IT'S strange how some quarters tend to focus on what they speculate might be wrong rather than on what’s actually going right. So here’s what’s been going right in the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
On March 16, 2011, Comelec adopted new rules of procedure on the recount of ballots, in relation to the 2010 automated elections. These new rules not only afforded litigants fair and inexpensive procedures for the speedy disposition of electoral contests, but also preserved the integrity of the ballots. Within six months from the adoption of these new procedures, 55 out of the 96 protest cases filed had been resolved. At this rate, there is a very reasonable expectation that we will no longer see cases of vindicated election winners assuming office with only days left in their term.
In July 2011, Comelec declared National Voter Registration Week for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and opened up special registration centers in various locations nationwide, including malls in Metro Manila. Comelec also installed posters and streamers promoting voter registration in all LRT and MRT stations. These materials, designed by a prominent graphics design studio, continue to raise awareness among the youth of the need to register as voters.
Internally, lots of changes have been taking place as well. At both the main and field offices of the commission, for instance, efficiency, competency and integrity have been enhanced through reshuffling to achieve the optimal matching of personnel to function. Field offices specifically, have been given greater autonomy on procurement and personnel matters, making them more responsive to the needs of stakeholders.
And in the main office, extensive training on the use of information-communication technology is being undertaken with the goal of using modern tech to streamline the commission’s operations, to innovate in the way we serve the public, and to ensure that the commission is well-suited to continually improve and manage the automated elections system.
Just as important, Chairman Sixto S. Brillantes Jr. has gone all out in his drive to integrate transparency and accountability measures in the performance of both Comelec’s mandate and its day-to-day operations.
Thus, the joint DOJ-Comelec Preliminary Investigation Committee was created to preserve the sanctity of the electoral process by investigating the alleged anomalies in the 2004 and 2007 elections, and by bringing the guilty to account. Recent developments clearly show that we are well on the road to finally achieving that goal.
Apart from going after those who seek to undermine elections, Comelec is also proceeding sternly against its own erring people. Formal charges have recently been filed against ranking personnel for a range of offenses, from unliquidated cash advances to the forgery of signatures on checks, vouchers and other sensitive documents.
Within a mere eight months from Chairman Brillantes’s assumption to office, the Comelec has seen a dramatic decrease in unliquidated cash advances: from P4.5 billion as of December 31, 2010, to only P1.1 billion in August 5, 2011. And these substantial gains represent only the beginning of change in Comelec.
Very recently, the entire commission—from the commissioners all the way down to the rank-and-file—rallied behind a comprehensive strategic plan that details Comelec’s goals for the next five years.
The plan—imaginatively called Comstrat1116—touches on a broad spectrum of concerns corresponding with Comelec’s varied administrative and quasi-judicial functions. In the field of election administration, for example, Comelec will seek improvements in its institutional and organizational capacity for managing and implementing modernized electoral processes. In the area of electoral-dispute adjudication, there is a commitment to developing approaches that will ensure cases are resolved efficiently, transparently and credibly.
Voter education is of great concern and this is reflected in Comstrat1116’s goal of making voter education more effective by improving the quality of materials made available to the public. Voter education will be further benefited by enhancing the capabilities of field offices to run education and information campaigns within their own jurisdictions.
The legal policies and framework that underpin all Comelec activities will be revisited over the next five years, with a view to crafting a new Omnibus Election Code that is complete, updated, clear and, most important, responsive to the requirements of an automated system.
Comstrat1116 will also build on initiatives already launched by Chairman Brillantes in the areas of field-office empowerment; the promotion of professional competency; the enhancement of Comelec’s technological capability; the promotion of integrity and accountability in all aspects of Comelec’s work; and the strengthening of linkages with external stakeholders.
Finally, and with any kind of luck, the strategic plan will also provide the impetus for the fulfillment of the long-held dream of upgrading physical facilities, read: Comelec’s own main office building and buildings for Comelec field offices.
There. Write about that.
James Jimenez blogs at http://james-jimenez.com and tweets as @jab-jimenez on Twitter.
