5 May 2010 – We, the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, and Philippine Bar Association, are vehemently against any proposal to postpone elections scheduled on May 10, 2010. While proponents of postponement may argue that more time is needed to correct minor errors, we do not know what other glitches, misconfigurations, and other oversights may be discovered during the extension period requiring even more time after the first extension period. Most importantly, postponement creates new opportunities for mischief. The Filipino people will not tolerate the uncertainty that postponement creates.
After the alarming failure of the PCOS machines in the test runs conducted in major cities, which compelled the Comelec and the Smartmatic to replace the compact flash cards in all PCOS machines nationwide, the Comelec must now acknowledge that there is a major failure that jeopardizes the credibility of our elections.
Since it cannot be ascertained what other problems were not anticipated, the Comelec must now immediately take the necessary preparatory steps to conduct a 100% manual count nationwide.
Postponing the elections is an indictment on the credibility of the Comelec to manage an election. If the Comelec decides quickly and decisively, there is still time to prepare for the manual count without postponing the May 10 elections.
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