The Comelec’s unreasonably strong reaction to Atty. Respicio’s public statements are quite surprising as it is suspect.’
THE Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Mamamayan (ANIM) and the Clergy & Citizens for Good Governance (CCGG) have come out with “strong and unequivocal support” for Atty. Harold Respicio in his public pronouncements regarding the new Automated Counting Machines (ACMs) to be used by the Commission on Elections in the upcoming May elections.
ANIM is composed of retired AFP and PNP officers and personnel who have pressured Malacanang with several petitions for reforms against corruption, political dynasties, and electoral fraud.
In its open letter, ANIM states that: “If and when these ACMs are connected to the Internet before and during the printing of election returns, they become vulnerable to manipulation by hackers operating remotely. The internet provides an online pathway for hackers to alter the election results stored in the ACMs and those to be printed in the machines.”
The group also joined Respicio in “his recommendation for the Comelec to issue a clear directive to all the Board of Election Inspectors in all precincts nationwide that they are prohibited in connecting the ACMs to the internet before and during the voting and counting, and only connect them to the internet after the election results have been printed and the official copies thereof distributed to all official poll watchers.”
ANIM also “denounces the reported charges filed and to be filed against them by the Comelec for publicly discussing in videos posted on social media platforms the vulnerabilities of the ACMs to hackers. The Comelec’s unreasonably strong reaction to Atty. Respicio’s public statements are quite surprising as it is suspect. By filing several cases against him, including disbarment from the law profession and revocation of his accountancy license from the Professional Regulation Commission, the Comelec appears distraught and disturbed, as if it was caught exposed and guilty.”
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The Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) has issued a statement, obviously reeking with false information (as claimed by some quarters), that “the justice system in the country is functioning and should be respected.” In an interview on the INC’s radio station Net25, spokesperson Edwin Zabala said, “What is right and what is within our laws, that is what should prevail,” which is the sect’s reaction to the arrest and detention of former President Duterte at the ICC.
It seems the INC has forgotten quite easily the nearly 30,000 cases of extra-judicial killings in the country.
Everyone knows that endemic and rampant corruption has widely infected government agencies in the justice system. including the Ombudsman and the courts. The INC has probably ignored the fact that powerful and wealthy legislators initially charged with numerous criminal cases in the pork barrel scam have been acquitted one by one, despite the compelling and voluminous evidence against them. Most of them have won back their Senate seats and are running for reelection.
