Ex-Client
And if you think the COMELEC-Smartmatic Syndicate began with Chairman Andy Bautista, that is where you are gravely mistaken.
The Syndicate has been around for quite some time. 2010 was a test run. It was the first time our elections went automated. Noynoy was the pre-election survey front-runner. But it was the syndicate that guaranteed his win. 2013 was a tremendous success. The yellow party got majority of the Senate seats in a pre-programmed victory where no one raised a howl.
Who will dare complain? Opposing sides were bidding against each other and they were all clients of the COMELEC-Smartmatic Syndicate. Victory went to the highest bidder. The more "machines" you have, the bigger your chances. Yes, the syndicate caters not just to one party. It caters to all sides.
In 2016 they nearly perfected the art. Binay's studied demolition was a precursor to this cheating. Binay himself was a client and beneficiary of this syndicate in 2010. When Mar Roxas discovered his arch-rival's secret he stopped caring about his electoral protest. He simply convinced the syndicate to anoint him instead. What happened was a "mere shift in clientele" so to speak. After he got clobbered non-stop in a Senate investigation that exposed his anomalous deals and hidden wealth, Binay gradually transitioned from being the presidential front-runner to political dead meat. With his arch-rival gone, Mar had the pretext for winning, and he had the cash to spare. Billions from the Yolanda and DAP funds and other sources to make sure he becomes President in 2016. Butch Abad guaranteed they had a war chest to vanquish all potential opponents. Everything was going perfectly as planned. Until Duterte entered the fray and everything went south for poor unfortunate Mar.
Rodrigo Duterte came in as a surprise. They were too busy hitting Binay and Poe they never really saw Rody coming. Duterte's popularity and sudden rise to the top was phenomenal. Truly unprecedented. How do you cheat a guy like Rodrigo Duterte? At least 5 million votes were shaved off him and transferred to Mar. But still he ended up with more votes than they could have possibly imagined.
So Aquino went to Plan B. Mar was hopeless. Despite her relative obscurity compared to political heavyweights like Escudero and Marcos, Leni Robredo's PR engineering and branding seemed to be quite effective.
Noynoy thought to himself, "It's possible."
Besides, all hell will break loose before he allows Bongbong to stage a Marcos revival. There was simply no way in hell.
So he turns to the syndicate. "Make it happen."
PART 1: Tuesday, August 15, 2017 3:00 PM
