Poll Watchdog Shows Proof; Says May 10 Elections “Tainted”
Protests vs fraud, violence mount

Independent poll watchdog Patriots has presented a report confirming allegations of massive fraud and violence in the May 10 national elections. At the same time, a wave of protests against electoral fraud and violence - by cause-oriented organizations, progressive party-list groups, and the mainstream opposition, is taking shape.

By Alexander Martin Remollino
Bulatlat.com  

Migrante International members smear posters with red paint 
in a picket in front of Camp Aguinaldo, simulating the violence 
of the May 10 election. Photo by Alexander Martin Remollino

Patriots, a broad, church-initiated advocacy group for clean elections and what it calls a people’s platform of governance, said last Friday that the May 10 presidential election was a “tainted exercise.”

In a press conference held at Bayview Park Hotel in Manila, Fr. Joe Dizon, one of Patriots’ initiators, said: “The not-yet concluded May 10, 2004 election is already tainted, to say the least. And unless this disturbing situation is effectively arrested, the credibility of the elections begins to be imperiled. And if that ever happens, our dear nation is headed for more turbulent years.”

Fr. Dizon also said that the widespread fraud and terrorism should make President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo resign and for members of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) impeached for culpability and for not doing their job to make the May 10 polls clean and honest.        

Patriots’ statement echoed a similar comment aired by Presidential contender Raul Roco that the recent election was “a soiled process.” Roco had said in media interviews last week that although he was conceding defeat in the presidential race, the Arroyo administration would have to account for allegations of fraud. He had also said that the Arroyo camp had bought votes for as much as P1,000 ($17.86 based on a $1:P56 exchange rate) each.

Patriots report

University of the Philippines’ Prof. Antonio Tinio, who also chairs the Alliance of Concerned Teachers and is a convenor of Patriots, presented a summary of the poll watchdog’s report in Power Point format. Copies of the full report were furnished to the media.

In its report, Patriots revealed it documented 1,642 incidents of fraud and 191 cases of election-related violence. Patriots obtained information through fact-finding missions in areas considered election hotspots, and calls to its hotlines.

The areas of incidence, the report said, were: the National Capital Region and the provinces of Abra, Albay, Benguet, Bulacan, Batangas, Catanduanes, Cavite, Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur, Ilocos, Ifugao, Isabela, La Union, Marinduque, Mindoro, Mt. Province, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Quezon, Quirino, Rizal, and Tarlac in Luzon;

Aklan, Antique, Bohol, Cebu, Capiz, Iloilo, Leyte, Negros, and Samar in the Visayas; and Agusan del Norte, Basilan, Bukodnon, Cotabato, Davao, Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Misamis, Sulu, Surigao, Sultan Kudarat, and Zamboanga in Mindanao.

Reading a statement she had prepared for the press conference, American Rebecca Lawson – a member of the International Ecumenical Election Monitoring Mission (IEEMM) invited by Patriots – said: “We were witness to hundred-peso bills stapled to sample ballots in Isabela, the pointing to the place one goes to get a casserole dish for a vote in Pampanga, text threats to Anak ng Bayan (Child of the Nation) Party-list campaigners in Pangasinan, and our own monitoring team being circled by vans on the night of May 9 in Nueva Ecija.”

Even as Malacañang spokespersons tried to belittle Patriots’ allegations as “sensationalization” of “isolated incidents,” its findings coincide with admissions made by Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioners in separate media interviews that there was fraud in the May 10 election.

Patriots also agreed with the Philippine National Police (PNP), whose spokespersons had recently admitted to the media that the recent poll is “the bloodiest election” in the last two decades,” contradicting Malacañang claims that the election was “generally peaceful.”

Among the forms of fraud mentioned in the Patriots report is that of voters’ names not appearing in the voters’ list. An exit poll conducted by the survey group Social Weather Station (SWS) last May 10 showed that about 900,000 persons were unable to vote. SWS executive director Dr. Mahar Mangahas estimates that the figure could come up to as many as two million.

Reports coming from human rights groups say that there were cases of persons being prevented from voting in several areas in the Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog regions. In Mindoro, for instance, it is reported that about 10,000 Mangyans (a tribe native to the island) were blocked by the military and were unable to vote. Many were even herded by local administration candidates to vote for them.

Namfrel

The Patriots report also bolstered claims of widespread electoral fraud made by an official of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) in Bacolod City last May 11.

Namfrel-Bacolod head Carmen Benares had told reporters that their office had noted “irregularities” in the third copies of election returns.

According to Benares, many of the election returns they obtained from Bacolod precincts did not have the required signatures or thumb marks of representatives of the board of election inspectors. Other election returns were not sealed, although these should be “double-sealed” inside and out, she added.

Benares noted that “this is not just in Bacolod but nationwide.”

Meanwhile, Lanao del Sur has also appeared in Namfrel reports as an area where massive fraud has been taking place.

The Namfrel chapter in the said province had declared some 33 percent of the election returns as spoiled, because some of these did not contain the actual number of voters, while in others the total party-list votes exceeded the actual number of voters—with a notably big number of votes going to Assalam, Aksa, ALIF, PM, and Amin.

Newspaper reports last Wednesday quoted the Namfrel chair in that province, Hadji Abdullah Dalidig, as saying that presidential bet Fernando Poe, Jr. of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP, Coalition of United Filipinos) was a victim of dagdag-bawas (vote-padding and vote-shaving or a process by which votes are taken away from a candidate and counted in favor of another) there. According to Dalidig, election returns showed Poe winning by more than 3,000 votes over incumbent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, but the certificate of canvass showed Arroyo leading Poe by 2,000.

The statements by Benares and Dalidig run counter to claims by Namfrel’s national office that there was no massive fraud in the May 10 election.

Protests

Meanwhile, a wave of protests against electoral fraud and violence - by cause-oriented organizations, progressive party-list groups, and the mainstream opposition - appears to be taking shape.

Last Friday party-list poll leader Bayan Muna (People First) filed a case before the Comelec to protest election irregularities in the provinces of Ilocos Sur, Batangas, and Aklan. According to its legal counsel Neri Colmenares, votes were being shaved from Bayan Muna and allied party-list groups Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) and Migrante Sectoral Party (MSP) in the said provinces as reflected, he said, by discrepancies in the votes for the said party-list groups in the provincial statements of votes and the certificates of canvass.

“These irregularities would have gone unnoticed if not for the persistence and vigilance of our canvass watchers,” said Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo.

That same day close to a hundred of its members staged a short protest action at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), where the Comelec is conducting the canvassing of senatorial and party-list votes. The protest was directed at the Comelec’s gag order last week on the quick count being conducted by TV network ABC 5.

The TV station’s quick count showed KNP bet Fernando Poe, Jr. to be ahead of President Arroyo in the presidential race.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) had earlier issued statements against the same gag order.

Last Wednesday, about 500 members of six progressive party-list groups – BM, Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), GWP, Anak ng Bayan, and Suara Bangsamoro (Voice of the Moro People) - picketed the national headquarters of the Department of National Defense (DND) to protest against violence which they say was being conducted by the military against their campaigners.

Meanwhile, media received during the Patriots press conference a unity statement by artists and cultural workers expressing “grave concern” over fraud and violence in the 2004 election.

“The May 10 polls are not a culminating electoral exercise any administration can be proud of,” the statement said. “Far from it.”

“As the counting ensues,” the statement further read, “we urge all of the people’s servants to make these elections pull through: Rekindle the patriotic and democratic impulse in your hearts. Muster the courage and conscience to expose the criminals and their schemes to commit fraud and terrorism. Rest assured the Filipino people will be behind you when you do. For doing less imperils the democratic cause.”

Among the signatories to the statement were Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) officials Nanding Josef and Herminio Beltran, stage actor John Arcilla, film directors Carlitos Siguion-Reyna and Joel Lamangan, actress-film producer Armida Siguion-Reyna, poet Mila D. Aguilar, musicians Babes Alejo and Lei Garcia, playwright Bonifacio Ilagan, theater director Soc Jose, and UP professors Bienvenido Lumbera, Monico Atienza, and Rolando Tolentino.

Meanwhile, Poe had recently declared himself the victor in the presidential battle, while the Bangon Pilipinas (Philippines Arise) Movement of evangelist and presidential contender Eddie Villanueva had announced last week that it will be launching a nationwide fact-finding mission to investigate allegations of poll fraud.

The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) and the progressive party-list bloc are preparing for a major mobilization against electoral fraud and violence this coming May 24. KNP, Bangon Pilipinas, and Roco’s Alyansa ng Pag-asa (Alliance of Hope) are also planning to conduct their own protests on the same day. Bulatlat.com

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