BERDUGO SI BATO

HINDI makakawala si Bato dela Rosa sa gulong ng katarungan. Hindi siya makakatakas sa katarungan. Mananagot si Bato sa mga patayan na kanyang pinangunahan sa pagpapatupad ng madugo pero bigong digmaan kontra droga ni Gongdi. Berdugo si Bato, sa maikli.

Si Bato ang lumagda sa Memorandum Circular No. 1 ng PNP na nagtakda ng Project Double Barrel sa giyera kontra droga ni Duterte. My dalawang mukha ito: Oplan Tokhang sa mga dahop-palad at Oplan High Value Target sa mga nakakariwasa sa buhay. Ginamit ang buong institusyon ng PNP upang maging kasangkapan sa mga EJKs.

Hindi nanghuli ang mga pulis ng mga pinaghihinalaang adik o tulak sa droga. Pinuntahan sila sa bahay, kinatok sa pinto, pinasok, at basta babarilin at papatayin. Palabasin na nanlaban ang mga pobre. Hindi sila isinailalim sa proseso ng batas. Hindi sila siniyasat ng mga pulis kahit katiting. Basta pinatay sila ng mga pulis ng walang kaabog-abog.

Mastermind si Bato ng maraming EJKs noong panahon ni Gongdi. Mananagot siya sa ilalim ng batas. Hindi uubra ang hamon ni Bato na “magpakalalaki” si BBM. Hindi trabaho ni BBM na bigyan siya ng proteksyon mula sa International Criminal Court (ICC) kung saan nahaharap siya ng sakdal na crimes against humanity.

No. 2 suspect si Bato. No. 1 suspect si Gongdi. Dahil siya ang may lagda sa MC 1 ng PNP, hindi maalis ang katwiran na siya ang mastermind ng mga EJKs. Hindi niya maaaring gamitin ang katwiran na maging state witness at ididiin si Gongdi upang makawala siya. Parehas silang makukulong ng matagal-tagal na panahon.

Hindi niya maaaring gamitin ang katwiran na sumusunod lang siya sa utos ni Gongdi. Siya ang nag-utos dahil siya ang lumagda sa MC 1. Ang pinakamaganda niyang gawin ay harapin niya bilang isang maginoo ang mga bintang sa kanya. Mangumpisal siya sa bayan at sabihin ang totoo tungkol sa digmaan kontra droga ni Gongdi.

Harapin ang parusa sa kanya. Bunuin ang panahon na gugugulin siya sa piitan. Magpakalalaki, sa maikling usapan. Iyan ng tunay na lalaki. Humaharap sa mga sakdal sa kanya.

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Comelec has to reopen public bidding for AES in 2025

By all means, the watchdog Commission on Elections (Comelec) has to reopen the public bidding for the technology firm that will run the automated election system (AES) in 2025. It should not close the public bidding with a single participant and make it the winner.

Comelec must encourage legitimate technology firms to participate in the public bidding. While Miru Systems Co. Ltd. of South Korea was the only firm that submitted bid in the Jan. 8 failed bidding, the Special Bids and Awards Committee or SBAC confirmed that four more companies purchased bidding documents but did not submit bids.

They include Dominion Voting Systems, which acquired documents on Jan. 3, Indra Phils. Inc., on Jan. 4, AMA Group Holdings Corp., on Jan. 4, and Smartmatic or SMMT-TIM 2016, Inc., on Jan. 5. Smartmatic was earlier disqualified by the Comelec.

Smartmatic’s last minute acquisition and purchase of bidding documents raised suspicion in the local information technology community that it was bound to get the P18.8 billion contract. It was believed that if allowed to participate by the Comelec, Smartmatic could get the contract because it had the experience in the previous bidding processes.

This gives discomfort to the legitimate technology firms because they could have thought that by their participation in the bidding process, they would confer legitimacy to Smartmatic if ever it bags the contract on its last minute participation. Their reluctance to participate in the public bidding yields dilemma to the Comelec.

The AES for the 2025 midterm elections has two components: Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) , which deals with the actual voting and counting of votes on the precinct level; and the transmission system, which deals with the delivery of votes for counting and consolidation in a central server.

Comelec earlier decided en banc to separate the two bundles of services to ensure, clean honest, free, and open elections in 2025. The poll body has come out with terms of reference (ToR) specifying the winning bidder would come out with the hardware and software to ensure the technology firm would deliver in 2025.

Comelec has excluded the transmission system in the “bundled” FASTrAC project. Its chair George Garcia said Comelec wants to do away with the single transparency server that was used in previous elections, enabling the poll body to have a new system to transmit to all recipients without a transparency router.

A final ban by the Comelec on Smartmatic would ensure the participation of other technology firms because for them, this would ensure and fair and honest bidding for the 2025 elections. It could be said that Comelec’s earlier ban on Smartmatic could be half-baked, leading them to believe it could rise from the graveyard on the last minute.

Press reports on Comelec’s “ban” on Smartmatic Philippines Inc., a local unit of its London-based parent firm, would be final. All they said was that Comelec did it because Smartmatic threatens the “integrity” of future elections.

They said the ban was due to a probe launched by the U.S. Justice Department against former Comelec chair Andres Bautista for alleged corruption, conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.

For its part, Comelec said it did not accept documents for its participation. Hence, it could not participate and that would be a proof for its exclusion in the bidding process.

Smartmatic said in a statement that the Comelec ruling has no basis and it unjustly besmirched” its reputation, as the company itself “has not been indicted in the United States.” It has filed a case against Comelec for its exclusion.

“By using the non-existent indictment as a motive, Comelec did not follow the legal process to disqualify Smartmatic,” it said. Smartmatic claimed it was never given an opportunity to present its side of the controversy.

Nevertheless, Comelec has to decide to reopen the public bidding because time is not on its side. It has to have a technology partner forming midterm elections.