By TESSA JAMANDRE
FORTY days into the election, the Liberal Party on Tuesday sounded off the alarm of what it said appeared to be a government scheme for a failure of election in May.
Despite the consistent lead of their presidential and vice presidential candidates—Senators Benigno Aquino III and Manuel Roxas II—in the surveys, the LP said it saw “a pattern to undermine democratic institutions to keep Gloria Arroyo in power beyond June 30.”
In a press conference, LP general campaign manager Florencio “Butch” Abad cited a possible system failure as the country tries to automate elections for the first time.
The serious lapses and inadequacies in the preparation for the Automated Election System were designed for either a massive and wholesale cheating to favor Arroyo’s candidates, partial failure of elections and a holdover presidency by the Speaker or a complete failure of elections and take over of military junta, he said.
Aquino said they are sounding the alarm to educate Filipinos about the dangers so that they may protect their vote.
He asked his party officials to start conferring with key sectors such as the church, election watchdogs, the diplomatic community, the military and police, and other presidential candidates to close ranks so that they can help to ensure peaceful, orderly and clean elections.
Aquino said alarming developments threatening the democracy include the appointment of Gen. Delfin Bangit as military chief and other members of Philippine Military Academy Class of 1978 to which Arroyo is an adopted classmate; the insistence of Arroyo in running for a congressional seat in Pampanga after her Presidency; the Supreme Court’s decision authorizing Arroyo to appoint a new Chief Justice, and certain pronouncements from Malacanang as the possibility of a military junta take over in case of a failure of election and with the Defense Secretary no less raising the prospect of a “Transitional Revolutionary Government.”
“As far as the military is concerned, they are supposed to be apolitical, they have already made pronouncements that they will be apolitical, then this is just a reminder. They are a very necessary institution in preserving the stability of the state. And they can only do that function if there is utmost professionalism and neutrality as far as the conduct or their participation in the forthcoming elections is concerned,” he said.
Aquino said the last stretch of this administration should be to manage the peaceful transition of power but in Arroyo’s case she seems to be doing everything in her power to ensure that to stop a peaceful transition.
“Perhaps, the operative word is to ensure that there is no transition. And that is something that those who think they can do minimal effort to preventing should be awakened and take on a more active role in ensuring that the peaceful transition does become a reality,” Aquino said.
Roxas said that the darker plot to undermine these elections has become clearer.
“And that is why, as a first step, we are making it known to our people that these are our concerns, that we want our people to increase their awareness as well as be on guard because this is their vote, this is their chance to elect a good man, a man that does not steal, a man who has no record whatsoever of any anomaly attached to his name,”Roxas said. “This is our chance to go on the straight and narrow road towards good government, rather than the long and crooked and snake-like road of continuous graft and corruption. This is the operationalization of the first of our plans, which is to let our people know what these dangers are.”
Asked if they will call on a people power in the event of a failure of elections, LP senatorial bet Franklin Drilon said “no one can call people to the streetsm but Filipinos will do what is needed.”
“No one has the capacity to call them, but people themselves will come out to protest if their democratic rights are taken away, as shown twice in the nation’s history,” he said.
