On January 6, 2021, in the aftermath of the November 2020 elections in the United States, the sitting then President, who ran for a second term, stood agitatedly before a rowdy crowd. He complained that the election was stolen from him. Is stealing a national election ever possible in the United States of America?  The succeeding developments would tell as they continued to unfold.

Unfortunately for the complaining contender, by what may be taken as a comical twist, he ended up becoming a defendant. When the DOJ started their investigations, they discovered that it was he who committed the criminal acts related to the same offense he complained about. The truth came out and no evidence was found that the election was stolen from him. He lost – and he couldn’t accept defeat. He refused and still refuses to accept that reality. Now, he is additionally found to have abused his then-presidential powers by attempting to illegally overturn the legitimate election results unfavorable to him. It didn’t stop there. He was also discovered to have carried out many other unlawful acts as well, mostly arising from that single historical event he protested. For that, it is he who is now in real jeopardy of spending many years of jail time. 

Across the world, in the Philippines in October 2022, not very far apart from the election event in the United States, the Filipinos held their own general elections. Philippine democracy, a footprint left by the old colonial U.S. in the Far East, continues to adopt and practice the American-style democratic election process. 

The vote counting conducted right after the elections by the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) was uncannily fast. At the counting of ballots, the resulting numbers that came out in real time looked unbelievable. Contender Leni Robredo’s massive nationwide support crowd did not match the numbers during the counting. 

Yet, no one filed a protest. The election was not contested. Not by Robredo. Not by her legal advisers. Without anyone formally questioning the results, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. was declared winner and, without a hitch, took his inaugural oath of office confidently and happily. Leni Robredo completely disappeared from the public eye. Marcos Jr. assumed office and now acts as the elected leader of the country. The population, most of them living below the poverty line, returned to their business of impoverished daily living.  So, end of story?  Well, not quite yet.

The Trio for Truth and Transparency discovered aberrations in the counting and reporting processes. They filed a case in the Philippine Supreme Court demanding that COMELEC show the actual transmission logs that contained the number of votes used as the basis for declaring Marcos Jr. as the winner. COMELEC refused to comply, but responded, perhaps in the hope of shushing down the complainants, by presenting a chart published on its website, seemingly attesting to Marcos’s victory. To those who can’t help but assign a malicious motive to COMELE evil’s response, it was initially insulting but now appears to support the complainants’ cause. Yet, to the unconcerned and uncaring citizens with their opaque and uncritical mindset, it was just another news item to read and forget.     

“Here’s the rub,” as my friend, former Philippine Inquirer columnist Conrad de Quiros, would remark. In the American experience, the government set into motion its prosecutorial powers, including the remedies of search and seizure, to investigate Donald Trump, indict him, arraign him, and set him up for jury trial. They’re showing that no one is above the law. And no public street protests could deter the U.S. government from going after a criminal wrongdoer. 

In the Philippines, on the other hand, the government itself appears to be the perpetrator of the electoral fraud after proclaiming its pet candidate the winner. The officials behave as if they were above the law. Consider these prior facts: In March 2022, before the national elections took place, George Garcia, the private counsel of Marcos Jr. in all his election cases against his vice-presidential rival, Leni Robredo, was appointed COMELEC Commissioner by then Pres. Rodrigo Duterte. It bears noting that Garcia did NOT win a single electoral case for Marcos Jr. Yet, he was appointed COMELEC Commissioner for the next national élections in which his client, Marcos Jr., was a presidential contender. What could be clearer than that to suggest something sinister was about to happen? And who appointed him? No less than the father of Marcos Jr.’s running mate, Sarah Duterte. Again, nobody gave out a peep about the chicanery that was playing out in public. To seal the deal, COMELEC contracted a publicly-known government-favored vote-counting machine (VCM) contractor to perform the automated elections. Additionally, COMELEC also engaged the services of a logistics company owned by a Duterte crony to take custody and transport VCMs and other election paraphernalia. Clear as day, the dark plan to rig the elections was afoot. Well-set and pre-programmed.

But the Filipino public let it slip by, easy as pie. In contrast, in the American experience, the case against Trump continued and events developed in which he was widely seen on public broadcast as his own most effective witness against himself every time he opened his mouth. Many political pundits think it is only a matter of time before he gets jail time.  In the Philippines, on the other hand, until Gen. Eliseo Rio’s three-man group filed the Mandamus case, no one could publicly say how Robredo lost. And no person, private or public, is yet in jeopardy of even a mere investigation at this time by the government’s prosecutorial arm.

 Currently, the clouds are clearing up from the Philippine election rigging.  Gen. Rio’s relentless investigation has uncovered direct evidence of electoral fraud. The activist Global Transparency Advocates helped convert his findings into bite-sized, simple statements for the public’s awareness and understanding of how the systematic rigging of the elections was perpetrated.

The investigation found that an illegal private network was used to transmit election returns. Twenty million-plus votes appeared to have been transmitted to the transparency server during the first hour after the voting closed under the TELCOS’ authorized public transmission line, which was realistically impossible. There was, likewise, the logical and logistical impossibility of COMELEC’s transparency server receiving election returns even before the precinct vote counting machines made the transmissions.

Circumstantial evidence additionally- supports the direct evidence, such as “COMELEC’s continued silence and failure to present Central Server’s Transmission Logs in the Mandamus case;” “discrepancy between hash codes presented by COMELEC;” “gross lack of transparency in the ballot printing and  secure digital (SD) card configuration;” and “historically-aberrant speedy deletion of transparency server data and unilateral deletion of transparency server data from journalists’ laptops.” Moreover, there were “80% malfunctioning and defective vote counting machines” on election day. “COMELEC failed to certify the integrity of ballots brought to Diamond Hotel for the Random Manual Audit (RMA).” Observers noted “highly-improbable statistical results,” such as “constant vote ratio for all presidential and vice-presidential candidates;” “113 precincts showing exactly 1,000 registered voters;” “all 1,000 voters voted in all 113 precincts;” and “several overseas precincts reporting exactly 999 actual voters out of 1,000 registered voters;” and a “historically-abnormal downturn in vote count in the second hour after voting closed.” [Condensed from Gen. Eliseo Rio’s investigations by Victoria Grageda-Smith, a U.S.-based Filipino lawyer, long-time social-justice activist, founder of PUNLA (an education-focused nonprofit dedicated to the transformation of Philippine society through transformation of the Filipino), and multi-awarded published writer, poet, and literary author.]

Meanwhile, America’s democracy continues to shake as the indicted ex-President constantly tries to regain the presidency he lost. That he may succeed, many believe, is not an impossibility. By his numbers in the polls, he leads at over 50% of voters in his party. He brags that every time he gets an indictment, his number in the polls rises. “Another indictment for me, I’ll get the State of Iowa,” he gloats. So, what happens if he does get elected again but gets convicted and imprisoned? This is the kind of freedom under U.S. democracy. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that prohibits people with criminal records from running for president. Thus, if he wins, you can see a scenario where he executes his daily work as president from his jail cell. Not so in the Philippines. Disqualification from running for public office exists, as in a person convicted of a felony that carries a prison sentence of more than 18 months. It appears irrelevant, though, because, in the Philippine scenario, no one is yet in danger of prosecution and indictment, let alone getting any jail time for the election rigging.

While the MAGA (Make America Great Again) white nationalists fired up by Donald Trump continuously attack American democracy, the U.S. government strongly pushes back. The Philippines, on the other hand, lost its freedom long ago under the Marcos Sr. martial law regime, albeit briefly regained when Cory Aquino was installed as President through the peaceful people power revolution in 1986. However, after a succession of presidents, the Filipino people, in general, allowed the old practices of graft and corruption to creep back into government. They let bad government achieve a firmer grasp on power by slow and subtle means. Worst of all, they allowed the former dictator’s son to reclaim the presidency for his family.

The Philippines is in a dire predicament. It has lost the rule of law, and not many realize or accept that fact. Ignorance, not in the sense of illiteracy but a lack of understanding of the real meaning of individual rights and freedom, accountability of public officials, and the rule of law, is what caused this existing and pervasive societal plague.

 America’s government and its people support their democracy, which remains strong, no matter the multiple attempts of Trump and his loyal followers to destroy it. Their free press is robust and wide journalistic broadcast works as a strong check against disinformation and attacks on established laws. Except with the possible danger of Trump regaining the Presidency, it’s a long shot for American democracy to fall apart. The Philippines’ greatest enemy is itself – embodied in the nefarious human factors in the people who hold the reins of government, a self-serving Congress, an effete judiciary, subservient military and police, the apathy of the minority yet powerful elite, and the cluelessness of the majority of poor people.

 A heavy bombardment of political and social activism to educate the Filipino people applied by militant patriots may stir up attention to these issues and problems. Otherwise, only a total social and political upheaval, violent or otherwise, may be the Filipinos’ ultimate resort.