THE RIGGED ELECTION MESS: NOW I KNOW WHY

 

“Now I know why last year’s results in my vote-rich Cavite home province defied historical data since I first ran for the Senate in 2001.

“Save for ‘class-act’ Noli de Castro, who beat me in that midterm poll by 30,000 votes, I was consistently my province mates’ top choice in all succeeding elections in which I participated.

“That includes the 2004 presidential election in which I beat powerful incumbent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the very popular Fernando Poe Jr. Not to forget my 2007 and 2016 senatorial wins.

“Last year I got only a measly 91,000 out of 2.3 million votes.”

The above statement was made recently by Panfilo Lacson, a veteran senator, and former presidential candidate expressing his dismay over the rigged May 9, 2022 election in a column by Jarius Bondoc in Philstar.

Just when the Comelec came up short in its explanation, the possibility of the rigged election – based on Brig Gen Eliseo Rio’s position paper “A Preponderance Of Evidence Shows That The May 09, 2022 Election Was Rigged”-- has pumped up and given free rein to people’s imagination, forming now-I-know-why images in their minds as Lacson showcased. We couldn’t find fault with people who can’t help conjuring up now-I-know-why pictures like this one below:

WHY BONGBONG SNUBBED PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Now I know why presidential candidate Marcos Jr. snubbed the presidential debate during the campaign season. Looking back, Comelec’s presidential debate was organized “in the spirit of civility and dialogue for the continuing education of the electorate.” It was “the venue where the presidential candidates can reach out to as many citizens at the same time and share the same forum to explain what they stand for and why they deserve to be elected president for the next six years.”

The widely held sneaking suspicion then for his snub – he was scared to be found out as an “emperor with no clothes”. The more profound one then – he didn’t care about the people.

But, with the rigged election mess turning up lately, the real reason may be a no-brainer -- it was his in-your-face “what’s the use” stance – a subtle clue of the looming large “game over” by then on its way.

Mindful of the timidity of most mainstream media, burying their heads in the sand on this controversy, President Bongbong Marcos (PBBM) may now be holding assuredly the unwavering view that the rigged election claim is neither here nor there as laid out by the following pundits.

Philstar’s Ana Marie Pamintuan’s thoughts in her column “Apathetic” may be tranquilizing to PBBM:

“The biggest challenge is making people care [about the rigged election mess] … Filipinos bend with the wind and can be patient to a fault. It would take over a decade before the assassination of Ninoy Aquino would end the [people’s] apathy…”

By the same token, Vergel O. Santos in his Rappler article “Where our miseries began”, wrote:

“As for the beneficiaries themselves of election riggings, they seem able, as a rule, to somehow keep their hands off the stink or otherwise wash it well off. And since election protests take too long to resolve, the truly elected end up with hollow victories, because the terms of the positions finally judged rightfully theirs have by then all but expired.”

As a former lecturer, that reminds me of this dry and trite expression in the classroom: “Turn in your papers; time is up.”

Come what may, in the course of PBBM’s whole six-year term when such election protest is being resolved in the court, people’s conjuring up of now-I-know-why images in their minds, will keep going, even impacting the talking points of pundits in the opinion pages like this one below:

WHY PBBM TURNED THE TABLES ON FPRRD

Now I know why PBBM turned the tables on Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (FPRRD) along with his China-appeasing policy. Not only was the sudden turnaround – aligning with the USA -- clashes with FPRRD, it flies too in the face of the themes of “unity” and “continuity” of his political party with FPRRD’s daughter VP Sara. PBBM has welcomed instead with open arms the USA.

Many pundits were caught flatfooted by such a 180-degree about-face in foreign policy and theories abound for such an unexpected move.

Here is the now-I-know-why take on such a move -- deep-rooted in the rigged election claim’s what-if worst scenario: What if a bunch of techie whistleblowers suddenly enters into the picture, exposes the mechanism of the rigged election mess, escalates the situation, gets it out of control, and ultimately turns the public into a towering rage?

The key to the answer is embedded in history and fleshed out in the following excerpts from the book “Impossible Dream: The Marcoses, The Aquinos, and the Unfinished Revolution” by Sandra Burton:

“After conferring with [U.S. President Ronald Reagan], [Senator Paul] Laxalt called [President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.] back. By now [Day 4, People Power Revolution, February 25, 1986], it was 5:30 in the morning in Manila. The senator told him that power-sharing would be impractical and undignified. He repeated the president’s invitation to the Marcoses to move to the U.S. His considerable reserves of determination and defiance now practically depleted, Marcos [Sr.] turned to Laxalt for advice. What should he do? he asked. Laxalt put it to him straight. ‘I think you should cut and cut cleanly. I think the time has come.’

“The silence at the other end of the phone was so pronounced, so profound that Laxalt finally had to ask if Marcos [Sr.] was still there. He was, but his persona had changed. He had no brash comeback with which to respond to Laxalt’s recommendation. No counterproposal. For once, he was honest in showing his emotions. ‘I am so very, very, disappointed,’ [Marcos Sr.] said.”

US CALLED THE SHOTS

Beyond the shadow of a doubt, that extraordinary and emotional phone conversation turned out to be the now-or-never moment of the People Power Revolution which let the cat out of the bag – the U.S. -- being then the most powerful nation in the world -- called the historic shots.

Whether such reality is still true or not today, no doubt, Marcos Jr. has not erased from his memory his father’s indelible once-in-a-lifetime high-stake taste of geopolitical power play and may have decided to align himself with the US in case of a similar scenario.

Abounding now-I-know-why images in people’s minds are just around the corner and could come on the scene at any moment like, for instance, this one:

Now I know why there was a viral letter circulating on the internet in the thick of the May 9, 2022 election about a Chinese IT hired to do a man-in-the-middle attack to hack the Transparency Server, hence the 3x faster transmission of the election results  during the first hour after voting ended, and whose source could not be traced.

Or, this:

Now I know why there was a viral post in the thick of the May 9, 2022 election about a mother who grimly told about his military son, clued in on a covert election rigging, who warned her not to get involved with the election issue.

Or this from Ret Col Leonardo Odoño as shared by his knowledgeable friend in Philstar Jarius Bondoc column:

Now I know why Smartmatic and the incoming First Lady celebrated less than two hours from the close of voting on May 9, 2022.

Or as plain as this:

Now I know why I’ve never felt the jubilation in the air of this so-called 31-million voting multitude.

Only when the doubt about the rigged election is cleaned up, will the episodes of conjuring up now-I-know-why images in people’s minds eventually dissipate.

                               The International Foundation For Electoral Systems

Head photo courtesy of depositphotosdotcom

Video clips courtesy of YouTube