By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines–The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) will begin its six-month evaluation to determine which technology the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will use for automating the 2010 presidential elections.

CICT chair Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua said eight vendors have been selected to test their solutions within the six-month period in selected areas nationwide.

“These vendors have solutions that use OMR (optical mark reader) and DRE (direct recording electronic) machines,” Roxas-Chua said during a meeting Wednesday with the IT Association of the Philippines (ITAP).

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By Beverly T. Natividad
Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines–If the police can’t do it, perhaps the citizenry can.

Now considered as a “fugitive from justice,” Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol is now being offered for citizen arrest.

As Bedol continued to evade an arrest warrant issued against him, Commission on Elections Acting Chairman Resurreccion Borra cited on Monday the right and the power of every citizen to arrest the poll supervisor on site and bring him to the nearest local police.

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By DJ Yap
Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines–Candidates running for barangay (village) or Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council) posts in Makati City were warned not to violate election laws on the posting of campaign materials, lest they get fined.

The city government of Makati, through its environmental services department, also asked the candidates to minimize the use of campaign posters and to post them only on exterior walls allowed by the Commission on Elections.

“These campaign materials are eyesores and we do not want our city to be littered with them,” city environment department chief Danilo Villas said on Thursday.

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By Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines–The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has accredited the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) as its citizen’s arm for the October 29 Barangay (village) and Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council) elections.

In a resolution, the Comelec en banc granted the PPCRV’s August 10 petition seeking accreditation.

The Comelec said that it has considered PPCRV’s commendable participation in past electoral exercises as well as its commitment toward honest, clean, credible, and peaceful elections, for its accreditation of the group.

It added, the PPCRV has also sufficiently complied with the Comelec’s accreditation rules.

The Comelec said that the PPCRV will conduct poll watching and assist voters in various precincts, and assist the Comelec in providing voter’s information and values education in municipalities, cities and provinces. Beverly T. Natividad

By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines–“That’s his karma.”

This was how lawyer Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III described the controversy hounding Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos regarding the allegedly anomalous national broadband network project.

According to dictionary.com, karma is “the action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation.”

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By Jerome Aning
Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines–The Commission on Elections on Saturday scored the lawyer of former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol for saying that the latter’s camp expected the poll body to uphold its earlier decision to convict Bedol for contempt.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said Bedol’s lawyer Andrei Tagum showed his contempt for the Comelec after he admitted that Bedol was “half-expecting” the Comelec to junk his motion for reconsideration.

“If we go by the history of the commission, I don’t think they have ever reversed their decision because that would be an admission that they erred,” Tagum was quoted as saying in media reports.

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FILIPINOS are entitled to one vote each. It represents the heart and soul of a person who is longing that his voice will be heard, though faint in the millions of votes.

Shave a vote and you kill entirely that faint voice and literally, the essence of that person’s right to suffrage. The Philippines, Mindanao in particular, has become a graveyard of honest election watchers, teachers and volunteers. It has also become a stinking place of dishonest government appointees like Lintang Bedol.

Justice, strike where you need to strike and I will be there to believe in your name. Justice, hear the last breath of heroes that died looking for you.

– Rynor Jamandre, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig (via e-mail)

CAN the government tolerate this kind of treatment they are receiving from [Maguindanao provincial election supervisor Lintang Bedol] Bedol? Is he more untouchable than Garci [former Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano]?

Why was he in the Comelec in the first place? Bedol is the kind of person who can mingle with the Muslim rebels anytime he wants because he will always be welcomed by them.

Remember Garci’s attire when he gave himself up to the government? Bedol’s antics qualifies him to be a terrorist. A political terrorist who can do anything he wants as long as he is tolerated and well protected by the “padrinos.”

– Andy Paliguiran, Los Angeles, California (via e-mail)

I PRAISE Chairman [Banjamin] Abalos and the rest of the Comelec [Commission on Elections] for doing a good job last May election/

If massive cheating occured, then why are a majority of the GO candidates marching their way to the Senate? Why did Mike Defensor, the most loyal Cabinet member of this administration, not make it to the Final 12? Why did Lilia Pineda, a known close friend of the President, fail to sit in the Capitol of Pampanga?

Let us give where credit is due. We are all tired of loudmouths and baseless accusations that never cease to pull the country down. By the way, I like the way Chairman Abalos pronounced “senator” in proclaiming the newly elected lawmakers.

THERE are two observations about the elections which at first seem disconnected but are in fact intertwined. And when you bring these two together, it points to a paradox that is disturbing for a young democracy such as ours: People are becoming more capable voters, but fewer people are voting.

How do we work our way out of that? Let us first go through the twin phenomena informing this paradox.

All that glitters isn’t gold

First, celebrities don’t seem to fare as well as they used to. Montano, Gomez and Pacquiao are all bankable names but apparently people haven’t been as quick to vote for them. Even Singson, who I consider a celebrity more than anything else, hasn’t fared well beyond the Ilocos provinces (the results of which would be telling once we get them). And while we have yet to see how the votes for Visayas and Mindanao shape Montano’s and Gomez’s tallies, the trend in Manila is clear and I called their defeat months ago.

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