What now, VP Leni?

By Herbert Vego

UNTIL now, we have yet to hear Vice President Leni Robredo verbally concede to presidential opponent Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. despite the latter’s overwhelming 31 million votes against her 15 million. She does not have to. No doubt she could not believe those figures churned by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

However, shouldn’t she at least have cried “foul” over the callous manipulation of the electoral process by a government agency tasked to uphold the will of the people?

It was demoralizing to see one of her senatorial bets, former Senator Antonio Trillanes, immediately conceding defeat.

Any thinking Pinoy must have wondered, “How could the son of the late dictator have catapulted himself to fame in three years?”

Bongbong Marcos had been governor and senator without leaving behind a track record of pro-people initiatives.

The undisputed fact is that since his loss to Robredo for the vice-presidency in 2019, Bongbong did nothing but file election protest before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, but to no avail. Both had scored more than 14 million votes, but hers was 200,000 higher.

Retracing the campaign trail in the run-up to this year’s presidential derby, she had drawn millions of cheering crowds to her rallies.  Marcos’ crowds, transported by buses to the rally sites, paled in comparison.

It also saddens us that the opposition senatorial candidates who are worthy of winning have been left behind, with re-electionist Riza Hontiveros as the only survivor?

It reminds us of the 2019 senatorial election where none of the opposition “Otso Diretso” made it.

Lawyer Chel Diokno, a human rights advocate, lost his senatorial bid in both the 2019 and 2022 elections.

How could they not have done something to hold the Comelec, Smartmatic and the survey firms for conspiracy to install Marcos, his running mate and their senatorial cohorts in power?

Instead, we see non-candidates howling in their behalf. Three of them include former Comelec commissioner Augusto “Gus” Lagman, who is the current head of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel); former Department of Information, Communications and Technology (DICT) Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr.; and Franklin Ysaac, former Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FEIP) president.

In a media forum in Quezon City, Lagman briefly summarized the problem: “The present Comelec system, while fast, does not meet the transparency requirement, mainly because precinct-counting is automated and therefore not witnessed nor understood by the voters.”

All three suggested a shift to a hybrid system next time. It would entail manual precinct-counting for transparency and automated canvassing for speed. After the manual precinct-counting, the election returns should be transmitted from the precinct’s laptop to the city/municipal canvassing center.

With only 17 days left before the scheduled inauguration of Marcos as new president on June 30, does VP Leni still hope that the Supreme Court would declare her the real winner?

That could only happen in the event the Supreme Court decides to disqualify Marcos as presidential candidate for not having filed his income taxes for three years.

I don’t think so, especially since Marcos and vice-president-elect Sara Duterte-Carpio have already been proclaimed by Congress.

Moreover, being a believer in destiny, our dear VP Leni must have already accepted her rigged “defeat” as fate meant to be.

Well then, good luck na lang sa ating lahat in another six years.

-oOo-

POWER PRICE INCREASE INEVITABLE BUT…

IN several radio interviews, the head of MORE Power’s Corporate and Regulatory Department, Engr. Niel Parcon, admitted the other day that the distribution Planning utility would soon impose higher rates to electricity consumers in Iloilo City.

The increase is due to the provisional approval of MORE Power’s application to recover its investments since taking over the city’s distribution grid more than two years ago. MORE Power has already spent around P1.3 billion.

You and I may correctly guess it’s one of the inflationary effects of the decline of the value of the Philippine peso, which is now ₱53 against US $1.

Specifically, however, the increase would largely depend on the expiration on July 25 of MORE Power’s contract with its baseload geothermal power supplier, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM).

This could pave the way for another “competitive selection process” that would afford MORE the opportunity to negotiate or renegotiate with power suppliers.

Parcon predicted that MORE Power would have to increase its charges by at least 40 centavos or a little more on top of the present ₱7.22 per kilowatt-hour charged to household users.

It’s still the cheapest, way below the ₱10 to ₱12 currently imposed by the electric cooperatives.

Moreover, to cushion the impact of the impending price hike through its “More Konek” initiative, the company has begun sticking “Jumper-Free” stickers on households that do not steal power using gadgets collectively known as “jumper”. This has resulted in an entire barangay of 211 households, San Pedro, converted into a “jumper-free zone.” It used to be a beehive of power pilferers.

The enforcement of the anti-pilferage law (RA 7832) that imposes imprisonment (up to 12 years) and/or fines up to ₱100,000 has trimmed down system’s loss from 28% to only 7.8%, resulting in much lower billings or a reliability improvement of over 90%.