Is COMELEC already compromised?

Is COMELEC still an independent body, or is it already co-opted by the present regime? Many people cannot help asking these questions after this midterm election.

1.     Four days before the election day COMELEC declared the Nacionalista Party (NP) as the dominant minority opposition party. The NP is a known allay of the administration. How could it be considered as a dominant minority opposition party? Under the Omnibus Election Code the dominant minority party is guaranteed to receive copies of the election returns and certificates of canvass to assure check and balance in investigating the election results. This is a mechanism to ensure fairness and transparency, which now is lost because of the COMELEC decision.

2.     The COMELEC refused to allow NAMFREL to have an open access to the data and information in real time of the transmission results. An important traditional watchdog of clean and credible elections has been pushed aside.

3.     During the campaign period, COMELEC did not organize national open debates among candidates of senatorial candidates as it traditionally did in the past. Is this because the administration’s  senatorial candidates cannot stand public scrutiny on national issues vis-à-vis the opposition candidates? Could it be that it does not want to expose the ignorance and shallowness of the senatorial pets of the administration?

4.     There are still many glaring technical glitches that the COMELEC fail to convincingly address almost one month after the election, like the 7-hour lull in the transmission of the election results to the transparency server on the night of the election day, the malfunctioning of more than 1000 SD cards and  1,699 voting counting machines (VCM), the many allegations of pre-shaded ballots and other election irregularities.

5.     The recent decision to approve the midnight substitution bid of Ronald Cardema, former Chairman of National Youth Commission, to assume the representation of the youth party-list Duterte Youth. This decision is very questionable. First, Ronald Cardema is already 34 years old, and under Republic Act (RA) No. 7941, Section 9, the representative for the youth party list must at least be twenty-five (25) but not more than thirty (30) years of age on the day of the election. Second, Cardema filed his notice of substitution at 5:30 P.M. on May 12, a Sunday, contrary to Resolution No. 8665, which prescribes the filing of pleadings or motions only during office hours on regular working days.

These glaring issues against the COMELEC are indicative that it is no longer an independent body but has become another tool of the present administration to further its agenda. It has a lot of hard explanations to do to clear its name!