Congress is hallucinating if it thinks it can simply let Andres Bautista's impeachment simply slide by on a deliberately induced technicality. It is simply delaying the inevitable and setting the stage for even more acrimonious and far-reaching consequences.
With the 2019 elections fast approaching, unless the whole stinking mess, not only of the COMELEC Chief, but the entire compromised computerized voting process is cleaned up, the idea of holding elections is frankly simpleminded.
Judging by their wanton disregard of public sentiment and of the immense ramifications and gravity of the case in favor of "form" and adherence to conveniently self-imposed rules, it seems that Congress has already been compromised by the desperate forces who are ready to pour out all their resources into what could be their last stand. If P50M was spent per Senator merely to punish CJ Corona for an unfavorable decision, what resources could possibly be brought to bear to assure survival itself in what is shaping up to be a massacre in the coming elections? It is not like they will just go out quietly into the night.
The point is, even if all the COMELEC Commissioners were to resign tomorrow, considering the lack of a single peep from ANY legislator, why does it seem that no one is concerned about what needs to be done to address the huge issues in the computerized voting process and what needs to be done to assure its integrity? Just to figure out the process of holding computerized elections, figuring out the machines and provider and everything else actually took much longer than the time remaining!
How can they keep us entertained with deathly concern about the murder of teenagers and the Blue Ribbon Committee can hold innumerable day-long sessions investigating the BOC but can only spend 2 hours to pass the buck on vital election issues?
So are we going to have not only the same bunch of hooligans setting up and running the show but also the same PCOS machines and provider with the same old lame excuse that so much money has been spent and so little time remaining to explore other options?
What is to be opined about the glaring reluctance of the normally over-eager legislative investigators to investigate ANYTHING about the COMELEC and the last elections despite conspicuous indications and claims of anomalies and cheating?
It can only be assumed that they cannot even begin to imagine how to investigate something which will incriminate quite a significant number of them such that the innocent are either outnumbered or have been made to look the other way for millions of reasons if not outright intimidation.
And certainly, Andres Bautista could not have done everything all by his lonesome. The solid support for him by the rank and file only reveals that the rot is at least as deep, if not even deeper than that at the BOC. And that goes for the rest of the Commissioners as well. Their lame half-hearted call for Bautista's resignation without spilling a single bean only points to their complicity as well.
But have they already really gone insane to think that the people will simply accept having the current COMELEC run the 2019 elections with presumably the same PCOS machines and Smartmatic as provider?
Ironically, simply impeaching Bautista or having him resign would not really have changed much. But the act of not impeaching him has only served to draw the lines much clearer than ever and seems to have made what appeared to be simply an option of last resort an inevitable one. Hopefully sooner than later.