GMA faces electoral protest

AFTER her proclamation in a contentious tabulation of Certificates of Canvass (C0Cs) in Congress and her inaugural in Cebu, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo saw her mandate being contested.

The losing candidate, Fernando Poe Jr., filed an electoral protest, claiming he had been cheated out of victory. If the actual votes cast for each candidate were properly reflected in the COCs, he stated through his lawyers, he would have won by at least 1.1 million votes.

Interestingly, Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo emerged from the May 10 elections with exactly that margin over him.

The Supreme Court, constituting itself into a Presidential Electoral Tribunal, issued an order for Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro to file their answers within ten days.

Former Sen. Loren Legarda, the defeated vice-presidential candidate, also raised similar allegations. The two KNP (Kapisanan ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino) standard bearers maintained the COCs representing the election returns (ERs) of more than 100,000 precincts across the country had been tampered with. For this reason they want the ERs tabulated anew or the actual votes recounted at the precinct level.

Under the country’s electoral process, the votes are counted by the board of election inspectors, composed of three teachers, in each voting precinct in the presence of watchers of all political parties. The total, written on the ER, is then sent to city hall or the provincial capitol.

Out of all the ERs, the board of canvassers prepares the COCs, which are then sent to Congress for the proclamation of winners in the presidential and vice-presidential elections.

The board is composed of the provincial or city prosecutor, as the case may be, as chairman, and the local COMELEC registrar and superintendent of schools as members.

Here, it is assumed that the presence in the board of government officials who have a fixed tenure of office will ensure the integrity of the election at that critical stage.

It does not always happen in actual practice. The members of the board could be persuaded, for a price of course, to prepare a COC not reflective of the actual number of votes garnered by the opposing candidates.

Sure, the administration and the opposition candidates are represented by their respective lawyers, who watch every step of the proceedings, but like everybody else they too are vulnerable to corruption.

A million pesos for each of the three members of the board and the two lawyers in return for shaving, say, 10,000 votes from the rival candidate is cheap. Five hundred to a thousand pesos is the prevailing price of each vote on the ground, and there’s no guarantee that the seller would fulfill his or her end of the bargain.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the administration has indeed committed massive fraud.

According to Ismael Khan Jr., the Supreme Court’s information officer, the electoral protest could be resolved in 180 days. He may have spoken too soon. For one thing, Atty. Romeo Makalintal, the president’s election lawyer said, the SC has yet to rule on the matter of sufficiency in form and substance of the petition.

The result of the May 10 elections, he added, was reflective of the people’s will. Furthermore, the elections were conducted in accordance with law, with the rights of all political parties and candidates observed and respected every step of the way.

Thus, there is no legal reason to subject the country to further uncertainty. Granting the High Court decides to hear the petition, the filing of opposing briefs and the ensuing oral arguments, the production of witnesses and their direct and cross examinations, and the presentation of evidence and determination of their authenticity would take some time.

In the actual recount, if that stage is ever reached, it is possible that every ballot would be subjected to minute scrutiny, and that procedure could take an infinity to finish.

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