DATE: September 23, 2002

PUBLICATION: Malaya

TITLE: Listen to Raffy Garcia

AUTHOR: Ducky Paredes

“ Now that the Supreme Court has dismissed the Photokina bid, why not listen to what Raffy Garcia has to say? His is a Pinoy solution to our elections.”

NOW that the Photokina winning bid has been thrown out by the Supreme Court, perhaps we should all listen to Raffy Garcia.

Raffy is a computer whiz who has given us the five-minute driver's license and the two-minute NBI clearance. After having proven himself and his company by these feats, Garcia is ready to tackle the voting system.

The first thing that must be done is to forget about buying computers. The point to be made here is that computers age quickly. A machine that one buys today will probably be passé three years later which, for purposes of the Commission on Elections, is when the computers will have to be used again.

What Raffy Garcia proposes is that the computers to be used for elections ought to be leased or rented. By leasing, one would have to shell out only about one-fifth of the money that would be used to purchase. Thus, the amount set aside for a computer could be used over five elections. The money that would be spent to buy a computer will allow the Comelec, by renting them, to have computers to use in five elections or over 15 years.

Would a purchased computer last 15 years? Going by the Comelec's prior purchases, computers used in one election are no longer operable for the next one.

The second thing is that the main investment ought to be in the software rather than in machines.

Raffy has written a program that would register voters, check their identities when they present themselves to vote on election day, allow voters to vote electronically, count the votes and report the count via e-mail to a central computer. We would have results the day after the elections. The program is also secure and safe. If adopted, it would mainly do away with cheating. It also does away with flying voters since a voter's identity can be checked, through the computer, in any precinct in the country.

Comelec officials have seen the program. Raffy has demonstrated it to them. The excuse before was always that there was that Photokina winning bid to contend with. The Comelec could no nothing else.

Now that the Supreme Court has dismissed the Photokina bid, why not listen to what Raffy Garcia has to say? His is a Pinoy solution to our elections. It is simple and inexpensive and the man has already proven that his programs work and work well.

***

It tells one something that a 5.1-kilometer road named after the father of the President has turned out to be "the most expensive asphalt road in the country." There is a suspected overprice of P600 million on the road which has been named President Diosdado Macapagal Highway.

It is typical of this administration that can't seem to do anything right. The reason for this is, of course, because the leader is not so much interested in doing her job well as in getting her picture in the papers.

This administration is all for show. Thus, the person who reports a crime becomes a suspect and a legitimate shipment is seized because of suspicions that it was smuggled. Remember that raid on a bonded warehouse in Antipolo? Well, as it turns out, that was a legitimate rice importation.

Typical of this administration!

***

We have a letter on Clean Air: "Before the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) spends millions of government funds to buy smoke-belching detectors, it should require all the major and minor oil companies in the Philippines to submit samples of the diesel fuel they sell through their gas pumps. If the diesel fuel samples do not pass worldwide standards, then the culprits are the oil companies and not the bus operators.

"The ADB report before the implementation of the Clean Air Act already pinpointed the fact that the quality of diesel fuel sold in the Philippines is sub-standard but if the refineries are required to follow global standards the cost of diesel fuel will be too prohibitive for jeepney and bus operators to buy.

"Only in the Philippines is diesel fuel sold cheaper than unleaded or premium gasoline. If the oil companies will sell 'clean' diesel fuel, there will be less respiratory lung disease deaths caused by polluted air. Moreover, the government will have an easier campaign to minimize, if not, eradicate smoke belching motor vehicles. Why doesn't the government send a study team to the State of California, USA to determine how the problem of smog and air pollution caused by motor vehicles was eliminated?" - Nestor "Nitoy" Escano

Only in the Philippines do we have World War II jeepneys and scrap busses (imported from China, Japan and Korea) as our main means of transportation.

***

"I'm a big fan of your column in Malaya. And it is comforting that someone like you, taking a stance against that mighty powerful Cardinal Sin (he is the reason I gave up my Catholic faith) , the rotten politicians from top to bottom, etc.

"I've been away from our beloved country for quite sometime now, I hate to say this but the Philippines is sinking like a kilo of scrap metal thrown in open water. No way we can recover from this mess for the next 100 years. Look at the issues that we are facing, uncontrollable population growth, too much politicking, corruption left and right, harboring of criminals, immorality, name any negative aspect of any country, we have it all.

"Where in the world you can see a Cardinal of a Catholic Church deciding, who will be the president and so on and so forth. Where in the world that a known gambling lord will be praised as a hero because he put down a president whom the Catholic Church didn't want from the very start?

"It is sad, being in a foreign country, to hear this stupidity in our government. When I left the Philippines in 1995, I said to my self I'm going back there and start my family there etc. etc, But right now, who in his right mind will go back there, giving up a good life and good job, just to experience or be a part of this sinking boat.

"More power sir." - Joey Encarnacion, New Jersey

Well, Joey, there are about 80 million of us over here. Maybe, we're not "in the right mind" or, maybe, we just can't leave this sinking ship.

Email address: duckyparedes@yahoo.com