Comelec brass: Watch the PCOS machines
SAN FABIAN—Candidates and voters can kiss the wholesale cheating prevalent in the past goodbye.
According to Comelec Executive Director Ferdinand Rafanan, the counting of and counting and canvassing of votes, which account for 25 percent of the problem of Comelec, has been addressed with the shift to automated election system (AEC) from the manual system.
But Rafanan, who spoke at a forum that launched the Movement of Concerned Citizens for Good Governance (MCCGG) here last April 9, said voters must still be vigilant in guarding their ballot even with the use of the Precinct Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.
While PCOS machines guaranty the impossibility of cheating in the count, the papers being fed into the machine by a member of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) could be swapped with a pre-shaded ballot to favor certain candidates.
“Watchers must still be very vigilant,” he said.
The remaining 25 percent of Comelec’s problem is lack of trained personnel but Rafanan said this situation is not only true in the Comelec but also in many government agencies.
RAMPANT VOTE-BUYING
Rafanan also conceded that vote-buying throughout the country has worsened for the past 15 years.
He said vote-buying has become worse since he joined to the Comelec in February 1998.
When he joined Comelec, Rafanan said his first motivation was to fight or minimize vote-buying and he expressed his disappointment knowing that it has become more rampant today.
“I am so embarrassed. We need to admit that vote-buying has gotten worse in the entire country as compared to what it was 15 years ago,” Rafanan declared.
The Comelec official confirmed that vote-buying constitutes the biggest problem of the poll body today, accounting for 50 percent of the problem.
“Vote-buying is the biggest problem of the Comelec and I call this the real problem in any election. It has become cultural and had been with us for generations,” he added.
WHY FIGHT?
He revealed that some past Comelec top officials actually find nothing wrong with vote-buying and has discouraged him from pursuing his goal.
“What are you doing? With vote-buying everybody is happy,” Rafanan said quoting a Comelec official.
Rafanan said he is glad that there are movements such as the MCCGG that aims to campaign versus vote-buying.
“I’m happy that there are people like you who do not surrender and continue the fight against vote-buying,” he said.
The forum was attended by Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas and pastors and ministers of various congregations in San Fabian town.
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