We agree with fellow Mindanawon journalist Allan Afdal Nawal that the next step the losing Pinklawans will do now that apparently they could not stop President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. from assuming the Presidency, is to sow as many intrigues they can have in order to create divisions on the UniTeam ranks. In fact the opposition Pinklawan has already started doing it in the social media. Of late we have seen a post on Facebook showing losing UniTeam senatorial candidates Gibo Teodoro, Harry Roque, and Larry Gadon somewhat suspicious of their loss.
Of course we have no way of knowing whether or not it was the three who really made the post or that they have authorized someone to do it for them. What is clear is that so far there is no confirmation that the post was from them. For all we know that was the handiwork of some of the sore losers in the election.
Then we have supporters of losing Presidential candidates who seem unable to accept that in any contest there will always be winners and losers. And it just happened that they cast their lot on the losing candidates.
Perhaps their minds were so conditioned to believe that their bets are infallible; that their demonization of the front-running bet was more than enough to push him down to defeat. Now it becomes extremely difficult for them to accept that it was the same vilification strategy that turned off the voters from their endorsed personalities.
Then think about this. Are the current noisy losers not the ones most vocal in demanding that the Philippines move into the computerized election processes because the manual system is prone to manipulation along the way from as early as the voting time up to the precinct level canvassing, transmission of returns to head office and to the official counting by the National Board of Canvassers? In fact in the history of the election of President and Vice President there was even that time when it took 45 days to finish the canvassing by the National Board of the votes for then Presidential and Vice Presidential front runners Gloria Arroyo and Noli de Castro before they were finally proclaimed. The delay was attributed to the canvassing being done manually.
So the government under then President Arroyo despite the apparent negative image she had made of herself, and budgetary constraint, launched the first ever automated elections in 2010. Considering the Philippines’ being a neophyte in computerized elections it was quite a comfortable departure from the manual system although it was still far from the perceived ideal length of time to complete the election process. The 2016 elections though was a huge improvement in the computerization process although it took 18 days to complete the official canvass and the proclamation of then front runners Rodrigo R. Duterte and Vice Presidential bet Leni Robredo.
But it was a positively different story in the last May 9, 2022 national and local elections. The continuous innovation and upgrading in the processes of the computerization system made it possible to generate the voting results in an almost lightning speed progression that by as early as 12 midnight of May 9, the trend was already seen and the potential winning candidates were already established.
The mesmerizing speed with which the results in the various provinces were transmitted to the main monitoring center of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) left the unbelieving opposition bigwigs and rabid anti-Marcos Jr. voters with widened eyes and gaping mouth.
So caught flat-footed were the opposition that even a staunch advocates for an automated polls running priest Fr. Roberto Reyes, expressed his disbelief that a presumptive President was already known by dawn of May 10. And that was when he started igniting people’s mind to suspect that the automation process could have been manipulated by some interest groups backing Marcos Jr.
With the actuation of this running priest – so called –many are asking if ever he has been exposed to the onset of a technology-driven world where anything, specifically information, that anyone wishes to get hold of at any given moment can be had in seconds after touching a single or two keys,
Indeed Allan Nawal could not have been more correct in saying that aside from issuing intriguing statements directed at the still to assume administration the losing candidates and their supporters are mustering every effort to invent scenarios or ideas if only to create cracks in the seemingly well-welded UniTeam.
Again we cannot but go back to a statement supposedly coming from the Queen of England Elizabeth II who was quoted in a Facebook post saying that “The problem with the Philippines is not its government. The problem is us — the people.”
With the ongoing intrigue-sowing by the losing groups in the May 9 elections many from among us could not be faulted in we will be inclined to believe the supposed statement of the Queen..
