Teachers Expose Widespread Poll Fraud

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has released a 16-page report on cases of election fraud and other irregularities its chapters nationwide monitored May 5-19 or during the elections. The report will form part of the evidence being collated by Patriots, a poll watchdog, which has come under fire recently for asking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign due to the widespread fraud and terrorism.

By Alexander Martin Remollino
Bulatlat.com

At 5:13 p.m. last May 10, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), which had put up election monitoring centers all over the country, received from its Central Luzon hotline a phone call from one of its staff there, who said that some two hours before, in Balingsaguin village in San Felipe, Zambales, police seized and ran away with ballot boxes the contents of which had not yet been counted.

The caller, identified by ACT as Fabie, also said that Aeta natives ran after the policemen and were able to catch up with them. The policemen were forced to return the ballot boxes, she said.

This is one of several reports received by ACT’s election hotlines from May 5 to 19. The reports are summarized in a 16-page paper recently sent by the teachers’ group to Bulatlat.com.

Also mentioned in the paper are several reports of incidents where voters were not made to affix their signatures on the voters’ list after voting, in violation of election procedures. Among the places where such incidents were reported are: San Pedro, Laguna; and Quezon City, Marikina and Kalookan, as well as the municipality of Pateros in Metro Manila.

There was also a report, received by text message, about a non-existent polling precinct in Kaunlaran Elementary School also in Kalookan City Precinct No. 1767-D, which was nevertheless on the master list.

ACT, whose chairman Antonio Tinio is a convenor of the broad poll watchdog group Patriots, has been helping the latter in its monitoring of electoral fraud and violence.

Patriots had held a news conference May 21 at Bayview Park Hotel in Manila to present an initial report revealing 1,642 cases of fraud and 191 cases of violence that occurred during the election period. The data were gathered through fact-finding missions in areas considered election hotspots and reports sent through Patriots’ telephone hotlines.

Cases of fraud filed before Comelec

In a related development, Patriots convenor Fr. Joe Dizon, in a phone interview with Bulatlat.com last May 28, expressed support for the cases filed by senatorial bet and former solicitor-general Frank Chavez against 48 poll officials in the province of Davao del Sur, southern Philippines even as he warned that the court of law “can be very unfair.”

Chavez, who is with Raul Roco’s Alyansa ng Pag-asa (Alliance of Hope), had charged 16 chairmen and 32 members of the provincial and municipal boards of canvassers in the said province with vote-shaving.

Chavez said that based on the tallies of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), he had received 31,968 votes in the said province but the certificates of canvass from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reflected only 26,623 votes for him – a discrepancy of 5,345 votes.

The former solicitor-general had said that while he believed the said votes would not change the outcome of the election, the officials involved in the alleged vote-shaving had to account for it. “The point is that this is a crime and this has to be brought to the attention of the authorities,” the former solicitor-general was quoted by Malaya as saying. “This crime has to be prosecuted so these people will no longer find it easy to cheat candidates.”

At a press conference that Chavez held in his office in Makati City last week, he told reporters that he had gathered evidence of fraud which could serve as bases “to stop the proclamation” of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is currently leading in the Namfrel quick count, and her fellow candidates in the K-4 Coalition.

Among the documents he had presented during his press conference were blank certificates of canvass with serial numbers, manufactured certificates of canvass, and pre-signed election returns with unaccomplished data on voters’ ballots; and 31 affidavits by watchers and municipal coordinators attesting that there was fraud. The documents were obtained from Davao, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, Mt. Province, Central Luzon, and Maguindanao, Chavez said.

In one of the election returns from Mt. Province, Chavez is shown to have lost 18,538 votes through vote-shaving.

Chavez had also said that he will be filing more cases than Aquilino Pimentel, senatorial candidate of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP or Coalition of United Filipinos).  Pimentel, who is among the 11 senators recently proclaimed by the Comelec, had earlier charged poll officials in Bacolor, Pampanga with shaving votes from him.

Asked to comment on Chavez’s legal moves, Fr. Dizon said: “We agree with him. He is a lawyer and he appears to have convincing evidence.”

“However,” he added, “in the Philippine setting you have to maximize the use of both the court of law and the court of public opinion. The court of law can be very unfair because it can be influenced by the powers that be. So the court of law is at the end of the process.”

Other evidences of fraud

Meanwhile, other opposition parties have been coming up with their own pieces of evidence proving, they say, that there was fraud in the recent election.

In a press conference last May 28, the KNP, which had fielded actor Fernando Poe, Jr. as its presidential bet, also presented what it called proof of “systematic and comprehensive cheating in the elections from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and, internationally, in Hong Kong.”

KNP legal counsel Rufus Rodriguez showed reporters tampered statements of votes, election returns, and certificates of canvass. He also said that they had already obtained altered election returns from 25 provinces which, he said, would prove that the elections had been manipulated.

In Tinggalan, Kalinga, for instance, the election returns showed that President Arroyo had received nine votes but the certificates of canvass showed she got 249 votes in the same town, Rodriguez said. This is higher than the 230 registered votes in this town, the KNP lawyer added.

The Bangon Pilipinas (Philippines Arise) Movement of evangelist and presidential contender Eddie Villanueva, meanwhile, presented to the media last May 27 a video footage allegedly showing fraud in Hong Kong.

Amid all these, police and military have been linking Patriots and the KNP to an alleged destabilization plot against the Arroyo administration which, they say, is to be carried out through massive protests against electoral fraud and violence.

Police intelligence has claimed that Fr. Dizon of Patriots and Vic Ladlad of the progressive party-list group Bayan Muna (People First) are linked with the chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The PNP even claimed that Benito Tiamzon, whom the AFP tagged as the highest CPP official in the country, is a leader of Patriots.

Fr. Dizon and Ladlad have both issued statements denying links to any destabilization plot. Bulatlat.com

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