The more things change

Those who expected a return to

Not only Fernando Poe Jr. is shooting himself in the foot by prematurely announcing his victory and generally confirming his inadequacies. The Arroyo government is, too. In the brief span of four days, it has succeeded in planting the seeds of suspicion in millions of otherwise complacent minds that it might indeed have orchestrated not only the nation-wide assault against the six party list groups its National Security Adviser claims are communist fronts, but also large-scale fraud during and after the May 10 elections.

The fraud is fairly well-established, as is the disenfranchisement of close to a million voters. What is yet to be proven is whether the disenfranchisement was selective and not the result of plain Comelec incompetence

Except for those who have relatives among the 600 or so workers, and the members of the Philippine

A hundred and forty-one dead in election-related incidents. Some candidates complaining that their votes were not being counted, or were being credited to their opponents. And there