|
Press Release
March 29, 2007
May 2007 Elections: Make or Break for COMELEC
The May 2007 election is a make or break for the
Commission on Elections. Hounded by the unresolved
controversies of massive cheating in 2004 presidential
election which had implicated some of the poll body’s
top executives in allegedly rigging the election results
in favor of the administration, the May 2007 political
exercise will be a litmus test in their performance and
credibility to conduct peaceful, orderly, and honest
elections.
This was the general observation presented to the media
by the People’s Coalition to Monitor the 2007 Elections
or BANTAY ELEKSYON ’07 in a press briefing last
March 26, 2007, held at the Alex’s Grill along Matalino
St., Brgy. Central, Quezon City. The media briefing was
called for to report to the public the preliminary
assessment of the citizen’s monitoring group’s efforts
to monitor the conduct of the May polls from preelection
campaign preparation last year up to the start of the
local campaign next week. The preliminary assessment
report contained ten areas of considerations, namely:
decisions to hold May 2007 elections; election
automation; appointments to the COMELEC; election
preparations; application and approval of candidacies
for senatorial positions; application, manifestation and
approval of partylist groups; pre-election campaign
activities; senatorial and partylist campaign; election
violence; and organizing for election monitoring. The
group raised issues of concern on each area.
Task Force Bantay Eleksyon ’07 is a coalition of
electoral stakeholders formed by the Consortium on
Electoral Reforms (CER), composed of 22 national
electoral reform organizations. It aims to
comprehensively monitor the general conduct and
processes of the May 2007 midterm elections which will
center on the evaluation of the Commission on Elections’
performance and its deputized agencies.
“There is every reason to be vigilant regarding any
possible ‘no-election, no-proclamation’ scenarios that
may derail the holding of the May 2007 elections”,
according to Mr. Andie Lasala, Head of Bantay Eleksyon
Secretariat . He added that the speculations for a
possible ‘noel’ were seen in the proposals to change the
charter, the late approval of the General Appropriation
Act of 2007 and the fire that razed COMELEC old main
office building last March 11.
“While the no-proclamation scenario rests on what is
perceived to be the defect of the 1987
constitution, this defect may lead to a situation where
there is only half of the Senate and the majority of the
House of Representatives are not yet proclaimed,” as
Lasala continued.
The effort to modernize election
procedure has only gone in vain. Mr. Lasala expressed
doubt that the passage of Republic Act 9369 or the new
Election Automation Act of 2007 would make the May 2007
elections more effective because the COMELEC itself even
admitted that it can only do a pilot testing project for
this year’s elections due to lack of necessary
preparation and generally declared that the May 2007
polls would remain fully a manual voting system which
has already proved to be a cumbersome, slow and open to
various types of electoral fraud. He (Lasala) voiced out
the public clamor to appoint a new commissioner to help
speed up the election procedures. He cited the agreement
in the recent Philippine Election Forum, which was
participated by different election stakeholders and in
which the Executive Department even agreed to include it
in its resolution.
The conduct of the election preparation of the COMELEC
appeared to be in place. It was well within its election
schedule. But Lasala feared that the recent development
would once again put the COMELEC under public scrutiny
over the issues of the burning incident its head office,
overprinting of ballots and other accountable election
forms and the copying of serial number incidents inside
NPO compound.
He also expressed concern in the handling and
resolutions of COMELEC on the disqualification cases
against some senatorial candidates. The poll body
received 80 applications but it already disqualified 42
as nuisance candidates. At present 37 candidates were
recommended by the Commission’s Legal Department and
approved by COMELEC en banc through Resolution No. 7832.
This concern was quite similar with the case of
partylist accreditation in which their criteria for
approval were now being questioned by militant partylist
groups.
The Pre-election scenario as his group observed showed
the lack of respect and compliance of the unofficial
candidates in the election processes as there were cases
of unrestricted transfer of candidates from one party to
another, the prevalent and ostensible electioneering
activities and inadequacy and ineptness of the COMELEC
to enforce election laws. The situation has turned to
worse during the campaign period but no candidate is
prosecuted and sanctioned yet. The use of government
resources in relation to the elections despite being
obvious was still unchecked and unregulated.
He also showed that there was indication of possible
escalation of election related violence. There were
already 29 incidents reported to PNP. Most of these
happened in the highly contested political areas. The
proliferation of estimated 250,000 unlicensed firearms,
the alleged involvement of police or military in
partisan election activities and the possible
intervention of military and rebel in the electoral
process further heightened public apprehension.
Lastly, Mr. Lasala gave emphasis in a need for the
public to monitor the elections and encourage the direct
and active involvement of the citizens. He believed that
the initial efforts to monitor the elections and the
formation of volunteer groups nationwide are geared
toward helping the poll body to achieve peaceful, honest
and credible elections.
Mr. Darwin B. Mendiola
Media Liaison Officer
Consortium on Electoral Reforms
BANTAY ELEKSYON ’07
54 C Mapagkawanggawa St. Teachers Village, Diliman, QC
Mobile No. 0919.3981587 |
