C! August 28, 2015
In the Winter of Our Election Discontent
By CYNTHIA U. SANTIAGO
IF Election 2016 comes, can Cesar Flores be far behind?
You will recognize that my first line is a tweak of the last line of the poem Ode to the West Wind by English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822).
Analysts say the line expresses optimism— that after the cold, cold winter, symbolizing life’s cruelties, spring, new, fresh life will come— definitely.
Do I say Election 2016 is like winter? And Cesar Flores is like spring?
Last Tuesday, August 18, Cesar Flores graced Bulong Pulungan, the media forum at Hotel Sofitel I attend regularly since I am a member of the forum’s core group.
With the looks this Hollywood-brainwashed generation regards as handsome— tall, macho, fair— Cesar Flores creates quite a stir every time he appears in a gathering. True. The moment he arrived at Sofitel’s Davao room, venue of last Tuesday’s Bulong, women—and men— scurried to have a picture taken with him, like you would if Tom Cruise suddenly materialized in the room.
Okay, let’s go back to Election 2016— where Cesar Flores creates quite a stir too.
Yeah, he is the Cesar Flores who’s president for Asia Pacific of Smartmatic which is hogging the headlines and we will never hear the end of until or even after Election 2016.
Wintertime
Actually, most if not all Philippine elections, especially during those manual days, were like winter— cruel winds of politicians wrangling, even killing for power.
Then, automation came like spring— a new, fresh promise to make election fraud history. Happily, we used Smartmatic’s PCOS — precinct count optical scanner—machines in the 2013 elections.
But as in real climate cycle, winter comes back again and again in our political life as groups oppose automation, presenting a dozen and one reasons we should do away with Smartmatic’s PCOS.
It’s complicated. The 2013 machines needed to be refurbished. Smartmatic and the Commission on Elections signed a P268-million contract to refurbish the machines. But anti-automation groups opposed, until the Supreme Court declared the contract null and void.
So now Comelec has to lease new machines, if we still want an automated Election 2016. What happens to the old ones? Flores said they can still be used in future elections like in 2019.
With technology upgrading every blink of an eye, wouldn’t the machines be obsolete by then?
Flores assured the machines will still be all right, as in Smartmatic machines being used by other countries have been technically fit for more than a decade or two already.
Bottomline
If I may tweak another literary piece, from William Shakespeare’s Richard III, we may be in the winter of our election discontent for quite a while.
As the Pulungan progressed, I discerned that the problem perhaps is not in the machines but, bottomline, that we still have to be convinced that automation will not rig the election.
Like, is it possible, there’s already a final count in the machine— favoring who ever had paid the highest price to win?
Or will not your vote be erased along the way— from the time you shade those bullets on your ballot, to the time the ballot goes into the machine, and through the process only techies understand— or do they?
Flores painstakingly explained the process demonstrating you can never cheat the machine. It’s so complicated for pre-Millennial me, I can’t remember how it goes. So just go to Smartmatic’s website if you want the details.
Flores advised that you just have to shade the bullets nicely— like don’t go beyond the circle— if you want your vote counted. If you ruin your ballot, you can’t have another one — because there are just enough ballots for the number of voters per precinct— no more, no less. Because if there are extra ballots, those might go to the hands of flying voters, right?
Ode to Sunshine
Going back to Shelly’s Ode, another interpretation of the last line is that it’s not really about being optimistic. Rather, it’s about accepting the natural cycle of the seasons—spring, summer, autumn, winter, and back to spring. Life is like that— no way you can alter it.
Well, Shelley had not yet heard of climate change, had he?
Besides, here, in our little corner of the world, we have only two seasons: rain or shine. So I have only two choices— to step aside, and just let the rain drown the issues of Election 2016 into oblivion, or be vigilant and expose the issues under the glaring rays of the sun.
I will watch Cesar Flores, not only because he’s Hollywood-gorgeous, but really, to know if he can have his way to make his machines work like he says they will.
Then, that might merit a new ode about the seasons of our political life.
During Bulong Pulungan on August 18, 2015, from left: Ducky Paredes, Mandy Navasero, Jullie Yap Daza, Cesar Flores, Deedee Siytangco, Rina David, Cynthia U. Santiago, and Frank Evaristo.
— Photos by Ed L. Santiago
C! 
