Wow, ‘Smartmagic 12’!

By Herbert Vego

HAVE you ever stopped to wonder why the most deserving senatorial candidates lost while some “unemployable” ones made it?

Who would have thought that Robin Padilla – an ex-convict and “bad boy” of local moviedom – would even qualify for the Senate race? But, look, he topped the race with 26,612,434 votes!

Let us recall the names of the incoming 12 senators according to rank from top to bottom: Robin Padilla, Loren Legarda, Raffy Tulfo, Sherwin Gatchalian, Francis Escudero, Mark Villar, Alan Peter Cayetano, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Joel Villanueva, JV Ejercito, Risa Hontiveros and Jinggoy Estrada.

Alas, among these 12, only Hontiveros is openly identified with the critical opposition. It is hard to imagine jailed Senator Leila de Lima not even getting enough “sympathy votes”, or Antonio Trillanes and Richard Gordon not getting rewarded for exposing graft and corruption in government.

What I also find unbelievable in the composition of the 12 winners is that with the exception of Villanueva who displaced former Vice President Jejomar Binay, all had appeared in the final top 12 of the Pulse Asia surveys.  Why such accuracy in a field of 36 senatorial candidates unless “pre-cooked”?

Let me go back to the campaign period leading to the 2016 election. During a press conference here in Iloilo City, two senatorial candidates – Atty. Lorna Kapunan and Susan “Toots” Ople – revealed that they had been approached by a person introducing himself as somebody from the Social Weather Stations’ (SWS).  He had offered them a “subscription” to periodic surveys that would keep them in the winning column, which they refused.

I remember that in that 2016 senatorial race, only one in the SWS’ list did not win.  He was re-electionist Serge Osmeña.

The last Pulse Asia and SWS surveys on the 2019 senatorial race named 15 candidates closely competing for the “magic 12”: Cynthia Villar, Grace Poe, Bong Go, Pia Cayetano, Sonny Angara, Ronald Dela Rosa, Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla, Nancy Binay, Jinggoy Estrada, Koko Pimentel, Bam Aquino, Francis Tolentino and Imee Marcos. With the exception of re-electionist Grace Poe, all of them were known allies of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Of the aforementioned, only Jinggoy, JV and Bam lost.

In a column I wrote after their proclamation, I asked, “Don’t you find it eerie that with 62 candidates running for senators, two commercial pollsters randomly interviewing 1,200 different respondents on a base of 60 million voters could predict all 12 winners?”

Alam na this: As in 2019, the “winning” 12 senatorial candidates of 2022 do not owe us voters their good fortune. They probably owe it to conspiring personnel from the commercial pollsters, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Smartmatic. We wonder whether they – as well as presumptive President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio — had subscribed to the surveys.

What good have they done to deserve their good fortune?

By the way, as I recalled here a few columns ago, Marcos had accused Smartmatic of manipulating the 2016 vice-presidential race that led to his defeat to now outgoing Vice President Leni Robredo.

The reverse seems to have materialized this time. Ano sa palagay mo, BBM?

Susan “Toots” Ople, incidentally mentioned above as a source of information regarding paid surveys, does not have to lament anymore her bad fortune in the 2016 senatorial race.  Marcos has asked her to head the new Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) department.

-oOo-

MORE POWER EXPANSION A MATTER OF TIME

MY crystal ball shows MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) expanding its power-distribution coverage to 15 towns and a component city of the province of Iloilo, initially within the year.

It’s because of the then impending passage into law of the bill amending RA 11212, the law which originally awarded to MORE Power the exclusive distribution franchise in Iloilo City. It is awaiting third reading in the Senate and the signature of President Duterte.

It is the fulfillment of what used to be a wish among members of the Iloilo Electric Cooperative (ILECO) who are saddled with “electrifying” bills.

As embodied in the amendment originally sponsored by congressmen Braeden John Biron, Mike Gorriceta and Jam-Jam Baronda, the expansion of MORE Power’s distribution coverage would cover the towns of Alimodian, Leganes, Leon, New Lucena, Pavia, San Miguel, Santa Barbara, and Zarraga in the Second District of Iloilo; and Anilao, Banate, Barotac Nuevo, Dingle, Duenas, Dumangas, San Enrique and  Passi City in the Fourth District.

I was talking to Tata, a friend from a Pavia, Iloilo subdivision who revealed having paid Ileco-1 “a fortune,” which means ₱12 per kilowatt-hour.

At present, MORE Power charges only ₱7.22/kWh.

MORE Power President Roel Z. Castro, in interviews with different media outlets, has assured us the company would be capable of the extended coverage within a year’s time. In fact, it has demonstrated its capability in the city, where it has now some 86,000 connected consumers—a far cry from the original 62,000 in 2020.

Although the three ILECOs in Iloilo province have opposed the measure on the ground of franchise infringement, there is nothing in the proposed bill that equates it with expropriation of ILECO facilities. It could result in healthy competition or possibly a joint venture aimed at minimizing power rates.

We were hoping to squeeze details from MORE Power’s legal officer, Atty. Alyana Babayen-on, but had to write about it in my next column due to deadline constraint.

More power to ILECOnos!