BY LISA ITO
BULATLAT
ELECTION WATCH/ BREAKING NEWS
May 15, 2007 – 11:06 a.m.

Foreign observers from the Peoples International Observers Mission (Peoples’ IOM) said that they were shocked at the conduct of a powerful Presidential appointee and father of two local candidates who barged into a Makati polling precinct yesterday afternoon.

The People’s IOM team reported that at around 4:30 p.m. yesterday, an hour before the canvassing officially started at the PEMBO Elementary School in Makati, Euphraim Genuino, President of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and father of Makati electoral candidates Win and Ton Genuino entered the classroom-turned-polling-precincts of the school.

Freda Guttman, a Canadian delegate of the People’s IOM, said that Genuino went to the school’s principal, Dr. Teresita V. Arriola, afterwhich he entered the polling precincts at the ground floor of the school with two bodyguards. The escorts, said Guttman, seemed armed judging from the obvious bulges at the side of their waists.

The presidential appointee was said to have asked election volunteers in the precincts regarding the parties or candidates they were working for.

Euphraim is the father of two local administration candidates in Makati, namely, Win Genuino, currently running for congressman in the second district of Makati, and Ton Genuino, running for councilor in the first district. They are both running against the camp of incumbent mayor and opposition leader Jojo Binay.

Delegates of the People’s IOM described the manner in which Mr. Genuino proceeded into the classrooms.

“He looked really arrogant, strutting around, with bodyguards, and apparently with arms. He looked like a little dictator,” remarked Freda Guttman.

Wataru Arizumi, the team’s Japanese delegate, added, “I felt that he was forcing himself, coercing the counting of votes.”

“Knowing what a powerful man he is (Euphraim Genuino) and his closeness to President Arroyo, I was appalled because I thought it would be extremely intimidating. The overall effect of a man of such power was rather shocking,” Guttman concluded.

The team said that Genuino and his group may have committed electoral violations against Philippine election laws, which state that candidates are not allowed to enter voting precincts except to vote, that no individual may bring arms within the precincts, and that no individual may enter precincts to disturb the proceedings of the electoral board.

When the People’s IOM team informed Dr. Arriola that Mr. Genuino’s bodyguards were possibly armed, she admitted that this was a clear violation. She said she had not known about it.

The Peoples’ IOM was convened by civic-minded and concerned Filipinos in cooperation with electoral watchdogs such as Kontra Daya, the PPCRV, Teachers’ Hotline of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, and Lawyers’ Monitoring Groups.

It has twenty-five foreign delegates from Canada, USA, Japan, Myanmar, Korea, Malaysia, Australia, Norway, Belgium, Germany and Scotland. Other teams are in Makati and Tondo in Metro Manila, Quezon Province in the Southern Tagalog region, and Marawi City in Lanao del Sur. (Bulatlat.com)

 Save as PDF