At the same time, you all can be sure, the cheating, which really began long before the people entered the polling precincts, will go on unabated, specially now that the Genuine Opposition senatorial candidates continue to lead Gloria Arroyo’s Team Unity.

Already, the cheating machinery of the administration has been geared to perform its monkey business all over the country, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao provinces. It is feared that the cheaters are set, if they have not done so already, to dump some five million fake ballots during the municipal and provincial canvassing there.

Not just this, they will also resort to the monumental "dagdag-bawas"(vote padding and shaving), the very same brazen dirty trick they used in making Gloria’s "victory" in 2004. The brazenness of that bogus national canvass inevitably created the public impression of the illegitimacy of her presidency, an unelected president. They did it in Mindanao, particularly Basilan, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur, Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Maguindanao and Lanao del Norte. And they are doing it again in Election 2007.

More, as a group of retired military generals revealed, even before E-Day there was already in place an elaborate cheating operation that would involve election frauds in four regions and 12 provinces with some 15 million voters. It’s called "Oplan Mercury Rising" that would be carried out by Gloria’s military minions. And, oh, they also disclosed that army officers had forced soldiers to vote uniformly in the Bicol region, giving rise to fears that some military units will be used in cheatings in other regions.

Let’s not forget that Gloria and her political cohorts have diverted public funds in the millions, just as they did in Election 2004, in order to raise a political "war chest" to steal the electoral count. We all know by now Gloria’s intense hunger for power, of winning at any cost, even using the people’s money.

Yes, the cheaters of 2004 are still very much around to do their dirty tricks again. They are under instructions to cheat for TU candidates for the Senate as well as the House of Representatives, provincial and other local bets.

Of course, they have a hundred and one other ways of cheating. These include bribery, intimidation, illegal use of indelible ink, snatching of ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia, spreading false reports about the withdrawal or disqualification of candidates, de-listing voters identified with rival political parties, shifting locations of precincts, and eventually the falsification of certificates of canvass. They did all these before, and they are doing it again.

Indeed, Gloria and her clique, we fear, may well replicate the cheating again in this year’s just concluded election, win at any cost, to satisfy Gloria’s intense hunger for power.

If they are allowed to do these all over again, in addition to the buying of votes, the stealing of ballot boxes, the burning of election returns, the killing of teachers and election watchers, they will succeed in frustrating the will of the Filipino people, and consequently kill democracy. And if such a tragic event comes to pass, then we shall be watching helplessly as they trample on our rights and freedom once more.

The only way to stop them in their tracks is for us to be alert in the coming weeks of canvassing of ballots, and expose the shenanigans of the cheaters and their arrogant political masters.

Otherwise, we shall all see them, as in the famous lines of Shakespeare depicting overbearing power holders, "Drest in a little brief authority … Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven as make the angers weep."