BY LISA ITO
BULATLAT
ELECTION WATCH/ BREAKING NEWS
May 15, 2007 – 7:55 p.m.

In seeming contrast to statements by officials from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that the elections were peaceful and orderly, delegates from the Peoples International Observers Mission (Peoples’ IOM) witnessed and collected reports of election violations in the province of Quezon, ranging from vote-buying, disenfranchisement, military and police harassment, and black propaganda against progressive party lists.

Foreign observers who visited the Catanauan Central School in Quezon Province yesterday recounted that sample ballots were being distributed outside the school during the entire voting period. Some elementary school children were also being used to distribute the said ballots, a report from the IOM-Quezon stated.

Votes for sale

The foreign observers tried to verify reports of vote-buying in Quezon.

Johan Fobbelets, a Belgian trade unionist and the spokesperson for the Peoples IOM team in Quezon, interviewed Catanauan Mayor Sebastian Serrano, who admitted that vote-buying was rampant in the municipality.

Fobbelets also cited the case of a first-time voter, 22-year old Jonabelle Corete, who disclosed to the team that a mayoralty candidate in their area was offering to buy votes at a rate of P400.00.

“We find that the crudest methods of fraud exist here in the local level. But real fraud is often invisible to observers and happens at the provincial and national level,” Fobbelets said.

Missing and deceased voters

The IOM team also witnessed how Mrs. Alicia Marasigan, a registered voter at the Macalelon Elementary School in Barangay San Isidro, discovered that her deceased husband’s name was still on the Registered Voters List (RVL) of that particular precinct.

Comelec officials in the vicinity failed to explain how this happened, Fobbelets said.

However, Dora Mangcoy, a member of the local Board of Election Inspectors, disclosed that old RVLs were being used in Brgy. San Isidro.

The foreign observers also noted cases of recurring voters’ names in several precincts, such as Precinct No. 0003A in Brgy. Poblacion 01. Other voters failed to find their names in the RVLs of their respective precincts.

Intimidation and black propaganda

The foreign observers also documented police personnel roaming inside elementary schools-turned-voting precincts in the towns of General Luna and Lopez.

This, the team reports, is in seeming violation of the Omnibus Election Code, which prohibits police and military personnel to go within a 50-meter radius of the polling precinct.

A certain PO3 John John Glifonea told the IOM team that the police personnel were in the vicinity to maintain peace and order.

The IOM team was also approached by a man claiming to be a member of media and inquiring about the team’s itinerary for the day. However, a local guide informed the foreign observers that the man was a suspected agent of the 74th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army.

Ester Debora Mendelin, a member of the Lutheran Church is Germany, is disturbed at the presence of police personnel and soldiers in the immediate vicinity.

”I find the psychological influence on voters very disturbing. It seems that the candidates and political parties are very much present in the process of the (Philippine) elections. Police and military presence may have intimidated some voters,” she said.

Meanwhile, in the town of Lopez, the IOM Quezon team documented posters maliciously linking progressive party list organizations Bayan Muna and Gabriela Women’s Party to the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New Peoples’ Army.

The Peoples’ IOM is composed of 26 foreign observers from 11 countries. (Bulatlat.com)

 Save as PDF