The arrival of the pope is expected to inflame the religious fervor of the faithful in the predominantly Catholic nation when he arrives. The government, however, is apparently also getting ready to blame the pope for congestion in Manila’s ports, of all things.
Ahead of the visit of Pope Francis next week, the Aquino administration has urged importers to move their cargo out of Manila’s thoroughly congested seaports. This is because most of the capital city, especially areas near the Port Area where the waterfront is located like Rizal Park, will practically be shut down during the pontiff’s five-day visit.
Ordinarily, I’d understand why this appeal has to be made. But the visiting pope, while he may be sometimes perceived as rocking the Catholic Church to its very foundations, has nothing whatsoever to do with the congestion that has plagued Manila’s ports for a couple of years now.
The stock market, for instance, will be closed during the pope’s visit not because traders are overly religious, but because the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (which is in Manila) will also be closed. If BSP is closed, there is no clearing of checks, which is why no stock market trades can happen.
But if you were to ask any importer who does business at the Manila port if they could speed up the process of releasing their containers, as the government advises, they would wholeheartedly respond in the affirmative. Unfortunately, that is something that is beyond their power— and entirely within the authority of the officials who have slowed the releasing of cargo from the port to an absolute crawl.
In fact, the inefficiency of the Bureau of Customs has long been blamed for the pileup of thousands upon thousands of containers at Manila’s port, a fiasco that often flares up into rumors that Commissioner John Philip Sevilla is on his way out.
Just yesterday, Malacañang Palace had to issue a statement to the effect that Sevilla is about to resign or be removed. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda felt compelled to cite the improved collections and other good deeds that Sevilla was supposed to have performed—even if no mention was made once again about the horrendous delays in the release of cargo that has been making life a living hell for nearly every importer.
But to listen to Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras, who made the appeal to the importers to move their shipments out of Manila even before tomorrow’s feast of the Black Nazarene, you’d think that religious holidays and the pope’s visit are causing the delays in the release of cargo. And, because of these two events, Almendras explained, the decongestion of the waterfront and the normalization of cargo releases will have be pushed back to February.
The pope, of course, has as much to do with the problem of stranded cargo at the waterfront as he has with the problem of homeless children in Pasay City, whose officials woke up one fine day and decided to round up street urchins on the off-chance that Francis might see them upon his arrival. If only the pope knew what the government is doing—or planning to do, like setting him up for blame—in his name.
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Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes has challenged his former commissioner, computer expert Gus Lagman, to attempt to hack into a Smartmatic precinct count optical scan machine to prove the latter’s allegation that election results can be easily manipulated. It is a challenge Lagman and all his fellow critics of Comelec, many of whom work in the IT industry, should take up.
Lagman has laughed off Brillantes’ challenge. But I really think he should take it seriously.
I’d love to see Filipino hackers, who are known worldwide for their ability to break through even the toughest computer security measures, give it a shot. And I don’t think they won’t be able to run rings around whatever precautions Smartmatic has put into its controversial machines.
I truly believe that Smartmatic’s real expertise is not in building computerized counting machines but in getting Comelec to approve its exorbitant contracts. This is why I have no reason to think that its PCOS machines are immune from the attacks of a dedicated amateur hacker, to say nothing of the efforts of a well-funded group of computer experts who want to manipulate the elections.
If Lagman thinks he can’t do the hacking himself, perhaps he should enlist any of the people from the Anonymous Philippines group. I’m sure these “hacktivists,” as they call themselves, would love to get the chance to break into Smartmatic’s machines.
And I’d really love to see Brillantes’ face when he sees how the expensive and expensively-maintained PCOS machines of his favorite technology provider are hacked by the bright kids who break into the most secure of Web sites for laughs.
It’s time for Lagman and his crew ro step up to the plate and hit it out of the park. How about it, Gus?