Mindanao Wonderland

"Worser and worser". That is what Alice in Wonderland would have said had she been sent to Mindanao to look into the results of the investigations being conducted on the results of the election. She would probably also graduate to "Worsest and worsest" if she were allowed to hear the revelations of some of the teachers who had served as election officers, particularly in North and South Cotabato, and in Maguindanao, to say nothing about Lanao.

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Matters there have further worsened after the Commission on Election-designated prober, Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, who had sounded so upbeat and confident when he started his work, suddenly developed some ailment and announced that he was giving up. Nobody thought at first that his decision had something to do with the discovery that some boxes containing election results had been spirited into a certain hotel room, and that he was believed to have full knowledge of it.

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Yesterday he was heard saying that he had to leave because he had developed "symptoms of pneumonia" and also had "high blood pressure". Which is which, or which is the better excuse? He is also saying that he is ready to go back there and go on with the job. Isn't that the limit? Or is he trying to react to the call for him to resign from the Commission altogether by Senator Ping Lacson and other sectors? Knowing the tenacity of Comelec officials, it is doubtful that the call will be heeded. But please, make them send somebody else.

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But because of pressure from the citizenry, the media, and the fearless volunteers who continue to pursue their mission despite threats and hostile officials and residents, at least the Comelec en banc has ordered the relief of two lawyers and has placed on the Immigration watchlist three more from North Cotabato, South Cotabato and Maguindanao. But, as some skeptics have said, those orders may have come too late, since the three, especially, can no longer be located. Some believe they have already left the country, remember how easy it is to exit from Mindanao on a speedboat.

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As suspected, the re-canvass of the votes in those areas benefited eight Team Unity bets, one Grand Opposition, and one independent. A mystery is that some 43,000 votes were said to be padded to those of leading candidate Loren Legarda. The lady was swift to denounce whoever did it and pledged to file charges against her "benefactor", who did not seem to have her interest at heart when he did it. But the same findings also showed that some 100,000 votes were added to those of TU candidates. Was that strategy?

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We can only sympathize with those teachers who came out to reveal what they have witnessed, and what they had been subjected to during the election. Four of them, claiming about a hundred more know what happened, said they were abducted together with the ballots which were filled up by their kidnappers who detained them for three days - until the counting was over. The four are being given protection and their anonymity is respected because of what could happen to them and their families back home.

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Meanwhile, Congress is going to resume next week but it will also adjourn next month. In the meantime, some solons are pressing for the passage of House Bill No. 6035, the measure that would allow the entry of generic drugs and lower very substantially the prices of medicines in this country. It has long been known that prices of medicines here are often 200 times more than those in our neighboring Asian countries. The bill, also known as the "cheap medicine bill" had been filed some time ago, but is still unacted upon.

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Why? It could be that the multinationals who control the production and sale of medicines here are wielding their influence on our congressmen. We had an inkling of this a few months ago when officials of a drug company were noted sending signals to some solons during a deliberation. Do they still exert such influence on them? You know, a solon does not have to vote no, he can just be absent. Now that some of them lost during the recent polls, they will probably be all the more scarce when the bill is taken up once more. And HB 6035 will continue to lie there and die there, like so many other worthy measures.*

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