OUR banner headline yesterday—“Election machines tampered with”—was shocking to newly arrived foreigners with a good impression of our country and Filipinos who naively think the days of election shenanigans have long been over. Actually, it was merely a reiteration by a living witness of a fact to those who know that Philippine elections continue to be a travesty of the most essential element of democracy.

The headline was an election watcher’s personal testimony of his and other people’s knowledge that 1,356 Smartmatic vote-counting machines (VCMs) that were in a warehouse in Santa Rosa, Laguna were used illicitly, illegally and criminally in the May 2016 elections that gave us President Rody Duterte, Vice-President Leni Robredo, or possibly Vice-President F. M. Marcos Jr. (if the latter’s election protest wins), 23 senators and hundreds of congressmen and other elected officials.