Press Release
January 28, 2008

ESCUDERO SAYS MELO SHOULD GET INSPIRATION FROM
US PRIMARIES' FAST RESULT

Sen. Chiz Escudero is hoping newly-appointed Commission on Elections chairman Jose Melo is following media coverage of the presidential primaries in the US so the retired jurist can be inspired to replicate the fast ballot count there in this country.

"I hope he's channel-surfing so he'll be amazed at how election results are counted, reported and accepted on the same day Americans vote , " Escudero said

Escudero said if the retired Supreme Court associate justice is "savoring his last days as private citizen as a couch potato, then I hope that when he reports to work to Comelec next month, he will view the speed US elections are done with as a thing that must also happen here".

"It's that kind of 'colonial mentality' that we should welcome", Escudero said.

Escudero hopes that the "much-delayed and much-abused" modernization of polling systems in the country will finally take off during Melo's watch.

He said "the high level of IT use by Filipinos makes them ready for IT-aided exercise of the right to suffrage."

"If Filipinos already entrust their money to a cash machine, or manage their wealth through Internet banking, or book a plane ride through the computer, I don't see why they will not place such a trust on a machine to count their votes," he said.

He said IT "in the hands of competent, clean and committed individuals can be harnessed to finally end the slow-motion way of counting votes here".

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