Having honest, orderly and peaceful elections remains an elusive dream for Filipinos, as far as poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) is concerned. PPCRV chair Henrietta de Villa, citing observations by volunteers, said last month's conduct of elections is "still not clean, honest, meaningful and peaceful just like what everyone wanted it to be."
"We still have to consolidate our reports before issuing our final assessment of this election. It is important that we talk to our people on the ground. But at this point, after witnessing the conduct of elections myself, I can say that we still have a long way to go before achieving clean, honest, meaningful and peaceful polls," De Villa said. De Villa believes there is a need to strictly implement election laws in the country in order to make upcoming polls more credible.
After personally witnessing what she described as "messy special elections" in Lanao del Sur, De Villa urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to work on electoral reforms and stricter implementation and enforcement of election rules. "We have laws. And stakeholders in elections should make sure these are implemented properly. You can't just surrender these laws to culture or norms, just like what we saw in Mindanao," she said.
De Villa said she witnessed how election laws were violated in the special elections in 13 municipalities of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) provinces. De Villa supervised poll monitoring activities in Kapai town with Edward Go, chairman of National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), and said she saw "disorder and chaos" in the conduct of elections. "You could see people distributing sample ballots and even dictating (to) voters inside the precincts. What surprised me more was that voters didn't mind receiving money. They didn't care even when other people saw their transaction," she lamented.
Apart from stricter enforcement of election rules, De Villa reiterated the need for continuous education of voters. She earlier proposed the inclusion of a voting program in the curriculum of elementary schools. "It's sad to say but there is really a high level of distrust on elections in the country. And all stakeholders should do their part and take action," she stressed.
De Villa said election day was still marred by the same old problems of fraud, violence and irregularities in procedures. But the PPCRV stressed there were lesser cases of vote buying and disenfranchisement of voters, which are classified under poll fraud, during the conduct of elections in all polling precincts nationwide – as compared to those in the controversial 2004 presidential poll.
June 6, 2006
Philippine Star
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