election comes. Apparently, it appears like the stunning cost of a petition for a recount was calculatingly included in the rules to stop the filing of complaints.
********
One of the articles of impeachment filed against VP Sara was “betrayal of public trust.” Lately, we saw this, too, when Senate President Chiz Escudero betrayed the people by delaying, for the second time around, the impeachment trial from its previous schedule of June 2 to June 11, 2025. By doing so, it only revealed his personal political ambitions come 2028.
VP Sara’s threats to dig the remains of the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and throw them in the West Philippine Sea, her misuse of confidential and intelligence funds; conspiracy to commit murder by plotting the assassination of PBBM, FL Liza Marcos, and House Speaker Martin Romualdez were all disregarded by SP Chiz’s postponement of the impeachment trial.
The grave abuse of discretion led by the senate president makes for a bad precedent. By not proceeding immediately with the impeachment trial, the seeming lack of public accountability by highly placed government officials was apparently endorsed.
What people want is a trial process regardless of verdict. The Constitution only provided for the conviction or acquittal of the impeached official, not dismissal. An impeachment trial is supposed to protect the people from the abuses of government officials. Pray that abuse of power would not lead to anarchy nor spark a third humongous EDSA uprising.
