Tingog.com

With all the reports surfacing regarding the cheating taking place in parts of the country most notably in Mindanao, The COMELEC has decided to save face and investigate these allegations, albeit grudgingly. They will investigate, and considering how long it took for them to declare in finality the Joselito Cayetano candidacy, it should take them around 10 years to investigate the Miraculous Maguindanao vote as well as the legitimacy of other voting areas in Mindanao.

Of course, investigation means something totally different to the COMELEC. There have been no declaration of a failure of elections in Maguindanao or other parts of Mindanao that has seen some election anomalies. When the COMELEC angrily asks witnesses to come forward, but they themselves do not emphasize the investigation of the ballots that can prove these allegations, then it is clear that the COMELEC is once again putting on a show of ‘investigation’ in order to subdue the cries of election watchdogs and witnesses that cheating is taking place.

The counting is not over yet, and we cannot know with certainty whether the overall election will truly be the will of the people. But as early as weeks leading up to the election, it was clear to many citizen groups as well as other election watchdogs that the COMELEC did not put itself in a position of credibility.

The ‘Garci boys’ have run amok in the Mindanao elections, COMELEC has harassed Cayetano from day one, and reports of vote shaving and vote padding are as numerous as the stars in the night sky.

The COMELEC will investigate alright, but we have to realize that maybe, just maybe, they define investigation in a totally different way than most English dictionaries would define it.