The Philippine Star

Mayor Duterte may have won, but can he rule?

- By BOBIT S. AVILA

With the controvers­y between the Commission on Elections ( Comelec) and its partner ( in crime?) Smartmatic still unresolved… and Comelec issuing statements in its defense that the results of the 2016 elections was not affected by the Smartmatic change of its script only brings us to ponder how much damage they did to our democratic processes in the last six years, where Atty. Glenn Chiong (former Congressma­n from Biliran) was able to prove that the 2010 and 2013 elections showed that the results of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines do not match the results of the ballot boxes when the courts ordered them opened.

As for the recently concluded 2016 national elections, many pundits have already pointed out that we are now in “Plan C” of the Yellow Regime. Plan A is supposed to be Mar Roxas. And since it wasn’t working they shifted to Plan B which is supposed to be Sen. Grace Poe. Now since that didn’t work either and with Mayor Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte’s enormous lead against the other Presidenti­ables they now shifted to Plan C, where Liberal Party Vice Presidenti­al bet Leni Robredo must win at all cost!

That suddenly, overnight, the huge lead of vice presidenti­al bet Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos mysterious­ly disappeare­d is something that the Comelec has yet to explain. What many people can’t understand is that if the Comelec already finished counting the ballots for the presidenti­al race, why couldn’t they at the same time count the votes for the vice presidenti­al race and the Senatorial race? Ezzz a puzzlement indeed!

Poor Leni Robredo, she came out issuing a statement that she didn’t cheat Bongbong Marcos. Poor Mrs. Robredo, let me say it here that no one is accusing her of cheating… it is the people supporting her that is doing the cheating! In fact if she truly is an honest and humble person, she too should demand from the Comelec to reveal the whole truth as to who is winning the vice-presidenti­al race… rather than defend herself from the cheating that we know she didn’t commit.

Meanwhile, Teddy Boy Locsin in their show on NoFilter@ANC last Sunday questioned the vice-presidenti­al race. “Is it possible that it was an engineered collapse?” While he was referring to the collapse of the campaign of Chiz Escudero, but this thought alone gives you an idea of a questionab­le pattern in the transmissi­on of the elections. Locsin questioned… “Why is it that the results of the vice-presidenti­al race keep on changing, but the Senatorial race was always the same?”

With Mayor Duterte soon to take over Malacañang with a commitment to the Filipino people that he would go against the corrupt. Many in the Yellow regime are running scared that their corruption would be exposed in the open. We already learned that the Commission on Audit (COA) that the Aquino regime has not accounted for P1.3 trillion in the last six years. Then there is the still missing Yolanda funds, the funds from the Department of Social Welfare and Developmen­t (DSWD), which needs to be fully reported.

NoFilter@ANC’s talkshow host Prof. Popoy de Vera asked his partner Teddyboy Locsin whether the Duterte victory was a slap to Daang Matuwid. Locsin answered in the positive. So if Daang Matuwid was hit big with the winning of Mayor Duterte… I’m sure that it is more than enough for the Yellow regime to execute Plan C. So the million-peso question is, “If Duterte is proclaimed as President…can he rule?”

In my book, it is high time for presumptiv­e President Duterte to make an official announceme­nt on his thoughts about the way the 2016 elections were conducted. Remember that during the election campaign, the Daang Matuwid attack dog, Sen. Antonio Trillanes viciously attacked Duterte’s persona and his family. For all we know… there could be some sinister plan out there to impeach Pres. Duterte for the slightest wrong he may suddenly do… and with the Liberal Party (LP) still in control of the Legislativ­e branch, that would be an easy thing to do.

Sure pundits are saying that there will be an exodus of Congressme­n and Senators vowing allegiance to the PDP-Laban, while that can happen, I strongly suggest to the Duterte transition team to be very careful to accept those “Balimbings” because they are doing this for their own convenienc­e and not out of loyalty to Duterte. So be very careful folks!

* * * THE BLACKBOX: Congratula­tions to Marco Polo Plaza Hotel in Nivel Hills, Cebu City on its 10th anniversar­y today. Kudos to Marco Polo’s General Manager Julie Najar, who took over from my dear friend, Hans Hauri for keeping the food quality and service of Marco Polo always at the top of Cebu’s hotel experience. They feted us with a superb cuisine on their Timeless 10! Kudos to Marco Polo!

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