The ‘lutong makaw’ election

By Herbert Vego

IT’S not all over as long as doubts on the integrity of the presidential election lingers here and abroad. No amount of propaganda has convinced us of the winnability of the presumptive presidential winner, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. – son of the late dictator whom President Rodrigo Duterte had called “weak leader,” “spoiled son” and “drug addict” despite being the running mate of his daughter Sara, now the presumptive vice-president.

In the words of former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, “Marcos is still a certified convict who is disqualified to run for president of the Philippines,” hence could still be ousted by the Supreme Court.

A Quezon City regional trial court had pronounced him guilty in 1995 for non-payment of taxes for three successive years, and this was affirmed by the Court of Appeals.

He never served his sentence of seven years in prison plus fine.

The disqualification case filed against him at the Comelec has been junked en banc but the case could still be elevated to the Supreme Court. It’s because under the Omnibus Election Code, any person convicted of a “crime involving moral turpitude shall be disqualified to be a candidate and to hold any public office.” His election would be rendered invalid ab initio.

Long before the May 9, 2022 election, this writer had been warning of slanted news reports and orchestrated surveys of five commercial pollsters mind-conditioning us into believing that the duo was headed to a landslide win despite the obvious reality that the Leni Robredo-Kiko Pangilinan tandem was attracting bigger, unprecedented crowds in their political rallies.

And lo, as early as 9:00 p.m. or two hours after the closure of polling precincts on May 9, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was already announcing the “insurmountable lead” of Marcos.

As of yesterday, with 98% of the votes counted, Marcos was reported to have gained 31 million votes against Robredo’s 14 million.

That was shocking.  It’s as if time has stood still for her. One recalls that she had beaten Marcos in the 2016 vice-presidential race, scoring 14,023,093 votes against Marcos’ 13,803,966.

The pliant media made no adverse reaction.  But I saw at least three hosts on GMA TV disagreeing with the suggestion of a political analyst to “set aside personal feelings,” which was a way of discouraging Robredo supporters from staging street rallies disputing Marcos’ win.

Because of insinuations that the election servers had been pre-programmed to manipulate final scores for presidential, vice-presidential and senatorial candidates, the followers of Robredo-Pangilinan are set to hold protest rallies in key cities today and in the days ahead.

Meanwhile, be reminded of a famous quotation from Spanish philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952): “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Don’t we remember how we suffered from the 20-year reign of Bongbong’s dictator father?  It was during his martial law years that the Comelec was corrupted. May I reiterate once again the trail that the son is now treading to duplicate his dad’s track record?

At the height of his martial-law rule in 1978, the elder Marcos called for election for assemblymen to sit in the Interim Batasang Pambansa, which the then First Lady Imelda Marcos topped and the former Senator Ninoy Aquino lost.

In 1981, the dictator called for a farcical presidential election, where he defeated his wartime buddy Alejo Santos.

The February 7, 1986 “snap election” pitted Marcos against Cory Aquino, which was marred by the walkout of Comelec tabulators who could not “stomach” being directed to produce incorrect numbers.

The subsequent People Power Revolution installed Aquino as revolutionary president.

Back to the present, have the paid trolls of Bongbong Marcos in social media influenced us to believe his “revised” history calling the reign of his dad the “golden years”?

The trolls are still active on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They will remain there for as long as they survive on their allowances.

As a saying goes, “If you can keep the people poor enough, you can get them to do anything.”

While we no longer know who first said that, it mirrors the opinion of the late Indian activist/nationalist Mahatma Gandhi: “Poverty is the worst form of violence”.

From our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, we learned, “The glory of saving cannot be given to one who has contributed to its ruin.”