Election Fraud: Pre-Election Maneuvers

Election fraud is nothing new to the Philippine elections. No matter it is for the national, local or even barangay elections, fraud is always there.

I want to share one kind of fraud done during elections. I am aware of this since I was a part of it, when i was still a 19 year old Computer Programming student and was contracted to do a computer program for a certain politician here in our place, Cagayan de Oro City. I am not going to state what election it was so any parties can be protected, especially myself. Here is how it goes:

My boss (the one who contacted me) called it "PRE-ELECTION MANEUVER". Their aim: to get a specific number of votes before election day comes, so they could be assured of victory - as simple as that (as it seems).

How do they do it?

Data Collection and Entry.

First, through their contacts in the COMELEC, they are going to get the complete list of voters in their area. These are then encoded into the system (my program) complete with their personal data, up to what precinct do they belong. Additional information is to tag voters if they are illiterate, professional or just "ordinary". They are also tagged as "symphatizers" or not. In this phase alone, they can at least identify as to how many votes they can get. Those tagged as symphatizers most likely are going to vote for them, at least 70 to 80 percent of those symphatizers are going to vote for them anyway. Most symphatizers are their family members, relatives and close friends. They are then going to compare the percentage of these symphatizers and those who are not.

Identify Weak Points.

Next, they are going to identify their weak points - the areas where they are surely going to lose. For example, if they think they are going to lose in Area1, they are going to identify all voters of Area1 through the system. All voters then are listed along with their tags. Those tagged as "Professionals" are ignored. They give more importance to the "ordinary" and much more importance to the ones tagged as "illiterate". The reason? they are going to bribe the ordinaries and the illiterates. For them, its difficult to bribe the professionals (anyway some can be bribed also).

Conversion To Symphatizers.

Those targetted "ordinaries' and "illiterates" are then converted as their "symphatizers". I said targetted since there are some that are "solidly" identified in the other camp, so they could not bribe them. They are going to do this to all areas until they can reach their targetted number of votes/symphatizers.

Action Begins.

Once those above are completely done, its time to do the leg works. They are going to appoint "Leaders" in each area identified. The leader is the one who is going to gather the voters identified as symphatizers in their area. Inform them of the bribe and what would be the consequences if they are going to deviate.

Money Rains.

Then the money comes. I was there when the money were distributed to the leaders. I was amazed as to the volume of 50, 100 and 500 peso bills placed inside the bags. Yes bags, ordinary travelling bags. It seemed money was of no velue to them during distribution. One will ask, "How much do you need in your area?" then he will give whatever the leader says after giving the list of symphatizers. When a bag is emptied he will just shout "Give me another bag!" and another bag full of various peso bills will be brought to him.

Verification.

When the leader have distributed the money to his constituents, he will come back with the list and encoded in the system to confirm that those given money are already "Full symphatizers" and most probably turn into a real "vote". The system then can give the final statistics for the symphatizers.

Guns and Goons.

Everything was done in a very smooth manner. Millions of money on the table but you can see people to be behaved and just wait for their turns. All of these are because of the goons that surrounds us with their high caliber guns. They have M-16 rifles and hand guns stucked in their waists during the said event.

It was a very unforgettable experience for me to be in that camp. That was my first commercial program and was very excited over it. It was a big help for me as a student financially for the money, and academically since I put what I learned from school into the real world.

But I promised myself not to be engaged in any politicians anymore. Just imagine yourself surrounded with goons and their guns. What if the other side will go there and have an armed comfrontation? Or one guard won't like the way you smile and poke his gun to you? Furthermore, I don't want myself and my knowledge to be used anymore for any fraud, may it be election or on any event.

I write this article with the advent of the computerization of the 2010 elections. It may give remedies for election and post-elections frauds, but undoubtedly can't handle those pre-election maeuvers.

By the way, I was promised P20,000.00 for the program but my "Boss" gave me only P9,000.00. I didn't complained anymore, I was only a student then and they're politicians, and I understand then that I was just another victim of our rotten Philippine politics :)

Finally, it seemed the system worked well. Our candidate won.

Election - The Filipino Way

The Philippine national election on 2010 is just around the corner. Even at this early, you can hear the buzz of election issues hovering over the news daily. At this early, various election frauds have been the complaints of some politicians, thinking they are outsmarted by their political foes. You can hear politicians in the TV doing some commercials and some even have their faces painted on large billboard. But still they claim its all business, for charity, etc., and nothing is related for the 2010 polls.

Black propaganda against each other has already started. Scams are uncovered, even those that are nth years ago they are just unearthed recently, legal issues are raised, and even some personal attacks are now heard all over the news. You can see some politicians jumping from one party to another, coalitions being formed, some kiss-and-make, and some just started their word wars.

These issues however, are just part of the "history repeating itself". Everytime election comes you will be bombarded with such noise that many ordinary citizens didn't even bother to listen anymore. Its an ordinary thing that happens just like the fantaseryes/telenovelas they watch in their TV sets everyday. Same faces, same issues, nothing new.

What is maybe new however, is the computerization of the elections (I hope it will be implemented in the 2010 national elections). At least, post-election maneuvers of the so called Garci boys will be minimized (it won't be eliminated anyway). This will be a big development for the elections if ever the computerization will be implemented. We saw the ARMM elections with the machines and proved to be effective. Anyway some glitches were encountered but with those experiences, remedies can be provided then by 2010.

Uncooperative machines (some were reportedly over-heated, some didn't worked at all), flying voters, harrassments and the like are just few of the incidents that marred the ARMM elections. The counting however, took only a day or two which previously took months to finish. Over-all, the elections in ARMM was successful with the aid of the machines.

If these machines are used on the 2010 elections, it would be far better than the past elections. But expect the inevitable, our politician crooks are now on the round table doing some brain storming, or even already found some holes, on how to get into the system and again manipulate the election results. And if the Garci boys will find their way again, then just shrug your shoulder and say

"It's just the way it used to be... Election - the Filipino way...".