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17
Dec
Not no-el, but no prez – Joey III
Forget the “no-el” or no elections scenario. Instead, beware the “no president” scenario where no winning presidential candidate will be declared due to the failure of national elections caused by the ill-timed full computerization of the May 2010 elections.
IT businessman Joey de Venecia III had earlier warned that the Commission on Elections was not fully prepared to implement full computerization of next year’s elections due to its lack of expertise and manpower.
“Having been in the IT industry for more than two decades, I cannot see how the Comelec can hold the May 2010 elections without major glitches taking place,” de Venecia, a senatorial bet of the Pwersa ng Masa, said yesterday.
The machines are not yet ready, there has been no trial run, and there are not enough qualified personnel to handle the voting machines, de Venecia said.
“Even Gloria Arroyo’s endless lust for power cannot stop the elections from taking place,” he added, “But she can and will move heaven and earth to keep power at all cost. She can dictate to certain Comelec commissioners – like Virgilio Garcillano back in 2004 — who to ‘help’ or not.”
This sets the stage for the non-declaration of the winners among the presidential, vice presidential and senatorial candidates, according to the ZTE-NBN whistleblower.
It is very possible, he added, that only winning congressional, mayoral and gobernatorial bets will be declared in some areas. And with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo bulldozing her way to become representative of the second district of Pampanga, she could be poised to assume the post of Speaker of the House of the next Congress.
There will be no break between the Arroyo presidency and the Arroyo caretaker government, said de Venecia.
Whoever wins among the top three opposition candidates for president – be it the Pwersa ng Masa’s Joseph Estrada, the Liberal Party’s Noynoy Aquino or the Nacionalista Party’s Manny Villar – may never get to take his oath as president before the Gloria Arroyo-led House convenes as a constituent assembly and fast-tracks charter change, said de Venecia.
“This may have been her plan all along,” the son and namesake of former Speaker Jose de Venecia said.
With 61 percent of Filipinos not understanding the mechanics of poll automation, the young de Venecia said the chances of a failure of elections are high. The Comelec, however, can still declare winning bets at the local level, including the House of Representatives.
The manufacture of the machines which was moved from Taipan to mainland China hasn’t even started, he said.
With just a handful of congressmen and women declared winners, it will be easy enough for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to buy her way to the Speakership, said Joey de Venecia III. In the absence of a new president, vice president and Senate president, the next in line in the constitutional order of succession is the Speaker of the House.
“Gloria Arroyo will move from president, to acting president, to prime minister,” according to de Venecia.
Mrs. Arroyo’s partymates at the Lakas-Kampi who have been abandoning the administration party in droves say her sole focus is to stay in power so that the Arroyos can continue to rob the country blind, earning commissions in every major government project.
Gloria Arroyo is risking a bloody revolution if she insists on keeping power no matter what, said Joey de Venecia III.
