How The Parliamentary System Can Clean Up The COMELEC

Evidence of cheating in the election is getting clearer such as the the leakage of PCOS machines that were tampered and pre-programmed to the leakage of votes for Leni Loud Robredo containing only 25% shaded circles or other irregularities as courtesy of Senate candidate Atty. Romulo Macalinlang. How is the current condition of the COMELEC a symptom of the presidential system? It's because the presidential system doesn't have a formalized opposition to serve as watchdogs.

Now let's re-imagine the COMELEC as the Ministry of Elections. The position of Atty. Andres Bautista would be the Minister of Elections. Now let's imagine a Shadow Minister of Elections sent by the Opposition would be Atty. Glenn Chong. So how will a parliamentary system manage to fix the problem when it comes to government office corruption? You can have Opposition watchdogs under Chong who will keep an eye on Bautista and company.

The Ministry of Elections can be skewered by the Opposition if they ever are caught cheating. Chong as the Shadow Minister of Elections can easily spot through faulty transactions to why electronic voting machines are purchased from Venezuela (Smartmatic or better yet Dumbmatic) instead of a reliable supplier from South Korea. This would also make sure that recounting would be done right. This may even require the voting transparency and tight security. Both the Majority Bloc and the Opposition will be involved in the Ministry of Elections to make sure that no Hocus PCos is done -- not especially if sealed boxes are in plain view before counting can begin and it's very public. Can you imagine how the Ministry of Elections could be caught cheating more easily than in the current Philippine setting where results are only released when the counting is done.

This would be another reason why the Yellowtards and people from leftist or better yet communist parties like Bayad Muna, Akbayad and Alliance of Not Concerned Teachers (the Reds) wouldn't want real constitutional reform. A parliamentary system will have a high chance of making sure that people like them won't be able to bribe their way in when elections happen.