ewly designated
Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane was wrong in volunteering the use of
military transport to carry election materials. The offer is clearly against the
letter and the spirit of the Memorandum of Agreement signed by his predecessor,
Avelino Cruz, which seeks to limit AFP participation in the conduct of
elections.
But Ebdane is right when he said that the military’s
participation is the Comelec’s call. The Comelec is empowered to deputize any
government agency or personnel to help conduct the elections. So when the
Comelec says soldiers should take a role more active than that specified in the
MOA, Ebdane cannot do anything about it. All he can do is salute and say, "Yes,
sir!"
Of course, that rests on the supposition that Ebdane, like
Cruz, wants to stop the use of soldiers in election cheating. As we said
earlier, Ebdane has no exceptional qualification to head the DND. He was
appointed nonetheless despite the Feliciano Commission recommendation that the
DND portfolio be reserved for a civilian.
The suspicion is he is out to reprise his role as
"coordinator" of the "special operations" that got Gloria proclaimed as the
winner by a compliant Congress in the face of cheating.
All eyes are now on Ebdane and what he will do in the three
months or so. But thanks to his outburst during his first appearance before the
media as secretary of defense, he called attention to the fact that the Comelec,
after all, is the body that will oversee the elections.
Cheating, even by soldiers, cannot take place if only the
Comelec does its job. Cheating can only occur when Comelec is an accomplice to
the act.
The "Hello Garci" tapes should be a reminder that the actual
mastermind and orchestrator of "dagdag bawas" was a Comelec commissioner, with
Comelec field men doing the dirty work.
Former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano may now be
out, but his "dagdag bawas" machine remains intact. The cheaters can easily
insert another "Garci" - if it has not already inserted one - in the second top
layer of the Comelec bureaucracy and it will be 2004 once again.
With Ebdane at DND and Chairman Benjamin Abalos still at
Comelec, it’s a reunion of sorts.
We’re in for the dirtiest election yet, and 2004 was dirty enough.
