Through
Rappler, Comelec gives Pinks — and US govt — monitoring authority in May 2022
elections
THE first time I heard about it last month, I couldn't believe
it, and thought it was merely a trial balloon by the Rappler website. But it
wasn't, and I still can't believe the Commission on Elections could do such an
atrocious thing.
(photo credit to owner) |
Either the commissioners were plainly stupid and derelict that
they didn't do due diligence on the matter or the poll body had been
infiltrated by Rappler or its Yellow (Pink) operators.
Last week, on February 24, the Comelec officially gave authority
to Rappler to undertake such functions during elections as "monitoring and
rectification efforts on critical efforts on the ground" and to acquire
from the Comelec such sensitive data during and after elections such as
candidates' expenses and untransmitted votes. The Rappler website would even
carry the precinct finder for voters. Neither Rappler nor the Comelec has made
the memorandum public although Maria Ressa, in her usual melodramatic
manner, boasted about it in her website, bragging at the signing ceremony:
"Whatever happens here will help determine the fate of other democracies
around the world."
Any
election lawyer would immediately see that Comelec is giving the Rappler a huge
amount of confidential data and authority to intervene on the ground, and a
means of portraying the elections — if it wishes to — as a failure.
There are two things so scandalous about this Rappler-Comelec
agreement.
First, unlike other citizens' arms in past elections — which
become active only during elections — Rappler is clearly, incontrovertibly a
political organization, pro-Robredo, anti-Duterte and anti-Marcos. How can you
have a partisan organization be involved in the mechanisms of the elections?
In the agreement with the Comelec, it is not just Rappler's
staff at its website which will get involved in the elections. It will include
"MovePH Rappler's civic engagement arm, which will work with the Voter
Care Center to assist in the response to common complaints, like missing
precincts, improper campaigning by candidates, long queues outside precincts,
incidents of vote-buying, voter intimidation, cheating attempts,
election-related violence, among others."
The
memorandum didn't even define who would constitute "MovePH" and how
they would be identified. Rappler may well staff "MovePH" with all
Robredo campaigners, and they will be on the ground on election day. If
Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte-Carpio appear to be winning, they could
fabricate allegations of failure of elections. Or they could undertake other
subtle ways of getting voters to vote for Robredo.
Neither in the Comelec's press release on the
memorandum nor in all of Rappler's reports on it is the role of this
"MovePH" mentioned. The Comelec press release also made it appear
that this was the second time it was partnering with Rappler; the first time
was in 2013. However, in those elections, Rappler merely helped in the
information needs of the Comelec and had no involvement at all on election day,
nor was it given confidential information. In its press release, the Comelec
portrayed the agreement as one in which Rappler will "commit its
resources" to help it.
Nothing was said of the voluminous amount of
information the Comelec would give to Rappler, and of the participation of its
"MovePH" operatives right in the election precincts.
This is it, I think. That is, that last-resort move by the Pinks
to prevent Marcos assuming power. The US State Department and US
media's huge effort to portray Maria Ressa as the champion of freedom of the
press in the Philippines, to the extent they worked on getting her the Nobel
Prize nobody believed she deserved, is intended for this project. Imagine US
newspaper headlines the day after voting: "Nobel Laureate declares failure
of Philippine elections, based on reports by Rappler's countrywide
monitors."
I wonder why other media outfits aren't protesting Rappler's
accreditation. With the authority it got, it would have more data on what's
happening and faster than other outfits would.
The second very scandalous thing about Rappler's accreditation
is this: Comelec appears to have not investigated Rappler's background,
especially the fact that it has been financed mainly by US funds, since the
original big stockholder Benjamin Bitanga five years ago stopped
investing in it.
Starting in 2015, Rappler had relied for its cash requirements
on the $5-million (P260-million) funding from the Omidyar Network and the National
Endowment for Democracy, both of which have been known to have funded NGOs
in countries whose heads of states were anti-American, on grounds that they
were authoritarian rulers, and that they were merely agitating for democratic
reform. In 2019, another American fund, the Media Development Investment
Fund put $1 million into Rappler.
Rappler, by taking that new funding, defied the Securities
and Exchange Commission, which had ruled in 2020 that it should be dissolved as
it violated the constitutional provision banning any foreign money in media
institutions. Rappler appealed the case to the Regional Trial Court, where
it is still pending.
The NED is the more controversial, if not notorious funder. Its
first president Carl Gershman had candidly told the Washington Post
that it had "been doing what was done covertly 25 years ago by the
CIA," which was to covertly create organizations that undertake propaganda
against a head of state the US wanted out.
The NED gets its funding directly as an appropriation authorized
by the US Congress, coursed through the US Agency for International
Development (USAid).
Thus Rappler, whose head is more American than Filipino, gets
its funds from the US Congress. It won't be beyond American operatives' — and
Ressa's — ethics to regularly ask for reports from Rappler on its work with
Comelec, especially on election day. The Comelec will allow foreign
intervention in our elections.
Shame on Comelec and Ressa.
*****
Quoted
fully from Mr. Rigoberto Tiglao’s column
The
Manila Times
February
28, 2022
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