From Kit Tatad:
Stop Smartmatic and Lord Malloch-Brown
Eight Filipino bishops and archbishops, two Protestant pastors and two concerned laymen have asked the Supreme Court to strike down as unconstitutional and void the Commission on Elections’ juggling of P12.641 billion in public funds to pay for the purchase of 93,977 Optical Mark Readers (OMR), a new variant of the widely assailed precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine, from the Venezuelan marketing firm Smartmatic for the May 2016 elections. The questioned realignment of funds is similar to the notorious fund transfers under the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program. The High Court has declared void and unconstitutional, and ordered the prosecution of those involved in its manipulation and misuse.The only apparent difference is that where President B.S. Aquino 3rd authored the illegal DAP transfers, the Comelec alone is responsible for the illegal juggling of the P12.641 billion.
Many welcomed the SC petition for certiorari and prohibition with preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order as a genuine service to the voters. At least one blogger referred to the petitioners as “the Magnificent 12.” These include Archbishop Rolando TriaTirona of the Archdiocese of Caceres, Archbishop Romulo de la Cruz of Zamboanga, Archbishop Emeritus Oscar V. Cruz of Lingayen-Dagupan, Archbishop Emeritus Fernando Capalla of Davao, Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa, Bishop FilomenoBactol of the Diocese of Naval, Biliran, Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos of Butuan, Bishop Ramon Villena of Bayombong, Protestant Pastors Arthur Corpus and Greco Antonious Beda Belgica of Manila, former Biliran Congressman Glenn Chong, and this writer.
... As its role in the last two Philippine elections came increasingly under fire, Smartmatic took a much more aggressive role in promoting its business worldwide. In November last year, it brought in as its new chairman, British Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, an international political operator who has been associated with the billionaire specutlator George Soros in supporting the “color revolutions” in the former Soviet Union and the Balkans. He came to Manila last month and is expected to be back in September.
I have just learned from my usually reliable Palace sources that during his visit he had an extended lunch meeting with PNoy in Malacanang. He also reportedly spoke with two of PNoy’s siblings. Another meeting with the President is expected in September. In 1986, as lead international partner of Sawyer-Miller, a US consulting firm, Malloch-Brown came to Manila to work behind the scenes during Cory Aquino’s campaign against Marcos in the snap presidential election. Cory failed to win that election, but the ensuing “people power” revolution ousted Marcos and installed her as revolutionary president. Meantime, Malloch-Brown became an international player—deputy secretary general of the United Nations, UNDP administrator, development specialist of the World Bank, British minister of state for Asia, Africa and the United Nations in the Foreign Office, George Soros’s vice president at Quantum Fund and the Open Society Institute and a promoter of Western-supported “revolutions,” and life peer of the British empire as Baron Malloch-Brown.
Malloch-Brown’s reappearance in the Philippines at this time, when Aquino is trying to make sure that the next president would protect him from criminal prosecution and punishment for his numerous crimes, could mean some real trouble for the Filipino people. The Philippines may have become the latest political playground of the big powers, which do not want to see a truly nationalist natural-born Filipino leader emerge in a genuinely free election.
We have so much to thank for that some of our bravest bishops and archbishops and Protestant pastors have taken the cudgels for our people, but we all need to work together to stop any anti-Filipino moves by Smartmatic and Lord Malloch-Brown. - Full article on The Manila Times
