Improvement of voting system

Title

Creator

Salonga, Jovito

Language

English

Source

Panorama Volume XXI (No. 2) February 1969

Year

1969

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

■ To avoid election irregularities, here are some suggestions. IMPROVEMENT OF VOTING SYSTEM Why don’t our politicians behave the way American or English politicians do? Why can they not learn the art of losing? The obvious an swer is that if our elections were relatively free and clean — I use relatively, because American elections are not completely clean — it should be easy for any politician to concede defeat, it should be easy for the loser to ac cept the popular verdict. That is the reason why I am for the recasting of the rules on elections — recasting them in such a way that the victor need not be ashamed of his triumph, since it is genuine, and the vanquished can graciously accept his de feat, since it is true. I propose the following: 1. Voters should be regis tered only, as before, in the precinct of the place where they reside. Thousands of people in Manila, Quezon City, Rizal, Davao, and ma ny other places did not know where they could vote. The spectacle in the 1967 elec tions of a Commissioner of the COMELEC, not knowing the precinct where he could vote, is no longer funny. It could be tragic. A close fight in the United States may not culminate in violent uprising; but a closely con tested electoral fight in the Philippines, with a razor edge majority of 20,000 votes, let us say, in a Presidential election could spell violence. 2. Registration should stop well ahead of time, say, 60 days before the elections, and the voters’ list should be im mediately prepared so as to give the courts ample oppor tunity to decide inclusion and exclusion cases. 3. With the use of modern electronic machines, it should be possible to have' a com plete list, a master-list, of all voters in every city and mu nicipality, indicating dates of birth, residence and other personal circumstances. It Eebbuahy 1969 5 would then be easy in every precinct to catch phantom and flying voters. 4. The rampant and ex pensive use of sample ballots can be avoided by a new system of paper ballots, such as they have in Los Angeles, California, which would al low for the use of mark-sen sing machines. 5. With this system, polls can be closed earlier — say at 2 or 3 o’clock in the af ternoon, and thereby avoid mischiefs committed in ma ny places where there is no electricity. 6. Through the use of mark-sensing machines, which are relatively cheap, results can be immediately transmit ted to regional centers in Mindanao, Visayas, and Lu zon, where computers can be installed for immediate com putation. These computers are available in the Philip pines and can be had for rent. It should be possible to know the election results throughout the Philippines in 24 hours. It is passing strange that in India, with such a tre mendous area and an electo rate much bigger than that of America, election results are known within 24 hours. Certainly, there can be no excuse for slow, inaccurate returns in the Philippines. But even with the use of mark-sensing machines and computers, it is still neces sary — and probably even more imperative — that the polls be guarded zealously to prevent terrorism and mass frauds. The use of modern machines will be futile if voters are terrorized and pre cinct officials made to per form their duties under the gun. For no computer, no matter how sophisticated, can save us from the weight of our own vices and follies. If, as stated by the present COMELEC Chairman, the Phil ippine Constabulary can no longer be relied upon be cause of their partisan acti vities in the last elections, it should be possible — and I believe they will welcome it — to have our youth — particularly, the ROTC ca dets, imbued with idealism and untouched by the long arm of corrupting politics — man the polls in 1969. This could be our most critical hour. 6 Panorama Involvement of the youth in public affairs could be the means of our redemp tion as a people. It is, to my mind, an oversimplifica tion to say that they should avoid political activity. Mil lions of young Czechs, Viet namese, Hungarians, Poles, and Africans are dying eve ryday for the right of a free and unfettered vote. It will not be too much — and I think they will want it — for the youth of the land to secure the exercise by the nation of free suffrage so they do not have to fight and die for it in the moun tain fastnesses if we should by our own lack of vigilance and resourcefulness, lose that right. In the last analysis, it is this that differentiates us from a dictatorship, whether of the extreme left or of the extreme right — namely, the right of a free, liberty loving people to hold their public officials to account and to change them, at given intervals, of their own volun tary will. Where our elected officials are elected through the ho nest and free exercise of the popular will, they are not beholden to the manipula tors and agents of force and fraud. They do not have to enter into secret conspiracies after the elections to reward them for their notorious ac tivities. They can exercise the duties of their office as free agents of - the popular will, bound only by the dic tates of their conscience and the mandate of a sovereign people. It is high time, I submit, we made politics — up to this point a term of disrepute — a respected and respectable calling in this land. Whether we like it or not, politics means pub lic affairs, and as long as we are in society we cannot es cape involvement in matters that affect the entire commu nity. It is our joint respon sibility — one that is both onerous and exalting — to spend the resources of mind and strength and spirit to bring about a more respon sible, a more decent, and a more responsive governance of public affairs. — Senator Jovito Salon ga, portion of a speech, Manila Times, Nov ember 28, 1968. February 1969 7

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