f Manny Pacquiao would
offer tips on how to throw a straight we sure would stand up and listen. But
Manny telling us to trust the Commission on Elections, that institution which
gave us former commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, as he did yesterday during a
visit to the Comelec office in Intramuros?
Sorry but, no, thank you. We’re not buying. Manny’s
endorsement might have sold a lot of beer, or pain reliever or microphones with
built-in karaoke accompaniment. But it will take more than Manny’s say-so to
convince us Election chairman Benjamin Abalos and his ilk have known what
impartiality is or have learned to count honestly.
These were the guys who gifted sellers of defective automatic
vote counting machines with more than a P1 billion, a sum which the Comelec is
doing nothing to recover despite a directive by the Supreme Court.
These were the same guys who in all seriousness told us that
the elections in 2004 were "generally" clean and honest.
Here they now come again assuring us of their determination
to make the May exercise credible and truly reflective of the people’s sovereign
will.
They’re blowing smoke. Let’s take a look at the reason why.
Gloria Arroyo has more or less given up on the senatorial
election. Her propagandists’ claim that the administration will likely win eight
of the 12 Senate seats that are up for grabs is pure hokum. It’s meant to
distract the people’s attention from Gloria’s real strategy, which is to focus
on the congressional races to deny the opposition the one-third vote needed in
the House to impeach her.
So the senatorial race would probably be as good as
advertised by Abalos. There would no outright cooking of results in the
senatorial race. Abalos could even say the results were, in the main, consistent
with the findings of exit polls conducted by Social Weather Stations and Pulse
Asia.
On the ground, the real story would be otherwise. Comelec
officials would play deaf and blind to the buying of votes, intimidation and
harassment of opposition candidates, ballot box stuffing and "dagdag bawas."
Back to Manny. We are happy that he has not succumbed to the
temptation of running for an elective post. We’re hoping he would not campaign
for any candidate.
He is the People’s Champ, and should not allow himself to be pols’ chump.
