Tag: Comelec

constitutional law, Election law & election campaigns, media law, News, The News Media

election right to reply

News peg: “Comelec to open citizens’ watch vs poll violators”. The Comelec said today that it wold come out with an advertisement  that  would encourage the public to report election law violations of the Fair Election Act and its IRR, Comelec Resolution 9615, before Feb. 12, the start of the campaign period.

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 By the way, Comelec Resolution 9615 has a “right to reply”  provision as follows:

COMELEC Resolution 9615 as amended Feb. 1, 2013:

“SECTION 14.  Right  to Reply.  – All registered political parties, party-list  groups or coalitions and bona fide  candidates shall  have  the  right  to  reply  to  charges  published  or  aired against  them.  The  reply  shall  be  given  publicity  by  the newspaper, television, and/or radio station which first printed or aired the charges with  the same prominence  or in the same page or section or in the same time slot as the first statement.

Registered  political  parties,   partv-list  groups  or coalitions  and  bona fide candidates may  invoke  the right  to reply  by submitting within  a non-extendible period  of  forty-eight (48) hours from the  first broadcast or publication,  a formal verified  claim  against the  media  outlet  to  the  COMELEC,  through  the  appropriate  RED.  The  claim  shall  include  a detailed  enumeration .of  the  circumstances  and occurrences which warrant the invocation of  the right of  reply and must be accompanied by supporting   evidence, such as a copy of  the publication  or recording of  the television  or radio broadcast, as  the  case  may  be .   If  the supporting evidence is  not  yet available  due  to  circumstances beyond  the  power  of  the . claimant, the latter shall supplement his claim as soon as the supporting evidence becomes available, without delay on the part of  the claimant.  The claimant must likewise furnish a copy of  the verified claim  and its attachments to  the media outlet  concerned  prior  to  the  filing  of  the  claim  with  the COMELEC.

    “The  COMELEC,  through  the  RED,  shall  review  the verified  claim  within . forty-eight  (48)  hours  from  receipt  thereof,  including supporting  evidence, and if  circumstances warrant,  give  notice  to  the  media  outlet  involved  for appropriate  action, which shall, within forty-eight  (48) hours, submit  its  comment,  answer  or  response  to  the  RED, explaining  the action it has taken to address the claim.  The media  outlet  must  likewise  furnish  a  copy   of  the  said comment,  answer  or response  to  the  claimant  invoking the right to reply. Should the claimant insist that his/her right to reply was not addressed, he/she may file the appropriate petition and/or complaint  before  the  Commission  on  elections  or  its field offices,  which  shall  be  endorsed  to  the  Clerk  of  the Commission.”

Election law & election campaigns, Original videos photos music-slides, The President

The worst did not happen: Time for our thank-you- prayers (& to Party!)

Time for our thank-you-prayers (and to party!)

The worst did not happen: there was no “wholesale electronic cheating”, no massive disenfranchisement; the doomsdaysayers-who- did-not- suggest- any –countermeasures and the fearless forecasters who gave last election’s same forecast, should consider a career-shift; Smartmatic on the other hand should still be held accountable for the last-minute snafu and the near-cardiac arrest it subjected the Filipino nation, the Comelec should still consider proceeding against the ten per cent purchase price of the contract as penalty against Smartmatic, i’m sure there’s some contractual stipulation there against last-minute breaches of procedure and putting the beneficiary of the contract on the brink of disaster (Comelec can use the money to further study how to improve the automated system, or better yet: give the money to the teachers and PPCRV: Teachers!-Bonus! PPCRV-Research-grants!)…and my broadband speed and whatchmacall  are back: small — miniscule– sacrifices.

Perhaps, the analog “dagdag-bawas” cheating criminal syndicate did not have enough time to figure out the new encryption of the re-configured compact flashdrives; perhaps, the eleventh-hour snafu threw the cheating gangs into confusion and frustration as well – just when they thought they had figured out the algorithms, the software of each drive was re-configured (replaced!); throwing everybody — including Malacañang, top election lawyers, the Garci special ops, and also Comelec into confusion.

And while Smartmatic’s Asia-Pacific company president Cesar Flores in his Venezuelan accent, double-rr’s double-ee’s,  could resort to clichés in their defense “Eet waas eh blessing in deesguise” (it was a blessing in disguise), “Hah ken you arrgue ehgenst sekcces” (How can you argue against success) “Ohls well that ends well” (All’s well that ends well) “Derr was method in ahrr medness” (There was method in our madness), — and while he is safe from reconsidering his day job and auditioning for a lead role in an ABS-CBN-produced new Mexican telenovela — we should still proceed against Smartmatic’s ten per cent (that’s still 10% of 7.2 billion), this is no way to run an election – on a cardiac finish! (Pay up, guys.)

For future elections, the analog dagdag-bawas cheating syndicates have three years, they have time – they will wisen up.

So should we.

And for that, serious study should be given to restoring or activating the security features such as a monitor or display of  the vote cast (even the most  antiquated ATM gives you a display or receipt for your minimum  one hundred pesos), or a paper receipt/record of the vote cast, to be returned and put inside the ballot box upon exit of the voter, ultraviolet security markings, voter verification system, etc.

Because we might have used up our quota on good luck, blessings, serendipity, graces, and good karma.

breaking news, Election law & election campaigns

Breaking news: Election counting machines cannot count at this time: All memory cards in Metro Mla recalled today by Comelec

TOTAL RECALL

Breaking news: Election counting machines cannot count at this time. All flash cards of all PCOS machines in Metro Manila are being recalled today by Comelec. (ABS-CBN News Channel) [Update: blog admin’s note: As of 6:55 pm today, Comelec said that they will recall and replace all 76,000 memory cards of all precincts nationwide (Saksi GMA Channel 7.)]

PCOS refers to the precinct count optical scan; this is the automated counting machine that records the vote from the paper ballots. Flash cards are the memory cards of the PCOS machine. The memory card stores all the data on the votes from the paper ballots. For these particular PCOS machines, the memory cards are the size of less than half of a slim cellphone, or smaller than the palm of your hand.

The memory cards of the PCOS machines therefore are like the ballot boxes or the election returns; except that the data stored in them, before (if any) or after, are invisible,  because there is no LCD monitor of it. (The display function was disabled by Comelec because it caused a few seconds of delay per vote, and Comelec opted for speed instead of the vote tally being visible to everyone; there were also misgivings about “trending” while the voting was going on, or being able to monitor who was leading, which might therefore influence those who haven’t voted; so — the function was disabled). The data are invisible until they are transmitted to Comelec and/ or printed out.

Six days before election day, the Comelec and the contractor, Smartmatic found out that the configuration of the memory cards are not compatible with the PCOS machines. The PCOS machines are not able to count the votes for certain candidates because it is not able to “read” certain letters.

what this means is….

It was found out that the counting machines could not count, at this time.

The parties concerned should monitor how the memory cards are replaced/ re-configured. The rest of us should….pray.

[i’m being calm. ANONG MASASABI MO?! ANIM NA ARAW BAGO MAG- ELEKSYON, AUTOMATED COUNTING MACHINES MO, HINDI MAKAPAGBILANG!! (what can you say —  Six days before elections, your automated counting machine cannot count!!)]