Just do the right thing.

This was the unsolicited advice made by the Liberal Party to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) after the latter earned a 5 percent decline in the people’s trust based on the latest Pulse Asia survey.

“Its failure to address concerns over a projected failure of election on May 10 because of loopholes in the automated election system (AES) and the bias it has shown for the Arroyo administration and its allies have affected public trust in the Comelec,” LP director Chito Gascon said in a statement.

This developed as LP standard bearer Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III expressed his belief that it would be better if there would be both automation and manual counting of the ballots after Election Day.

“It would be better if there would be both automated and manual. However, the manual counting should be conducted at a minimum. We should be advised early where manual counting would be undertaken so we could prepare our respective volunteers. There is a big difference when guarding an automated and manual counting,” Aquino told reporters during a campaign sortie held in Batanes.