Twenty-five foreign observers arrived here to join a People’s International Observers Mission to help stem the cycle of violence and fraud plaguing elections in the country.
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
ELECTION WATCH
Vol. VII, No. 14 May 13-19, 2007
American Presbyterian Minister Rev. Larry Emery arrived in the Philippines at dawn today, May 12, on board Philippine Airlines flight PR 105 from San Francisco, USA, to join the People’s International Observers Mission (IOM) that would look into the conduct of the May 14 Philippine elections. He joined 24 other independent foreign delegates from 10 countries to visit 10 provinces in seven regions in the Philippines to observe the elections and help stem the cycle of violence and fraud plaguing national and local elections in the country.
The IOM will document fraud and election-related violence in areas where harassments of voters are intensifying and the probability of election fraud is high, Bp. Elmer Bolocon of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP), one of the IOM convenors, said.
Participants
Freda Guttman, a 73-year old Canadian protest artist, said it is her second time to visit the Philippines. The first was in 1987 just after the fall of the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. She said she came back to the country to see if democracy has flourished in the country after the dark years of Martial Law.
Stefan Christoff, a first-time visitor, is a Canadian journalist for The Montreal Mirror. Only 25 years old, Christoff said he has toured countries in the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. The Philippines is the first Asian country he has visited.
Both Guttman and Christoff said they are deeply concerned over the spate of election-related violence with the death toll going up to 102 as of May 11. They said they also wanted to observe how the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would administer the voting and canvassing of votes, especially because the last synchronized presidential, senatorial, and local elections in 2004 were tainted with charges of fraud allegedly favoring Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Other foreign participants included parliamentarians, church leaders, members of the academe and media, artists, civil libertarians, professionals, students and human rights defenders from different countries. They joined close to a hundred local participants and would visit at least ten (10) election hotspots throughout seven regions.
Hot spots
In the National Capital Region (NCR), the IOM would monitor the conduct of elections in vote-rich urban poor communities throughout Tondo in Manila, Quezon City, and Caloocan where the Armed Forces of the Philippines deployed 27 teams of soldiers for civil-military operations since November last year.
They would also be closely monitoring developments in the business capital of Makati City, where opposition Mayor Jejomar Binay, president of the United Opposition, and his running mate have been pitted against allies of the President. The significance of the Makati elections goes beyond the city as the administration appears to be hell-bent on defeating Binay, attempting to suspend him and freeze the city’s and his bank accounts a week before the elections.
