Are we being set up for a failed election?

LOST in the noise about the highly questionable eligibility of one leading presidential candidate and the “shoot first, and don’t bother to ask any questions about it” leadership style of another is the worrisome fact that the election system we are expected to use to select the next president – as well as more than 40,000 officials across the nation – remains in complete disarray, and may very well be incapable of delivering a credible election result. We are now beginning to wonder if this is intentional.

The tip-off may have been the comments last week of the chief architect of the technical side of the current mess, former Comelec head Sixto Brillantes, when he suggested that not enough time remained to resolve the eligibility issue of Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares before the printing of the ballots for next May’s election must commence. According to Brillantes, Poe-Llamanzares’ name should be included on the ballot, even though the Comelec en banc has yet to review the decision of its 2nd division which cancelled her Certificate of Candidacy, and even though the en banc decision, whatever it is, will be challenged at the Supreme Court, because ballot printing must begin by December 15.