Cha-cha to derail 2010 elections? I doubt it.

In an interview by Gerry Baja and Anthony Taberna in yesterday's "Dos por Dos", seventy nine year old civil servant and former Quezon City vice mayor Charito Planas gave us a hint on why Mrs. Arroyo appointed her as one of the palace deputy spokespersons--she shares the president's view on charter change. In fact, Planas believes Mrs. Arroyo wants a Constituent Assembly ahead of the scheduled May 10, 2010 elections. That's why Mrs. Arroyo needs a powerful voice to articulate what the president wants.

Note that Planas, an ardent believer for change, does not have a reputation as a congenital liar. Fact is, Planas has a solid reputation as a change agent. She's credible, and probably, for the first time, Mrs. Arroyo did the right decision of hiring someone the likes of Planas.

Planas' remarks are disturbing since talks about a renewed charter change bid are again percolating in public fora. Speaker Prospero Nograles Jr. is even said to have included House resolution 6754 among the bills to be tackled in January 18. House Reso 6754 is slated for second reading and some say, this will be allowed to pass, given that the Lower House has the numbers.

Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Francis Kiko Pangilinan already gave a piece of these minds about this yesterday--don't try to do it. Estrada said it is a waste of precious time and money. Pangilinan said it would not look good for Arroyo if she uses her influence to push for charter change.

The game plan of the palace, says one insider, is schedule an election of Constitutional delegates by October of this year, synchronized with the barangay elections. The plan is actually move for a change of government after one year. Meaning, expect to have a parliamentary unitary government after June of 2011.

Charter change strategists are not clear on how they will actually hurdle the possible opposition of the new administration on charter change. Among the current crop of presidentiables, only Manny Villar and Gilbert Teodoro favor cha-cha. It is doubtful if Noynoy Aquino would allow the diminution of the powers of the Office of the President.

It is most likely that these initiatives will fall by the wayside, since, really, everybody is dead set on the May 10, 2010 elections.

Now, the only question is---will we have a peaceful, and orderly elections by May?

For Buluan vice mayor Toto Mangundadatu, who will be running for the gubernatorial post in Maguindanao, he doubts it.

In an interview by the Philippine Star today, Mangundadatu expressed fears that the dreaded private army of the Ampatuans will sow havoc in the May 2010 elections. He said around 2,000 members of the Ampatuan's civilian militia have set up camps in various locations in Zamboanga, Sulu and Maguindanao. They are still armed with high-powered firearms. Mangundadatu said that the Ampatuans plan to sow violence in Mindanao.

I dare say, we actually do not need an Ampatuan warlord to create violence in the up-coming polls. The Commission on Elections is more than enough for whoever plans to rig this elections up this coming May 2010.

Yesterday, Comelec admitted that most of those automated counting machines delivered just a few weeks back, are defective. They can't read ballots properly. So, we leased defective machines? And do you know how much Comelec already paid for these machines? Government already gave Smartmatic-TIM 2 billion pesos.

Two billion pesos for defective machines.

So, we have all the elements to make this elections pretty interesting by May 10.

1. We have a government who is still hoping for charter change.
2. We have private armies roaming around waiting just for D-Day to wreck havoc on the population.
3. We have counting machines which we leased for 2 billion pesos already which are defective.