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(YEARENDER) Successful conduct of polls is Comelec's best feat in 2016
By Ferdinand G. Patinio

MANILA, Dec. 19 (PNA) -- Recognitions and awards from voters, stakeholders and an international electoral body are proofs that the May 9, 2016 national and local polls are one for the books.

This was according to Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Juan Andres Bautista as their efforts have been recognized, which gave them a big boost to do more in holding future electoral exercises in the country.

“’Yung ating nakaraang halal and pinamatagumpay na halal sa kasaysayan ng ating bansa in terms of almost everything eh,” he said.

He added, “Siguro maganda rin assessment ng NAMFREL, PPCRV na talagang they said among all elections this is the best managed. It has the least of violent incidents, it was the fastest in terms of transmission, maraming mga indicators, turnout and then ‘yung satisfaction, makita mo naman dun yung mga survey na ginawa ng Pulse Asia. I think 90 percent of our population were very pleased with the outcome.”

Several days after the May 9 polls, the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), one of the citizens’ arm of the poll body in the last national elections “believed that on the whole, this election has been managed far better than the past two automated elections held in 2010 and 2013.”

They are also convinced that voters are supportive of the Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) that were utilized in the May 2016 polls.

“Further the electorate seems to have more confidence in the election system this year compared to the past.While there are still some problem areas to look into and to correct, these do not detract from the generally perceived credible and orderly conduct of the May 9 elections,” Namfrel said in their assessment report.

They added, “The most commendable aspect of this election is the highest voter turnout rate ever of 81 percent for local and 31 percent for overseas voter (versus 76 percent and 17 percent in 2013 respectively).”

Likewise, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), another citizens’ arm of the Comelec in the May polls was satisfied with the outcome of the elections.

Earlier, Ana Singson, PPCRV Communications head had revealed their assessment of last electoral exercise is satisfactory in terms of transmission of election results, transparency and coordination with the Comelec.

"Definitely better than 2010 in terms of transmissions we saw so much more we reached 96.14 percent and you will add to what PPCRV has encoded we actually reached 98 percent that is the second highest after the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC)...The transmission levels in 18 hours we have reached 91 percent, we never reached 91 percent in 2013 we only reached 74 percent," she said in June.

Last July, the Pulse Asia Ulat ng Bayan Survey reported that majority of Filipinos said the conduct of the results of the May 2016 elections in their area was fast (92 percent), orderly (93 percent), and free of electoral violence (95 percent).

Around 89 percent of respondents described the electoral results as being believable.

Likewise, the survey showed that there was no vote-buying (66 percent), and no cheating (83 percent) during the last elections.

Recently, the poll body has been recognised by a London-based election management body for its efforts in connection with the successful holding of the 2016 national and local elections.

The International Centre for Parliamentary Studies of the 2016 International Electoral Awards (IEA), which was held in Maputo, Mozambique last December 6, awarded the Comelec with Electoral Commission of the Year, Excellence in Election Management, the Accessibility and Minority Participation Awards.

It was reported that the 2016 NLE recorded the highest voter turnout in the history of Philippine automated polls at 81.95 percent.

With this, Bautista admitted that the most challenging part of the May polls was the lack of time.

“Ako, feeling ko talaga panahon eh, medyo nagkulang kami sa panahon eh. Naremember nyo ‘yung 3 commissioners newly appointed in May 2015, mga bagito kami, may learning curve, at that time wala pang mga makina, hindi pa naman alam kung ok na yung paghahanda until ang Supreme Court nag-utos na gagawa ng resibo,” he said.

Challenges faced

But, Bautista noted that the challenges only helped them to ensure that the elections will be successful.

“Pero in a way, at least lahat ito nakatulong para siguraduhin na ang ating election ay making matagumpay so I think at least all sectors seem to believe that as I said this is the most credible elections in Philippine history,” he added.

The poll body chief admitted that he wish that the incident at the PPCRV control centre involving the cosmetic change conducted by SMARTMATIC and Comelec officials did not happen.

“Oo, sana hindi puedeng mangerai, sana hindi na lang nangyari. Sa aking palagay hindi naman malaking bagay yun. Alam mo naman hindi puedeng perfect eh, may mga mangyayari't mangyayari,” he said.

The incident prompted the camp of then vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. formally filed criminal complaint against executives of Smartmatic Philippines and a Comelec employee in connection with the unauthorized change in the script of the poll body's transparency server.

Named respondents were Smartmatic's Marlon Garcia, project manager; Elie Moreno, project director and Neil Benigued, member of Technical Support Team of international service provider and Rouie Peñalba, Comelec IT Officer II.

In a 14-page complaint, ABAKADA Rep. Jonathan Dela Cruz, Campaign Adviser of the vice presidential bet noted that the respondents violated "Section 35 (b) and (c) of R.A 8436, as amended by R.A. 9639 ("the AES Law").

It would be recalled the an adjustment was made to the script to fix the "?" character to "Ñ" on the name of some candidates.

At the same time, Marcos has filed an electoral protest filed before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) against Vice President-elect Leni Robredo

He asked the PET to annul the proclamation of his closest rival in the May 9 polls and declare him as the true winner in the last elections.

Likewise, Marcos also wants the Tribunal to order the annulment of votes in several provinces and cities.

In the VP race, Robredo got 14,418,817 votes as compared to the Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes.

The case is still being heard.

Conflict among en banc members

Bautista admitted that indifference or conflict in opinions amongst the member of the seven-man en banc is part of their job, since every member is different from each other.

“I think ‘yung mga differences in opinion are part and partial of any agency kasama ‘yan sa trabaho,” he said.

“Sa akin kasama lang yan. There is nobody who is irreplaceable lahat naman kami puedeng palitan ang mahalaga ay ‘yung institution ay pangalagaan. It is very important that we maintain, independence, integrity, the credibility of the institution,” he added.

It can be recalled that there were several instances where majority of the en banc have opposed the action of Bautista among them was the scrapping of the Php30 million intelligence funds from the agency’s 2017 budget.

Barangay and SK polls postponed

On Oct. 15, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 10923, the law that suspended the Oct. 31, 2016 village and youth polls and moved it to Oct. 23, 2017.

Prior to the signing of the law, the Comelec has suspended the activities for the October 2016 polls although it already printed some 400,000 ballots.

5 million new voters

Though the Barangay and SK polls have been suspended to next year, the poll body has commenced the continuing registration last Nov. 7 that will run until April 29, 2017.

The Office of the Election Officer in city/municipality all over the country will accept application for registration from Mondays to Saturdays, including holidays, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., except on Dec. 24 and 25, and April 13 and 14.

The Comelec is expecting to register 5 million new voters, 3 million for the village polls and 2 million for the youth elections.

2017 polls

Bautista noted what they want to achieve in the October 2017 polls is to have an honest and credible elections

“Syempre gusto natin mayos ang election sa 2017, although manual ‘yan. “Yung barangay alam ninyo naman, alam naman natin masalimuot ang barangay but again kung titingnan ninyo naman ang aming strategy very simple we want to learn from the lessons of the past, we want to look at past elections and see what we did right, see what we did wrong. What we did right we should further improved, what we did wrong we should correct so that we won’t do it again,” he added. (PNA)

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