Democracy in danger via fraud

“Massive fraud to win a high elective seat is certainly not democracy but a rape of democracy!

Frustration over the failure of Duterte critics to oust the President appears to be the reason several of them keep harping on the loss, or near loss, of democracy under the present administration.

Maria Ressa stated in her commentary that the situation of Philippine democracy under President Duterte — whose victory, according to her, was aided by social media disinformation — “is a warning to democracies around the world.”

How does a legitimate and unquestionable victory at the polls that ushered in the presidency of Duterte and his supporters’ social media that Ressa says spread disinformation be regarded by democracies around the world, especially when both the yellow media and social media were also providing disinformation, too?

Ressa has lawsuits filed against her — most of them being libel — of which she portrays herself as the victim. Her reason for claiming that the victory of Duterte is a warning to all democracies is specious reasoning, considering that most, if not all of the cases — save one — lodged against her are libel cases, which is part of journalistic territory.

Only one case, which she and the American lobbyists she hired can hardly be argued credibly for their client, since her violation of the Constitution is clear, as a constitutional proviso states clearly that media must be 100 percent Filipino owned. Unfortunately for Ressa, her Rappler is seen as being controlled by an American investor who plowed in millions of dollars — and all to ensure that Duterte is smeared through negative propaganda disguised as news.

Just a few weeks ago, Liberal Party president Kiko Pangilinan was pushing the Supreme Court (SC) for its affirmation of Leni Robredo as vice president of the Philippines. Pangilinan claimed that her affirmation would be a win for democracy in the country.

Why Robredo’s affirmation by the SC can even be seen as a victory of democracy is too illogical. Consider the fact that even the Aquino appointed SC Justice Benjamin Caguioa came up with his opinion that was virtually pushing the other justices of the High Court to affirm the victory of Robredo as vice president with the dismissal of the Marcos protest, yet the justices instead shelved it for another decision day, or months, which is logical, considering that there are still more ballots to count.

The way it looks, it is Leni who lost the vice presidency, but only won it through massive cheating, courtesy of Smartmatic and the yellows who were in power and position then.

The way it looks, it is Bongbong Marcos who won the vice presidency, what with too many miraculous happenings during and after the elections, with millions of votes for Marcos suddenly disappearing in the dark of the night, and suddenly surfacing in the early morning, with the millions in votes just as suddenly going to Leni who won by just about 250,000 over Marcos.

Massive fraud to win a high elective seat is certainly not democracy but a rape of democracy!

It can hardly be denied that Smartmatic was caught with its cheating hand at the Smartmatic till with the lame excuse that the change was merely cosmetic by changing the letter “n” to the Spanish “ñ,” which is too stupid a reason, considering the fact that no presidential or vice-presidential candidate had an ñ” to their names.

The massive cheating was done by violating the law, as the election returns were not directly transmitted to the canvassing and consolidation system (CCS) and instead went to a queue server, since the prevailing election law mandated that poll returns are to be directly transmitted.

There were just too many “miraculous” occurrences during the ballot counting, and it is fairly clear that it was massive cheating that propelled Leni Robredo to the vice presidency, which is perhaps the reason she is not seen to this day as the legitimate vice president of the country.

What is stranger is the fact that it was the yellow President’s appointee, Justice Caguioa, who wanted to end it all through his recommendation for a dismissal of the protest case, and, of course, favoring the victory of Robredo, despite the clear massive cheating that went on in May 2016.

But why would Caguioa recommend a dismissal of the Marcos protest immediately, when the protest still has a precinct count of known Robredo bailiwicks, such as Basilan, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, where election cheating seems to be the cottage industry during election days?

These bailiwicks mentioned experienced a lot of “miracles,” as there appears to have been evidence of pre-shaded ballots, preloaded SD cards, misreading of ballots and the unexplained, irregular and improper rejection of ballots with pro-Marcos votes, including malfunctioning of vote counting machines and tampering of the CCS.

Isn’t it strange that while Leni and her yellow bets “won” in 2016, none of the yellow bets for the Senate won at all in 2019?

That merely affirms, not Robredo’s poll victory, but the undemocratic vote fraud that went on during the vice presidential elections.

For once, let the Filipino electorate have their real choice of presidents and vice presidents, senators and congressmen take their seats — not those who are proclaimed winners through election fraud.

It is massive cheating that puts democracy in danger and those critics know it.