Let us not kid ourselves. It will take more than a declaration by President Rodrigo Duterte that there will be no fraud in the automated midterm elections in 2019 to set the nation free from its Smartmatic nightmare from the past and restore confidence in our electoral democracy.

It will take more than a Senate committee inquiry to get at the truth and the extent of cheating in the 2016 elections, and bring closure to this wound to our democracy.