AUTOMATION SHOULD BE COMPLEMENTED BY CLEANUP
OF COMELEC -- PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today backed the plan of newly-appointed Commission on Elections Chairman Jose Melo for computerization of the electoral process but stressed that he should also focus on weeding out the poll body of scalawags responsible for fraudulent practices in past elections.

Pimentel expressed concern that while Melo, in his public pronouncements, declared that he will give priority to poll automation, he was not as emphatic on the need for a thorough cleanup of the Comelec by removing the scoundrels involved in election cheating and who brought shame and scandals to the poll body.

"There's no question that we need to computerize if dagdag-bawas (vote padding and shaving) operations and other forms of election cheating are to be eliminated. But even if a computerized system is already in place, the threat of electoral fraud will still be there for as long as the scalawags and corrupt elections officials remain in office," he said.

The senator from Mindanao decried that there is still no closure to the "Hello Garci" scandal because of the failure of the past Comelec leadership to investigate and prosecute election officials who connived with politicians in rigging the results of the 2004 presidential election.

Pimentel also lamented that many election officials, including provincial supervisors and members of board of canvassers accused of perpetrating the "dagdag-bawas" operations in Maguindanao and other Mindanao provinces during the May, 2007 senatorial election have gone scot-free.

He noted that while provincial election supervisor Lintang Bedol was punished for misconduct because of his failure to show before the Comelec, acting as national board of canvassers, during the canvassing of votes cast for the senatorial election in Maguindanao, he was not investigated or sanctioned for his involvement in the wholesale cheating as evidenced by falsified certificates of canvass and election returns presented by the Genuine Opposition.

He said incontrovertible proof of the massive cheating has surfaced in the ongoing revision of votes cast in Maguindanao and other Mindanao provinces being undertaken by the Senate Electoral Tribunal in connection with the electoral protest of Genuine Opposition senatorial bet Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III.

During the revision process, ballot boxes from several municipalities, upon being opened, were discovered to be empty. There were ballot boxes which were stuffed with fake ballots but the election returns, statements of votes and other supporting documents were missing. In some cases, the election documents inside the ballot boxes were rendered unreadable because water was poured on them.