Earlier this week, the Commission on Elections resolved to push through with the 2018 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections in Mindanao, except in Marawi City where the polls will be postponed. The Comelec cited the prevailing conditions in Marawi City as the most critical consideration, seeing as how weeks of heavy fighting during the Maute occupation had all but decimated the city’s infrastructure, leaving practically no public structures that could be used for election purposes.
The Comelec, however, emphasized that the suspension of the elections would be reassessed three months after the May elections, for the purpose of determining whether things have improved enough to allow the holding of elections in the Islamic City. Hopefully, by then, many of the displaced residents of Marawi would have returned home and started the process of rebuilding their communities.
So, unless Congress once again floats—and pursues—the postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, it would appear that there won’t be a third rescheduling of the village and youth polls. And all for the good; the waters of democracy at the community level needed refreshing.
In a sense, the Comelec, too, will be undergoing changes, as today marks a significant milestone in the institution’s leadership—the retirement of Acting Chairman Christian Robert Lim and Commissioner Arthur D. Lim.
Both gentlemen contributed immensely, not just to the success of the 2013 and 2016 National and Local Elections but also to the growth and development of the institution they’re leaving behind. With Commissioner Arthur Lim’s helmsmanship, the
Comelec’s Overseas Filipino Voting system saw the roll of registered overseas voters breach the 1 million mark. It was also during his tenure that the use of the automated election system overseas reached its greatest extent thus far. As a result, despite determined attempts to undermine its credibility, the overseas voting system proved to be one of the most credible components of the 2016 elections.
And as for the other Lim, Acting Chairman Christian Robert Lim that is, well, it is practically impossible to even imagine both the 2013 and the 2016 automated elections without picturing him right in the thick of things.
In both electoral exercises, his was the hand firmly on the steering wheel; his, the pragmatism that found solutions; and his, the judgment and tech-savvy depended on by two successive chairmen—Brillantes and Bautista. Not a small feat for someone so young.
And yet, as significant as these contributions are, to my mind, they pale in comparison to the true legacy they leave behind.
A leader always aspires to take his followers to great heights that they may not have believed themselves capable of achieving; but a good leader aims to ensure that his followers will be able to scale mountains they can’t even see the tops of yet. And that is exactly what the two Lims have achieved with their time in the Comelec.
Commissioner Arthur Lim laid down foundations for taking overseas voting into its next logical evolutionary step: Internet voting; and Acting Chairman Christian Lim has empowered the institution—structurally, technologically, intellectually and morally—to the point where it now stands on the crux of one of the most difficult years it will face—the imminent Baranggay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections; the growing inevitability of a Charter change plebiscite within the year; and the start of preparations for the 2019 National and Local Elections, all happening in the next 11 months—with confidence. No leader can aspire for more; and no institution can wish for better.