JBC nominates Corona
By Edu Punay (The Philippine Star) Updated May 04, 2010 12:00 AM
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MANILA, Philippines - Senior Associate Justice Renato Corona and three other contenders for chief justice
are in the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC)’s shortlist to be sent to President Arroyo tomorrow.
The eight-member collegial body led by retiring Chief Justice Reynato Puno decided to submit the shortlist
with the names of four candidates – Corona, Supreme Court Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de
Castro and Arturo Brion, and Sandiganbayan acting Presiding Justice Edilberto Sandoval – following an SC
decision last month allowing the President to appoint Puno’s successor.
This developed as the Supreme Court (SC) said yesterday that the President could not appoint a new chief
justice until a vacancy is created, which is on May 17.
The statement was issued in reaction to a Malacañang pronouncement that the President would appoint
Puno’s replacement before the elections on May 10. A court spokesman said Puno did not intend to retire
before May 17.
Corona, De Castro and Brion each got the unanimous nod of members of the JBC with eight votes, while
Sandoval got seven.
Apart from Puno, the other members of the JBC are Justice Secretary Alberto Agra, Sen. Francis Escudero,
Rep. Matias Defensor Jr., retired SC Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr., University of Sto. Tomas dean
emeritus Amado Dimayuga, Justice Aurora Santiago Lagman and Integrated Bar of the Philippines
representative J. Conrado Castro.
Castro, who missed the meeting but submitted his vote to Puno before leaving for a vacation abroad, did not
vote for Sandoval.
All four nominees submitted themselves to the screening process of JBC and attended the public interview
in Baguio City last April 19.
The JBC did not include two other nominees for the post – Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and
Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales --who manifested their lack of interest in the post due to their
stand that Mrs. Arroyo is not allowed by the Constitution to make the appointment.
In a press conference, SC spokesman Midas Marquez explained that the JBC opted to submit the shortlist to
the Palace on May 5 so as to give the Philippine Bar Association (PBA) a chance to pursue its second
appeal on the March 17 ruling of SC in today’s last full court session before the magistrates take a recess
for the elections next week.
“The JBC is bending backwards for PBA. But the JBC can’t wait forever. If they failed to file that second
motion for reconsideration before 9 a.m. or if it would be noted without action, then the JBC will submit the
shortlist on Wednesday,” he stressed.
“The JBC does not see the need to delay these proceedings any further,” he added.
Marquez also rebuffed a reported statement of the Palace that Mrs. Arroyo would make the appointment
before the automated elections on May 10.
“I don’t see how a chief justice can be appointed when the position is not yet vacant. There can’t be two chief
justices at the same time. When there’s no vacancy there can be no appointment made,” he stressed.
The SC official also assured the public that Puno would not leave the SC until his retirement on May 17.
“Whoever will succeed can’t even take his oath while the retiring chief justice is still around,” added Marquez.
However, he admitted that the period for the appointment by Mrs. Arroyo was not touched in the SC ruling
because “it was not an issue.”
Marquez said he does not know what the basis of deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar was in
suggesting the appointment of the next chief justice before election day: “We leave it up to them.”
In a decision last March 17, the SC ruled that positions in the High Court are exempted from the ban on
midnight appointments under Article VII Section 15 of the Charter, giving Mrs. Arroyo the power to name the
successor of Puno.
The Court, in a resolution last April 20, affirmed this ruling and junked motions for reconsideration filed by
parties. Marquez said this made the SC decision final.
GMA to act quickly on shortlist
Meanwhile, President Arroyo would act quickly on the shortlist of candidates for chief justice once it is
submitted by the JBC, Malacañang said yesterday.
Olivar also said Mrs. Arroyo would not be affected by last-ditch attempts to stop her from naming the
successor of Chief Justice Puno.
“Since all four names have been floated for a while now, this has given the President a head start in arriving
at a well-considered choice from among these eminently qualified candidates,” Olivar told a news briefing.
“We can expect a decision soon,” he said.
He said ideally Puno’s successor should be named before the elections this coming Monday because of
the possible filing of electoral protests before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) that would be headed
by the chief justice.
Olivar hit the groups planning to file another motion for reconsideration before the SC, saying they could
have some hidden agenda.
“Why are they insisting (on blocking Mrs. Arroyo to appoint the chief justice) when the SC already ruled twice
against them? She is stepping down so there is no debt of gratitude. Maybe they want to install their own
chief justice who will be indebted to them,” he said.
SC will be tainted if GMA appoints next CJ
Rep. Satur Ocampo of the militant party-list group Bayan Muna yesterday said that the SC will be tainted if
President Arroyo appoints next chief justice.
He said people would call the tribunal an “Arroyo Court.”
Ocampo lamented that the JBC, which is supposed to be an independent body, apparently gave in to the
prodding of Malacañang for it to submit its shortlist of nominees for the next chief justice.
“Mrs. Arroyo will appoint anyone who will have a debt of gratitude to her and her administration and hence
shield her from legal accountability when the time comes for her to face charges for her crimes committed in
office,” he said.
Even if Carpio is included in the JBC list, there are speculations that Mrs. Arroyo prefers Corona to him.
Carpio wrote the October 2006 court decision junking the administration’s Charter change campaign
through the people’s initiative mode, labeling it as a “gigantic fraud” and a “grand deception.”
Several groups, including lawyers’ organizations, have urged Corona to back out of the nomination process
for next chief justice because of his close association with Mrs. Arroyo and the fact that his wife has been
appointed by the President as an officer in a state corporation.
Meanwhile, Bagumbayan presidential bet Sen. Richard Gordon yesterday said that although he personally
does not agree with the appointment of the new chief justice by Mrs. Arroyo before she steps down next
month, he respects the decision of the SC.
PMP Senate bets tell GMA to give successor chance to appoint new CJ
Meanwhile, four senatorial candidates of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) yesterday said that
President Arroyo should give the next president the chance to appoint a new chief justice.
In an interview with STAR editors, lawyer JV Bautista said there is a need for a “new dispensation” both in
the national government and the Supreme Court.
Bautista, running under President Estrada’s political party PMP, said the justices of the High Court who
signed the resolution favoring the contention that Arroyo has the authority to appoint the new Chief Justice
“lack a sense of delicadeza.”
He said the interpretation of the Supreme Court justices’ on the Constitution is what prevails today.
“I think what is lacking there is the sense of delicadeza among the members of the Supreme Court. If you
will check on the records of those who favored the ruling that Arroyo has the authority to appoint the new chief
justice is that they are the most recent appointees of the president,” Bautista said.
For his part, former senator Francisco Tatad said there’s no need to interpret the Constitution to guide and
enlighten the justices in their ruling on the authority of the President to appoint the new chief justice during
the 90-day ban on appointments before the election.
“What you need is to read the Constitution correctly. You don’t have to interpret the Constitution. The
Constitution is very clear. The vacancy has to be filled within 90 days, fill up the vacancy before the 90 days
ban,” Tatad said.
PMP senatorial candidate Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada said the High Tribunal can elect an acting chief justice from
among themselves.
“The justices have probably been pressured. It’s payback time for debt of gratitude. The SC justices should
appoint a chief justice, but they come up with the ruling probably because they are forced to pay back their
debt of gratitude,” Lozada said.
Of the four, only Senate President Pro Tempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada gave a submissive statement to the
High Court’s ruling.
“We can stage rallies and so forth. But we cannot really do anything about it anymore. The Supreme Court is
the court of last resort,” Estrada said. With Paolo Romero, Jess Diaz, Jose Rodel Clapano
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Voting machines malfunction
By Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star) Updated May 05, 2010 12:00 AM
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MANILA, Philippines - Fears of election failure intensified yesterday after some of the precinct count optical
scan (PCOS) machines to be used by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) failed test runs in some
parts of the country, prompting a stop to the testing and a recall of the machines.
President Arroyo ordered Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) chairman
Ray Anthony Chua to meet with Comelec and Smartmatic officials to see what could be done to address the
problem.
Mrs. Arroyo’s election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said postponement of the elections “is the only remedy to
prevent a failure of election.”
Smartmatic president for Asia-Pacific Cesar Flores said when the testing started last Monday, some PCOS
machines produced “contradictory” reading of the ballots for local elective posts.
“The first thing to do is look at all these reports and go to different possibilities of errors and finally it was
narrowed down to configuration issue,” Flores said during a press conference at the Comelec.
The conference was also attended by Makati congressman and Joint Congressional Oversight Committee
for Poll Automation co-chairman Teddy Boy Locsin, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV)
chairperson Henrietta de Villa and Chua, among others.
The names of candidates for national posts were printed on the ballots with a single space in between
rows, while the names of the local bets are in double spaces.
During the testing, the machines were able to count the votes cast for the candidates in the first row but it did
not read the votes in the second row presumably because of the space between the two rows.
“It will read this candidate as blank space. It’s a human error. It had already been detected,” said Flores, who
said Smartmatic and its Filipino partner Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) would assume
responsibility since it is a “technical issue.”
After testing, the teachers serving as Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) are supposed to seal the PCOS
machines, which will be opened only on election day.
Birth pains of going high-tech
To address the problem, Smartmatic-TIM will replace the four-gigabyte compact flash (CF) memory cards
installed in all the PCOS machines assigned to each of the 76,000 polling precincts.
The cards contain the “polling precinct information” for a certain PCOS machine.
Because of this, the machine cannot be used in any other precinct without being configured first.
“The procedure is to replace the compact flash with corrected configuration. This will force us to stop (the
testing and the) sealing for the next couple of days. We’ll resume (tomorrow). It is a logistical challenge.
Technically, it’s an easy correction,” Flores said, brushing aside fears that the glitch would lead to failure of
the polls.
He said the testing and the sealing, supposed to be done seven to three days before election day, were
meant to “deny fraud and cheating by showing how the system is counting and also to detect failure in
hardware or software.”
Flores gave assurance that Smartmatic-TIM could acquire all the needed memory cards in time for the
resumption of the testing and sealing tomorrow.
The Comelec had leased 82,200 PCOS machines from the joint venture but some 6,000 of them are spare.
A recipe for chaos
The joint venture is presently assessing how many “jurisdictions” were affected by the glitches.
However, as a rule, if a PCOS machine fails the test in one precinct, all the units are automatically grounded.
So far, the affected areas include Manila, Makati City, Taguig City, Laguna, Palawan, Batangas and Mindoro.
At least 80 percent of the PCOS machines in Manila failed to work, according to Ali Atienza, son and
campaign manager of mayoralty candidate Lito Atienza.
In District 3, the machines failed to read the votes for congressman and mayor, and votes for Atienza were
credited in favor of incumbent Mayor Alfredo Lim.
Atienza also came out with zero votes even if there were at least eight or nines votes cast in his favor.
In Makati City, Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado complained that the machines tallied only the votes of his
opponent for the mayoralty, Erwin Genuino.
Tensions ran high in Batangas between BEIs and Comelec officials on the one hand, and representatives of
local candidates from 12 municipalities and two cities on the other, after the PCOS machines failed to work
for several reasons.
Hearing the news in Manila, the Comelec office in Isabela City in Basilan immediately recalled 48 machines
from the municipalities of Maluso and Tabuanlasa, causing alarm among local residents.
Several political parties immediately called on the poll body to check the flaws to ensure the sanctity and
credibility of the elections.
While other candidates were open to the possibility that there were just technical issues involved, others
believe that something more sinister is afoot.
Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino senatorial bet Joey de Venecia said the PCOS machines are a potential tool for
an “Electronic Garci,” and urged the Comelec to take legal action against Smartmatic.
“I will not say that the May 10 elections will be rigged, but I will say that the automated system is likely to fail,”
De Venecia said.
Public school teachers also expressed apprehension over the malfunctions of the machines and their late
delivery.
“We are getting worried. There are only a few days left before election day and we hope these problems will
be addressed because teachers will be in the frontline and will be the ones who will face the voters,”
Teacher’s Dignity Coalition national chairman Benjamin Basas said.
Poll watchdog Kontra Daya also raised the alarm over the machine’s failure, saying the problem will
compromise the integrity of the coming polls.
Comelec: No failure of elections
But Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento reiterated the poll body’s confidence that there would be no
failure of election resulting from this incident.
“We are optimistic that there will be no failure of election. We have discussed this. In the event that it will
happen, 30 percent will serve as backup for manual purposes,” he said, referring to the preparation being
done by the poll body to conduct manual polls.
The agency had printed 30 percent of the forms required for manual election like election returns, statement
of votes and certificates of canvassing.
However, Sarmiento admitted that the Comelec is not prepared to go manual beyond 30 percent as he
claimed that the agency does not think this will happen.
PPCRV’s De Villa also admitted that her confidence in a successful automated polls had diminished.
“(But) one good thing about it is that it has been detected and it can be solved,” De Villa said.
For his part, Macalintal said the Comelec, on its own, based on serious cause like the apparent failure of
PCOS machines to properly and correctly function, is authorized under Section 5 of the Omnibus Election
Code to postpone the polls.
“Under the present situation, a 15-day postponement would be reasonable to give time for the Comelec to
print additional forms for manual tally and canvass,” he said.
Deputy presidential spokesman Rogelio Peyuan said Mrs. Arroyo met with Chua yesterday and directed him
to give all his support to the Comelec. The CICT is a member of an advisory committee overseeing the
automation of the polls.
He said the President was very concerned with the developments in the run-up to the country’s first
nationwide automated polls, which she earlier repeatedly stated as one of her legacies.
“Mrs. Arroyo is continuously monitoring and trying to find out what really happened, not necessarily to find out
who is to be blamed because we are not just dealing with human beings. We are dealing with machines
and with technology,” Peyuan said.
He, however, said the Palace would not budge from its position against a parallel manual counting of the
votes.
AFP: No more turning back
Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) remains confident that the May 10 polls would be held
smoothly even in the face of several glitches.
“We are working for them (Comelec), we are supposed to trust them and we believe they are more than
capable of making this election credible,” said AFP Task Force HOPE (Honest, Orderly and Peaceful
Elections) spokesman Col. Ricardo Nepomuceno.
National Capital Region Command (NCRCOM) chief Rear Admiral Feliciano Angue, who oversees the
security of the PCOS machines in Metro Manila, ruled out a failure of election.
“A failure of election is unlikely. For example, in a worst-case scenario that the machines won’t work, we still
have the ballots and these can be counted manually,” he said during the delivery of counting machines in
Tandang Sora, Quezon City from a warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna.
Angue said the other counting machines can still be delivered to polling precincts in Metro Manila before the
elections.
“We need two days to complete it. If the delivery would resume on May 7, this would be completed on May 9,”
Angue said in Filipino.
He said the military and the police are prepared to secure the movement of the machines once the technical
glitches are resolved.
“As far as our tasking is concerned, we are ready to do what the Comelec is asking us to do. But there is a
need to fix the machines and that is the problem of Smartmatic. Otherwise, the delivery would be
continuous,” Angue said. - With Marvin Sy, Jose Rodel Clapano, Rainier Allan Ronda, Roel Pareño, Ric
Sapnu, Ding Cervantes, Arnell Ozaeta, Alexis Romero, Sandy Araneta
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