Comelec should better shape up

The one who will stand up and lead the Nation after a tumultuous May 10, 2010 elections will inherit Malacanang.

The end-game will not be decided by the billions of Villar nor the idealism of Noynoy or the high-flying campaign of Gilbert Gibo Teodoro. This elections will be decided on the conduct of Comelec election officials who will handle the counting, be it manual or automated.

These officials will decide what direction with which this country will take in the next ten years. Will it remain the same, old decrepit and hopeless blight in Asia? Or will it be the shining example of hope for democracy in the world?

Comelec chairman Jose Melo brushes aside broadside attacks of certain sectors against the elections. Melo said these "negative" attacks are not doing us any good. It is heightening tensions and creating panic among the people.

Mr. Melo, no Filipino desires to be a critic of another and no one wants to destabilize the polls. It is YOUR COMMISSION which is creating anxiety to all of us, with delays of deliveries and the lack of information dissemination on the use of these optical counting machines.

This space already wrote many weeks ago of an apparent plan by anti-democratic forces to delay the delivery of these machines and push the elections back. This is, unfortunately, happening right now as we speak. Smartmatic only delivered 28,000 machines, short of 2,000 more for the first delivery. Comelec expects to use 82,000. And teachers are still clueless on how to operate these damn and darn gadgets!

Mrs. Gloria Arroyo has committed herself and vowed before US President Barack Obama that she will spearhead the move to have a smooth elections this May. Like her promise to lead the Nation in climate change, Mrs. Arroyo is yet again compromising the stability of democracy in this country by not taking charge and allowing these dark minions of hers time to compromise the integrity of these polls.

This space has warned those who will trifle with our very democracy of the dire consequences of their actions should they persist on their dastardly plan to prolong the agony of the People under this illegitimate rule of Mrs. Arroyo.

The People will not stand idly by while the rapacious elites under Mrs. Arroyo trample and mock the processes of democracy in this country. Nine years are more than enough for the people. Patience is running thin and like this space warned some months ago, aggression will rise among the very masses and will eventually destroy the very levers of this State until a legitimate People's government rise from its ashes.

Mr. Melo and all the rest of the Commissioners must see to it that they do their jobs well to avoid the stark possibility of them being lynched by an irate and impatient mob.

Many people are thinking if these delays are caused by an internal misunderstanding between Smartmatic and Comelec, or a pre-planned move by Smartmatic-TIM. Whatever this is, the main point is this---people should recognize that this is beyond them. That the very futures of our generation and those of the next hinge on how we conduct ourselves in these forthcoming polls.

Let there be no doubt about it---every one will lay down their very lives to protect what is Right and denounce what is definitely wrong.