Rep. Marcos: Many gray areas on poll automation
Rep. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. warned of a possible failure of election amid the implementation of the automated polls next year.
“We can’t say yet that there is a failure of election unless the event already takes place. The ‘kalokohan’ (monkey business) happens after election, during the leader’s mandate,” Marcos said during a press conference held at Hotel del Rio yesterday morning.
“Poll automation is a good thing but there are many gray areas in the system that should be clarified by the Comelec (Commission on Elections). They are not clear about the rules as they have not released this yet. There are 80,000 machines that are not yet here, the personnel are not trained yet and the voters don’t know what to do. These areas should be studied well, otherwise, the elections will be prone to abuses. Then, some people may want to fail the elections,” he added.
He also raised the probability of losing politicians making a protest. “What’s the protest process going to be like? Are they going to go back to making a certificate of canvass?” he asked.
“Let’s make automation work. Let us educate everybody. We should insist on Comelec to make clarifications. Let us help the Comelec in whatever way we can. If this automated polls work, it’s good, it’s progress,” he said.
Rep. Marcos, who was in Iloilo City to grace the national convention of the Philippine Councilors League (PCL), also clarified why he was allying with former President Joseph Estrada’s group Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), considering that Mr. Estrada was accused of plunder.
“This is a political exercise and he invited me to be their group’s guest candidate. His failings as president may have been shown, but this is a political decision that does not have any bearing on his (Mr. Estrada’s) performance as president. As my father (the late Ferdinand Marcos) said, “politics is a game of addition.” If you have more support, so much the better. I was asked by a group to join them and I see it as additional support to my candidacy, so I accepted,” he said.
