How Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. argued that there was nothing fraudulent in the conduct of the 2013 elections, and that the 60-30-10 theory pushed by election watchdogs is a mere speculation, has posed more questions than answers. Now that there are more questions than answers, it becomes more confusing, reflecting on the statements of Brillantes, when even answers can be questioned. Like when Brillantes just plainly said that the PCOS machine was not programmed to produce a 60-30-10 voting result distribution, in which 60% of the total votes were harvested by the Liberal Party, 30% by UNA, and 10% by the rest of political cavaliers. Of course it is the easiest thing to do for Brillantes to reason out that the PCOS machines were not tinkered to achieve the desired result, but to convince the public in technical and certain terms that everything was done in all honesty is another story.

We remember that the Source Code of the PCOS machines was made known to the public few days before elections. There was no ample time for IT experts to scrutinize the language of the code prior to the elections. But granting that Brillantes were right, that the Comelec did nothing obnoxious to manipulate the outcome of the elections, will it demolish the truth that Comelec Commissioners, like Brillantes, are just like any ordinary Juan and Maria whose knowledge on computer programming, hardware, software, and other IT-related stuff is only useful for keyboard-typing and for some Google-search purposes? Let’s admit it: what we hear from the Comelec is not that convincing because no one in the Comelec is an IT expert. But even if there is one Commissioner who has an unimpeachable knowhow on the inner workings of PCOS machines and the Source Code and all that, will his knowledge really matter to the public? Will the public really care how much he knows? And will the public understand the totality of technical terms that would be transmitted to their server-empty minds just to convince them that our recently-concluded election was conducted beyond reproach?

The election is over but the concoction of conspiracy theories may never end. They say that if your aim is to please all, you would end up pleasing none, or worse, everyone hating you. By all means, Comelec cannot please all people whether it did good or evil during the elections. It is ingrained in our damaged culture that tendency to raise doubts and conceive suspicions, factual or fallacious, on whatever is told to us by the government or any of its agency or office. Perhaps our trust and confidence in higher authorities, as collective constituents, have been so abused by years of betrayal and mistrust, particularly during the Marcos and GMA regimes, that it would take many years before we learn to trust again. After all is said and done, only one thing remains sure: all losers complain; all winners rejoice.