Creating a Foolproof Electoral System?

It is now beyond cavil that our electoral system is dead, and that total reform has become a conditio sine qua non for the holding of the next presidential elections. Before we talk of anyone running for president in 2010, we should first of all overhaul the Commission on Elections and rewrite our election laws. Corruption has spread far beyond the organic Comelec personnel into the ranks of those deputized for election duties---teachers, treasurers, fiscals, police and military men. Naming a new Comelec chairman alone, whatever his virtues, will not change anything.

Free and transparent elections should promote a competition of the fittest, not of the most moneyed or the most popular incompetent. To bring down costs, opposing candidates should be required to campaign together, using common posters and speaking in the same public forums organized and hosted by the new Comelec or some politically neutral organizations. Campaign spending should be limited to what a candidate will earn legally from his elective position; no political contribution should exceed a candidate’s one-year salary if elected. No political ads should be allowed, all posters, streamers and other outdoor campaign materials should be in common, and confined to Comelec-controlled areas.

To promote transparency, all accredited political parties should be allowed to appoint election inspectors at state expense. The votes of a candidate that exceed the number of votes cast or the number of registered voters should be automatically nullified. The most reliable and transparent vote-counting and tabulating systems should be used. No electoral abuses should go unpunished. Anyone convicted of electoral fraud should be permanently barred from public office.

To limit the contest for national office to serious candidates only, senators who at midterm run for president, vice president or any other office should be deemed automatically resigned upon filing of their certificate of candidacy. This would allow the senatorial seats vacated by those running for other positions to be filled up in the same elections. To weed out the incompetent, all candidates, especially those for national office, should be required to take part in public debates organized by the Comelec or any politically neutral organization.

If reform is not possible, and we cannot stop the corruption, we could adopt a more practical alternative. Make honest men and women of the corruptors and those who sell their votes, and auction off every elective position to the highest bidder. The proceeds could then be used to support education, health care, housing, etc. Or the government could distribute the money directly to the poor. To make sure the winners do not recoup their investments through graft or plunder, they should be placed under permanent public surveillance, by satellite.

If neither reform nor public auction can be done, we may have to adopt the last resort. Implore divine intervention. We could adopt the method used by the apostles when choosing Judas’ successor.

And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, ‘Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these thou hast chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside, to go to his own place.’ And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles. –Acts 1: 23-26

First, spell out at great length the qualifications and disqualifications of candidates. Those who have all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications shall be eligible to run. After the last candidate is listed, all entries are sealed in specially coded envelopes and deposited inside a maximum security vault.

The nation then goes into a period of prolonged fasting and prayer, as long as Ramadan. All the candidates will be required to avoid solid food, and subsist only on water. Maybe sweetened, but water nevertheless. Thereafter, all the entries are emptied into a huge lottery bin, in a public venue like Rizal Park, with all the media, showbiz entertainers, religious leaders, diplomatic corps and the public present.

Assume 10,000 entries. The lottery begins by picking a certain number at random, say, 1,000 entries; the rest are thereby eliminated. From this 1,000, a smaller number, say 100, will be picked; then ten, then five, then two, from which the winner will finally be chosen. The lottery bin then spins several times--three, five, seven, nine, 11, 13, any odd number to avoid a tie. At the end of it, the winning envelope is opened and the winner finally known.

In this election, no taipan or drug lord will have to bankroll any candidate. No one will have to buy votes or intimidate or coerce anyone. No one will have to fake or fudge any opinion survey or pay media commentators, interviewers, etc. The state will not have to spend on election personnel, forms or anything else. A handful of personnel could run the whole operation; we could abolish the Comelec altogether. A real boon to the taxpayers. We could even say (if we like) that the winner got his “mandate from heaven.”

One small objection, though, is that it takes away the element of free choice from the people. The people will be deprived of their sovereign right to choose freely and intelligently their own leaders. The answer is simple: When was the last time the people exercised their sovereign right to choose freely and intelligently, and keep, their own leaders?

5th Annual Jose Villa Panganiban Professorial Chair Lecture

Note from the website manager:

Last 23 January 2008, Francisco "Kit" Tatad conducted the 5th Annual Jose Villa Panganiban Professorial Chair Lecture at the University of Sto. Tomas. The title of the talk was "Theory and Practice of the Free Press in a Confused State."

To view snippets of the delivered lecture, click on the succeeding images below:

To view the full text of the lecture (in PDF format), click here.

A 2008 Challenge To A Divided Nation: CAN WE FIND A COMMON GROUND?

Whether or not this or that politician wants to run for President in 2010, and whether or not former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada in particular is qualified to run again are both “non-stories” that are simply distractive and irrelevant at this time.

With the presidential elections so far away, the media are certainly not obliged to indulge anybody’s presidential fantasies, unless they want to distract our people from their daily struggle for moral, spiritual and physical survival., which is to misunderstand their purpose. There is a season for everything, and this is not the time to inflict anybody’s ego trip upon our people.

The nation has more than enough pressing problems, even as the global environment grows increasingly less simple. Those who covet the presidency (which is a job before it is anything else), will need to be motivated by a desire to solve the nation’s problems as their overriding objective, rather than by a mere desire to become “president.” They will need to articulate more clearly their vision for the country and their programs of governance at the proper time; but even now, they ought to be known for their principled stand on the issues rather than for any kind of clever opportunism.

This has to happen if the 2010 elections are to help construct a better future for all our people. Heaven help us if they become simply another popularity or name-recall contest with nothing to distinguish one candidate from another in terms of principles or programs. The need for far-seeing reform, in the face of profound and unheralded changes in our globalized world, cannot allow us to be led by men of ambition who will merely react to events. Our leaders ought to be able to anticipate and influence events.

The seeds of destruction have been sown, and the result is a deeply divided and fragmented nation. We are hearing the same question Rizal and Bonifacio had to answer in their time---reform or revolution? With every passing day, we are being asked to choose one or the other as division, instability and uncertainty deepen. Fundamental and meaningful reform alone, based on a clear consensus on what we must face and how we must face it, now and in the future, can hope to arrest our descent into revolution. The time to seek such consensus is now, before all ambitions get too fired up in the free-for-all for the sheer spoils of power.

The main protagonists in our prolonged internal political conflict could jumpstart the effort to build such consensus. No greater opportunity presents itself to all the parties. But do they see it at all? Does the administration seriously believe it could keep the status quo until 2010? Do the anti-Arroyo forces seriously believe the nation is aching to install the Chief Justice as interim president or imitate the Burmese and Pakistani political models? Are the factions so polarized, and what now passes for the nation so paralyzed, that we have lost all ability to find common ground anywhere?

Convinced of the need for regime change, anti-Arroyo forces have repeatedly demanded President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s resignation. She has resisted these calls, the impasse remains, and frustration and cynicism abound. Is it not time perhaps for the parties in conflict to sit down, in the same manner that belligerents in war sit down to discuss a possible settlement? Or is everyone so immersed in their own personal agendas that they have no time to think of how the nation will survive should factionalism and polarization persist, or should there be a total breakdown of the global financial system?

At the 7th Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade last April, I listened to South Africa’s former president Frederik Willem de Klerk explain how he and Nelson Mandela ended apartheid. He said he simply put himself in the shoes of the other guys and tried to understand why they wanted what they wanted. And everything else followed from there. Could we not learn from that experience?

A sincere dialogue could identify some points of convergence -- a common cause, a common ground --- where belligerents and non-belligerents alike could breathe together, even while the dispute persists. It could create a “zone of peace” in the middle of conflict, make sure the prolonged stalemate does not push the country to a final dead end. We cannot expect a one-size-fits-all approach to anything, but we need to have a common conception of, and commitment to, our transcendental goals and the democratic ethic by which we must pursue and achieve those goals.

Unwilling and unable to unite behind a political party or a political personality, we must now unite behind a common program. We need to ask ourselves: is there anything at all we still can do together as a people? Are there any areas of human activity where we can still work together as one family, for once putting what will make us a better nation above our narrow interests and personal ambitions?

Can we still rein in our passions and let reason teach us how to fix the wrong things we have been doing -- in politics, in the economy, in community life, in education and health care, in the administration of justice (which Rawls calls “the first virtue of social institutions”), in the exercise of accountability in public office, of social responsibility and individual initiative in business, professional and private life, in our daily discharge of the rights and duties of citizenship?

In looking to 2010 and beyond, can we not come into agreement on what kind of elections we are going to have, and what kind of government we shall support after the elections? Can we not agree that in order to level the playing field for all future elections, we must now put in the electoral reforms, and develop and promote the values needed to make those reforms permanently influence our political culture? Among these:

1. A law that will implement the constitutional ban on political dynasties;
2. A law that will require the state to assume a big part of the candidates’ election expenses in order to ease the financial burden of political parties and candidates;
3. A law that will declare a Senator automatically resigned if, at midterm, he runs for President, Vice President or any other office;
4. A law that will more readily allow the recall of a “popular” elected official who turns out to be immoral or incompetent or both;
5. An entirely modified and modernized voting and tabulating system comparable to the best in the world.
This list is illustrative rather than exhaustive. Can Malacanang and Congress now prioritize these measures, and others that may evolve by consensus, as proof of their sincere commitment to true democracy, development, and social progress? Will all our political, moral, spiritual, academic, media, business, civic and civil society leaders now come together and help build this common ground which we seek for all Filipinos? “The night is far spent,” we must prepare for a new day.

Creating A Foolproof Electoral System

“The Philippines is a democratic and republican State. Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them.”

Consistent with these words (Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution), the people elect their public officials in periodic elections. Qualified candidates run in these elections, and qualified voters vote for them. The law provides that the process be clean, honest, peaceful and orderly.

But theory is one thing, practice another. Candidates cheat, bribe, steal, and sometimes kill. They buy votes, and voters sell. Election personnel, teachers, treasurers, fiscals, military and police officers sell their services to the highest bidder and cheat for them; opinion surveys and media practitioners are used to manipulate public opinion. Candidates spend far beyond what they would legally earn from their elective positions.

What happens at national level happens at the lowest level. Some local candidates were said to have paid up to P2,000 per vote in the last barangay elections. The result is a truly sickening farce in which dishonest candidates are “elected” by dishonest voters in a dishonest process that allows them to commit far greater dishonesty in government.

The system must change. And now is the time to change it. I see at least three possibilities:

1) Reform the system. Rewrite all election laws and overhaul the Commission on Elections. Require opposing candidates to campaign together, speaking in the same forum organized and hosted by the Comelec or some politically neutral organizations. Ban political ads. Confine posters, streamers and other outdoor propaganda materials to Comelec-controlled areas. Get tough on all electoral abuses, whether committed by candidates, voters, government personnel, or anybody else. Limit campaign spending to what a candidate will earn legally from his job, if elected. Provide election inspectors to every accredited party at state expense. Nullify the votes of any candidate that exceed the number of votes cast or the number of registered voters, and prosecute the candidate for fraud. Use the most modern vote-counting and tabulating systems.

2) Public auction. If reform is not possible, opt for a public auction. Sell every elective position to the highest bidder. Use the proceeds to support education and health care. Otherwise distribute the money among the poor. Then put all public officials under a permanent electronic surveillance.

3) Public lottery. If neither the first nor the second is doable, pray for divine intervention. Transform the man-made halalan (election) into a “Bathalalan”, where the people will have to ask Bathala (the Almighty) to intervene, just as the apostles asked the Lord to intervene in choosing Judas’ successor.

And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, ‘Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these thou hast chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside, to go to his own place.’ And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles. –Acts 1: 23-26

The first step is to spell out at great length the qualifications and disqualifications of candidates. Those who have all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications shall be eligible to run. After the last candidate is listed, all entries are sealed in specially coded envelopes and deposited inside a maximum security vault.

The nation then goes into a period of prolonged fasting and prayer, probably longer than Ramadan. Thereafter, the authorities in charge transfer all the sealed envelopes into a gigantic lottery bin, and conduct the lottery in an appropriate public place like Rizal Park, with all the media, showbiz entertainers, and the public present.

Suppose there are 10,000 sealed entries. The lottery begins by picking a given number of entries at random, say, 1,000, thereby eliminating all the others. From this number, you pick, say, 100 in similar fashion. From the 100 you pick 10; from the 10 you pick five; and from the five you pick the final two. To determine the winner, you spin the machine not once but several times---three, five, seven, 11, 13, any odd number to avoid a tie. Only then will you open the lucky envelope and know the winner.

In this election, the taipans and drug lords don’t have to bankroll any candidate. No one buys votes, no one coerces or intimidates anybody, no one manipulates public opinion through bogus opinion surveys, and paid media commentators. The government spends nothing on election personnel or forms. You could abolish the Comelec altogether; just a handful of personnel could run the whole thing. A real boon to the taxpayers. You could even say that whoever wins got his “mandate from heaven.”

One small objection, though, is that it removes the element of free choice from the people. The people will be deprived of their sovereign right to choose freely and intelligently their own leaders. The answer is simple: When was the last time the people exercised their sovereign right to choose freely and intelligently their own leaders?