ABSCBN's divine noontime news anchor, PINKY WEBB, just caught Atty. Romulo Macalintal with his shorts down on the Prime Time News in that inimitably innocent way she has with pitching an intelligent and revealing question.
The smooth Consigliere of Malacanang Palace was just warming up to the task of resurrecting the junked Comelec Automated Counting Machines of 2004 by claiming that the Dept of Science and Technology had certified the counting machines as passing the required tests even if the Supreme Court itself found that the system had been bid out illegally.
"But, isn't it true Attorney Macalintal, " Ms. Webb plaintively inquired (with just the merest arch of an arabesque eyebrow), "that the reason they passed those tests is because the Comelec CHANGED the specification to ninety nine point nine nine five per cent?"
The President's lawyer was dumbstruck as the fastball hit him on the noggin without him knowing what hit him.
Pinky Webb struck out the Attorney-at-Bat!
Out of the mouth of Babes!
Score one for the good guyz!
But Macalintal quickly recovered and stuck to the Palace-provided talking point, which is in itself a chilling revelation about what the Palace intends to do with 1.2 billion pesos worth of OPTICAL MARK READERS hooked up to PCs masquerading as an automation system.
THIS is Malacanang's idea of ELECTORAL REFORM:
1) IGNORE the Supreme Court's increasingly strident demandS that its rulings be heeded on the ill-fated, illegally-bid 2004 Automated Counting System, that perpetrators be prosecuted and financial recovery sought by the government on its own behalf.
2) DEMONSTRATE the technical capabilities of 1950s optical mark reader technology (OMR) in suitable publicity stunts involving making DOST jump through circus hoops.
3) FORGIVE the Comelec Commissioners, led by Benjamin Abalos for its deal with Megapacific Consortium (whoever they really are!) and let bygones be bygones on that 1200 million piles of pesos (1.2 billion pesos) that was involved in a landmark Supreme Court decision.
4) USE the "counting" machines in the 2007 elections and claim that GMA has automated the Philippine elections!
I think it's time for the TECHIES to come out of the woodwork and get rowdy on AUTOMATION.
Fool us once, your fault. Fool us twice, OUR fault!
LAW PROFESSOR HARRY ROQUE of the University of the Philippines Law School has just returned from a trip to the United States in the hunt and chase for one, JOC JOC BOLANTE, a FUGITIVE from Justice with a warrant for his arrest by no less than the Philippine Senate, who is slyly trying to manipulate the US Justice system in order to escape prosecution and almost sure conviction in the Philippines for the PLUNDER of some 728 million pesos in Agriculture Dept. fertilizer funds. He brings the BAD NEWS that Joc Joc Bolante's plea for a change of venue to Chicago, Illinois, from San Pedro, California, has been granted. But the GOOD NEWS is apparently the UP Law School Team has made contact with the US Attorney's offices in both states to assist them in the adversarial process that will, I believe, exclude Joc Joc Bolante from US territory for return here. Or, as I actually HOPE has happened, that Joc Joc has in fact broken some serious US Law for which he has been detained and will be convicted. I just hope it's not the Cat N Mouse Game described for TV audiences here by California lawyer Ted Laguatan in a conversation with Strictly Politics' PIA HONTIVEROS and the aforementioned Harry Roque. The representations being made by the UP Law School group, which includes former Dean Raul Pangalangan and Dean Merlin Magallona, are to be presented as an amicus brief demolishing the claim to political asylum that JocJoc has made. In addition to the Senate arrest warrant, the Commission on Audit has laid the basis for a plunder charge against Mr. Bolante. I agree:
CONGRESSMEN who are named in the COA report SHOULD NOT participate in the upcoming hearings on an impeachment complaint some of whose charges are based on the Fertilizer Fund Scam that JocJoc Bolante allegedly ran for Malacanang Palace in 2004. And especially one, Congressman Salacnib Baterina, alleged to be the recipient of some of those Fertilizer Funds.
11 comments:
Oh no MB! Always with the cheerful thought you are!
Macalintal was not ready for Pinky's question at NASUPALPAL siya ni Pinky. But he is not a MOUHTPIECE for nothing and he quickly recovered his stride. He's got a rich client and even if he says he is doing this as a private citizen, I counter by saying he is anything but PRIVATE. He is a lawyer and he is FOR HIRE.
Of course his logic stinks, but who cares about logic when you can can change DEFINITIONS anyway. Classroom shortage? Change the definition. Unemployment? Change the definition. Election Cheating? Change the Definition. Corruption? Change the definition. Peaceful demonstrations? Change the definition to DESTABILIZATION. Chain of Command? Change the definition. A good President? Change the definition.
Macalintal as Justice Chief? Change the definition. From one injustice to another injustice. Thanks a lot!
we need the senate to pass its version of the bill amending RA8436, and for the bicam to get its act together on this, before we can move away from OMRs.
Pinky (divine as she is) was wrong. The machines rated 100%. That's better, I think, than even 99.99999999999999%
Postigo,
I think you have it wrong amigo!
One hundred percent of the MACHINES passed the tests AFTER the required ACCURACY was lowered to 99.995 one tenth of the ORIGINAL 99.9995 percent accuracy requirement.
The legal SPECIFICATION was not on the percentage of machines that pass, but what EACH machine is capable of in accuracy.
DJB, as a matter of fact, the machines were 100% accurate, meaning each machine that was tested did pass the test 100% - no errors in reading the ballots; everything that was supposed to be counted was counted.
This info is sourced direct from the official DOST testing records. Whoever fed you information to the contrary did you a disservice.
DJB, all this is, of course, in the interests of being accurate. I mean, a lot of people read your blog and I think it would serve everyone's best interests if the information we put out there is accurate - 100% as it were. :)
On a lighter note, what was that you said about us all being suckers for beautiful women? :D
I beg to disagree Postigo. There is no such thing as a machine that is 100 percent accurate. That is simply a naive misunderstanding of how quality control works. I stand by my statement about how the DOST tests should be understood. There is a very definite statement that can be made about the machines accuracy based on the number of ballots that were tested during the process. The statistical interpretation of quality control tests was something I used to make a living on, so I think I know what I'm talking about.
The automatic counting machines cannot be claimed to have 100% accuracy. No machine can be proved to be so without running an infinite number of tests.
Fair enough, DJB. Thanks for hearing me out.
thanks postigo. It's really quite a trivial issue as I said. But I think the last time we left this topic we were discussing registration. Hope you will continue the lonely work of expounding and debating those matters as we get closer to the elections. (I know you will!)
They are really diverting the issue. It is not the useability of the machines, whether they are capable or not (or accurate or not). The SC ruling is about how the bidding was conducted. I really don't think the commissioners involved can still function and perform their mandate of automating the elections because of this SC ruling.
Welcome Bokyo. The Supreme Court wants its orders obeyed and its decisions respected. Yet the Ombudsman, Comelec, Malacanang, won't obey them or respect them. This is what some call the Rule of Law.
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