IS DUTERTE BEHIND CAMPAIGN ON ELECTION CHEATING IN 2022?

By Ba Ipe

AM QUIETLY doing the finishing touches on my book “Kill, Kill, Kill, Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines; Crimes Against Humanity v Duterte e.t al.” when a U.S. based netizen friend sent me this private message: “You know there is possibility Duterte will squeal the Comelec cheating if pushed to the corner by BBM. Good for our country.”

I answered his PM in the briefest way possible: “It was a conspiracy against the Filipino people... I see them slitting each other's throat.” It was an answer that reflected my ambivalent feeling on the BBM and Duterte camps. I don’t see either camp saving this country from perdition. On the contrary, I see theirs as a quarrel of two big political families over power.

My friend’s message was within the context of the difficulties Duterte and his ilk currently face concerning the crimes against humanity charges, which they face before the International Criminal Court (ICC). The charges have reached the critical stage of “formal investigation,” where the ICC is empowered to issue arrest warrants against Duterte and the murderous clique that implemented Duterte’s bloody but failed war of drugs.

I had nothing much to say except to tell my netizen-friend what I perceived to be the endgame of the current campaign regarding alleged cheating in the 2022 elections: “The worst that we could have there is the impeachment of Comelec officials but not the removal of BBM to give way to Sara.” Yes, I've raised the possibility of Sara as the new president. It was not an entirely enticing possibility because Sara could be as psychologically unstable as her father.

The specter of Sara becoming a president to serve BBM’s unexpired term of office could trigger political instability. She is perceived to be even worse than her father, who is perceived to be a murderer of his own people. Both the father and daughter is a pair of despicable stinking political leaders.

From out of the blue, he dropped a different perception and said: “There is another angle - the Supreme Court (baby of Duterte). It could declare Failure Of Elections of 2022 - And hold another snap elections. I don't really know, am just thinking.”

I felt my friend was overstretching the issue. He probably drank three cups of black coffee in his home base. I don’t know but I don’t take Duterte to be a sophisticated thinker. I always described him and his group as the “Inferior Davao,” the criminal syndicate from that southern port city. It has an addendum: “Inferior in thoughts, in words, and in deeds.”

I told him that the prospect of a “snap” presidential elections was unconstitutional because the 1987 Constitution has specified the dates of presidential elections. But I mentioned the 1986 “snap” presidential elections, which the Supreme Court allowed after a day of oral arguments in December, 1985.

I remember then MP Emmanuel Pelaez, a seasoned politician, argued so well in favor of the snap elections, saying the country was facing a political question at that time and only the snap presidential elections could answer the political issue. He succeeded to convince the High Court to allow it. The rest is history.

Somehow, his statement raises the possibility that the current public campaign on election cheating could have been initiated by the Duterte camp. I don’t think that Gen. Eliseo Rio, who singlehanded raises the issue, would like it.

Nonetheless, it would be best for Gen. Rio to answer the perceptions that the madman from the South as the one behind his public campaign of election cheating. It is being hijacked by Duterte to sow fear into the BBM camp.

Is Duterte that sophisticated to think of an anti-BBM campaign?