NAMFREL News

TU hits NAMFREL trending even as Recto concedes

2007-06-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

By AUREA CALICA

The Philippine Star

Team Unity hit Monday the early termination and apparent trending of the National Movement for Free Elections quick count showing eight winners from the Genuine Opposition, two from Team Unity and two independent candidates in the senatorial derby.

TU officials said it was “unfair” for the TU since the fight for the 11th and 12th places was still close and that at least two more administration candidates could make it to the Magic 12.

At the Senate, however, Sen. Ralph Recto bade an emotional farewell to the chamber, virtually conceding defeat in the midterm elections. Recto is currently ranked 14th in the tally, and is unlikely to serve a second term.

“The outpouring of votes is impressive, and warmly appreciated, but not enough to constitute the mandate to serve,” Recto said. “It is a verdict I accept without rancor or bitterness.”

TU media director Ben Evardone said NAMFREL secretary general Eric Alvia explained the counting was not finished yet but only moved to Makati City.

Evardone said Alvia likewise acknowledged that TU bets Juan Miguel Zubiri and Recto could still win as more than 500,000 votes remain to be counted.

“The 8-2-2 result of the NAMFREL tally is not final. Its decision to terminate its own tally with still about two million votes to be counted could be interpreted as trending,” Evardone said.

“Its bias in favor of the opposition can be seen with its decision not to proceed with its counting. It is totally unfair to TU. When the final tally shows that more TU bets are in the winning circle, the GO will surely protest,” Evardone said.

Now TU has reason to suspect the impartiality of NAMFREL, Evardone said, and that the Commission on Elections should review its accreditation as an independent watchdog body.

TU campaign manager Reli German said the NAMFREL should have made it very clear to the public that its canvass did not include several key areas yet and that the votes yet to be tallied could possibly alter the final standing of the last two places of the winning senatorial candidates.

German said the areas left uncanvassed by the NAMFREL were all administration strongholds with some 2.016 million registered voters.

He identified these areas as the provinces of Surigao del Norte, Basilan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte.

“It is estimated that these six provinces could yield up to 1.60 million more votes and possibly result in the elevation of TU candidates Migz Zubiri and Ralph Recto to the 11th and 12 slots which are occupied at the moment by opposition bets Antonio Trillanes and Koko Pimentel,” German said.

“Let me point out that these areas are all located in Mindanao where the administration is historically strong and are bailiwicks of TU candidates Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, Migz Zubiri and Prospero Pichay. The three are all from Mindanao and it would be reasonable to expect that Team Unity would get more votes in these provinces, considering that the Genuine Opposition has only one Mindanaoan in its lineup and it has no Muslim candidate at all,” German said.

He said exit polls conducted by Pulse Asia had a 6-4-2 ratio which theoretically gave Team Unity four winning slots.

“If the certificates of canvass from these provinces are included, there is a strong probability that the final results would bear out Pulse Asia’s exit poll,” German stressed.

NAMFREL is set to come up this week with a terminal report on its parallel count of votes in the midterm election.

NAMFREL chair Edward Go said the terminal report would include the final tally and summary of its three-week quick count operations. It would also narrate poll irregularities experienced by NAMFREL volunteers nationwide.

He has maintained there would be no major changes in the rankings even if they continued tabulating remaining election returns as they moved operations to an undisclosed office in Makati City last Sunday.

“The incoming ERs are insignificant already. Although we are still trying to appreciate incoming ERs so we could reach higher percentage of tabulation, I don’t think it would affect the rankings considering the margin of votes,” he said.

In its 43rd tally released at 11:41 p.m. Saturday, NAMFREL had tabulated a total of 197,084 election returns, which represent 87.69 percent of votes cast in 224,748 precincts. This figure shows an improvement from the poll watchdog group’s performance in the 2004 election, where they finished the count at 82.98 percent.

GO bet former senator Loren Legarda topped the senatorial race with 15,200,169 votes. Fellow opposition candidate Francis “Chiz” Escudero, incumbent Sorsogon representative, finished second with 14,926,697 votes.

The next three spots were also occupied by GO bets: Panfilo Lacson in third with 12,880,049 votes; Manny Villar in fourth with 12,537,728 votes; and Benigno Aquino III fifth with 11,965,505.

Independent bet Francis Pangilinan, an incumbent senator, was sixth with 11,930,557 votes.

Edgardo Angara was the highest ranked TU bet in seventh with 10,403,534 votes.

GO bet Alan Peter Cayetano finished in eighth place with 9,691,262 votes, followed by independent candidate Gregorio Honasan, who garnered 9,636,150.

TU bet incumbent Sen. Joker Arroyo had the tenth slot with 9,618,637 votes.

Two GO bets are in the crucial 11th and 12th spots: Antonio Trillanes IV and Aquilino Pimentel III, who had respective votes of 9,248,609 and 8,985,408.

In the same tally, Juan Miguel Zubiri was in 13th place with 8,811,731 votes. NAMFREL officials refused to confirm if he would be able to overtake Pimentel if the tabulation was completed.

TU bets Ralph Recto finished 14th with 8,599,532 votes; Michael Defensor 15th with 8,075,073; and Prospero Pichay 16th with 7,938,313 votes.

Rounding up the top 20 were: Sonia Roco, Cesar Montano, John Henry Osmeña and Vicente Sotto III.

Earlier, NAMFREL officials said they would not be able to collect all ERs from polling precincts after excluding votes cast in Maguindanao where returns were reportedly withheld from their volunteers.

“This means we can’t complete 100 percent collection and tabulation. But our performance this year is an improvement as compared to the 2004 election,” explained Go.

So long, farewell

An emotional Sen. Ralph Recto, who ran for re-election under the administration’s Team Unity, bade farewell to the Senate Monday in an emotional valedictory speech where he stressed the need for politicians “to be right than popular” for the sake of the greater good.

Recto’s acceptance of his impending defeat in the senatorial race came as Team Unity and Malacañang still expressed optimism that Recto and Bukidnon Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri could make it to the Magic 12 with the uncanvassed votes from several Mindanao provinces.

Recto said he would have more time to be father and husband to actress Vilma Santos, who ran and won as governor of Batangas.

“I will gently go out of this institution, comforted in the thought that in every waking day that I had served out my mandate, I did it to the best of my ability, and always with the best interest of the country in mind,” Recto said.

Recto noted he would like to be remembered “as the one who did not hide in safe harbors but who sailed in open seas, sometimes against the gale of public opinion, out of the belief, like sailors of yore, that one can only make progress if he loses sight of the land.”

Recto was the principal author of the expanded value added tax, being the chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, and during the campaign, it was one of the issues that he had to defend most of the time.

“The duty of a member of this chamber is not to pander to what is popular but to uphold what is right, a senator who came before us said,” Recto stressed.

“That is true, otherwise those who will sit in this chamber will be a hostage to constant reinvention, depending on where the political wind blows, when duty requires adherence to core beliefs,” he said, adding: “I shall now pay the price of my intransigence. But I have no regrets.”

The senator, who is a mestizo, looked flushed while delivering his speech and was apparently trying to control his emotions. When interviewed by reporters later, he said he did not explicitly concede defeat because the counting was still ongoing.

Recto took the opportunity to say goodbye to the Senate during the first of the last three session days of the 13th Congress.

Recto said the “math” would show the unfavorable results of the senatorial elections based on the reports of his people on the ground.

“We know the numbers. All I’m saying is I’m prepared to lose,” he said.

Like his grandfather Claro M. Recto, he expressed optimism that history would judge him favorably.

“My grandfather practiced supply-side politics and that involved voicing contrary opinions when popularity contests – otherwise known as the elections– require a candidate to take the safest course to a new mandate, and that is to say what everybody is thinking but in the loudest voice,” Recto said.

The Genuine Opposition (GO) welcomed Monday the move of Senator Recto to concede defeat.

Adel Tamano, GO spokesperson, said Recto has proven himself worthy of his illustrious family name: “His act of conceding shows his commitment to the public welfare and is a step to protect the people’s mandate against cheating.”

Tamano added that the GO “salutes him” for the gentleman move. With Edu Punay, Christina Mendez

Abalos chides Namfrel over 8-2-2 GO win projection

2007-06-05T18:33:00.000-07:00

06/05/2007 | 07:48 AM

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr chided the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) Tuesday for making projections about an 8-2-2 opposition win in the senatorial race.

Abalos "reminded" Namfrel that its job is merely to conduct quick-count operations of the election based on its copies of election documents, and not to "extrapolate."

"I hope they stop issuing that kind of statement. Sila ay nandiyan para mag-quick count lang, di mag-extrapolate. Kung naging 8-3-1 baka mamaya masira sila, hindi maganda yan. Baka maging 7-3-2 ibig sabihin may himalang ginawa ang Comelec (I hope they stop issuing that kind of statement. Namfrel is there just to conduct a quick count, not to interpret the data. If the final count turns out to be 8-3-1, their credibility may suffer. Or if it turns out to be 7-3-2, we will be accused of hocus-pocus)," he said in an interview on dzXL radio.

He said there are still some 1.2 million votes yet to be counted, and the vote difference among those in the 12th to 13th places may be between 28,000 to 30,000.

But Namfrel chairman Edward Go said his group never said its figures were "certain."

Go said he merely said that Juan Miguel Zubiri (Team Unity) can still mathematically catch up with Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III (Genuine Opposition), with a difference of just 171,000 votes.

In contrast, he said Zubiri has little, if any, chance of catching up with former Navy Lt. S.G. Antonio Trillanes IV (GO).

"It doesn't mean to say the final result 100%, ang counting natin hindi official (It does not mean our counting is 100% the final result. Besides, our counting is not official)," he said in a separate interview. - GMANews.TV

Namfrel protests Comelec count in Lanao polls

2007-06-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

By Lino dela Cruz
Monday, June 04, 2007

ILIGAN CITY -- Hundreds of people held a prayer rally in front of St. Michael’s Cathedral Saturday to protest the results of the canvassing of three “tampered” ballot boxes from three Lanao del Norte towns.

The Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC) reconvened Saturday afternoon and canvassed the election returns from the towns of Kauswagan, Bacolod and Maigo in Lanao despite earlier findings of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that the padlocks of the ballot boxes had been tampered.

Pinoy Votes: Sun.Star Election 2007 Coverage

View here the list of local winners

The PBOC headed by Gondino Salvana insisted in continuing the canvassing despite the manifestations from United Opposition (UNO) lawyer Arthur Abundiente that the seals containing the Certificates of Canvass were destroyed.

Abundiente further manifested that some of the votes were clearly altered and the figures did not match those in the Certificates of Canvass (COC) of the National Movement for Free Elections-Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (Namfrel-PPCRV).

In Maigo town alone, congressional candidate Imelda Dimaporo garnered 7,550 votes after the canvassing of the tampered ballot box compared to the 1,550 votes reflected in the copies of COC in the possession of Namfrel.

The total number of votes garnered by Dimaporo from the three tampered ballot boxes increased tremendously that it is more than the total number of registered voters of the three towns, UNO lawyers said.

The PBOC canvassing irked PPCRV chairman Fr. Albert Mendez, who slammed the thick pad of COCs on the PBOC table, to manifest his disappointment with the canvassing process.

The unofficial Namfrel count showed that congressional candidates Vicente Belmonte got 58,962 votes, Angelique Badelles got 45,670 votes, and Dimaporo garnered 42,596 votes.

The results of the canvassing immediately spread in Iligan City and people rallied with the priests in manifestation of their indignation.

Diocese of Iligan legal counsel Leo Zaragoza immediately called on the people to gather for a prayer rally in front of the St. Michael's Cathedral Saturday night.

Candles were lighted and they prayed that the winning candidate based on the Namfrel-PPCRV copies of the COCs be given justice and proclaimed as the newly elected congressman for the first district of Lanao del Norte instead of a candidate whose victory is based on the altered copies of the COCs.

The controversial ballot boxes and the allegedly altered COCs were brought by the PBOC to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) regional office in Cagayan de Oro City and these will be brought to Manila for further inspection.

The PBOC assured the public that no proclamation of winner in the congressional race in the 1st district of Lanao del Norte will be made on the local level but it is the Comelec commissioners in Manila who will make the proclamation of the winner. (Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)

NAMFREL COUNT: As of June 2, 2007 11:41pm

2007-06-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

Precincts Tallied 197,084

Percentage of Total 87.69

1 LEGARDA, L. - 15,200,169

2 ESCUDERO, F. - 14,926,697

3 LACSON, P. - 12,880,049

4 VILLAR, M. - 12,537,728

5 AQUINO, B. - 11,965,505

6 PANGILINAN, F. - 11,930,557

7 ANGARA, E. - 10,403,534

8 CAYETANO, J. - 9,691,262

9 HONASAN, G. - 9,636,150

10 ARROYO, J. - 9,618,637

11 TRILLANES, A. - 9,248,609

12 PIMENTEL, A. - 8,895,408

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 31, 2007 9:26pm

2007-05-31T17:47:00.001-07:00

As of May 31, 2007 9:26 pm

Precincts Tallied 190,251

Percentage of Total 84.65%

1 LEGARDA, L. - 14,939,914

2 ESCUDERO, F. - 14,709,244

3 LACSON, P. - 12,694,678

4 VILLAR, M. - 12,321,961

5 AQUINO, B. - 11,798,541

6 PANGILINAN, F. - 11,730,536

7 ANGARA, E. - 10,199,300

8 CAYETANO, J. - 9,559,416

9 HONASAN, G. - 9,491,028

10 ARROYO, J. - 9,480,224

11 TRILLANES, A. - 9,207,682

12 PIMENTEL, A. - 8,880,042

Namfrel exec survives gun attack in Makati

2007-05-31T17:45:00.000-07:00

Article posted May 31, 2007 - 08:06 PM

Gunmen stormed Thursday the office of the spokesman of the National Movement for Free Election but the attackers failed to kill the poll watchdog official due to alert office staff.

According to Namfrel Secretary General Eric Alvia, lawyer Jose Bernas was unhurt in the shooting inside the latter�s office in Makati.

Alvia said four unidentified men introduced themselves as members of the press to gain entry into Bernas� office building along Buenavidez Street past 12 noon.

The gunmen barged into Bernas� office and opened fire but failed to hit the Namfrel official who was able to duck behind his table.

One of the lawyer�s staff was able to slam the door shut to keep the attackers out. Building security men drawn by the gunshots rushed to Bernas� office but failed to catch the gunmen.

�We are still not sure whether the attack was related to his work with Namfrel. Bernas is a lawyer, he is handling many cases," Alvia said. - GMANews.TV

Namfrel may not count Lanao votes

2007-05-31T17:43:00.000-07:00

By FIDEL JJIMENEZ, GMANews.TV
Article posted May 31, 2007 - 03:44 PM

The National Movement for Free Election (Namfrel) may set aside the counting of more than 100,000 votes from the 13 towns and municipalities of Lanao del Sur where special elections were held on May 26.

In a press conference Thursday, Carlos Medina, co-convenor of the Legal Network for Truthful Election (Lente), said the copies of the election return (ERs) that they were able to collect in Lanao were all unreadable and had no signatures and thumb marks.

"We have more than 100 ERs but all of them are unreadable, kahit na gamitan mo pa ng lente (magnifying class)," said Medina. �If that was done in purpose, I don�t know. But you know that the ER copy for Namfrel is the 6th copy."

Namfrel chairman Edward Go, who was also present in the press briefing, said that the 13 towns and municipalities in Lanao Sur comprise of about 500 ERs and more than 100,000 votes.

�We will follow our general principles with regards to the ERs. If it is unreadable, don�t bear necessary markings like thumb marks and signatures, and if it is not authentic, then we will not count it," the chairman explained.

Medina added that they were unable to get ERs in five towns of Lanao including Butig, Bayang Sultan, Lumbayabao, Kuwalas and Marugong

Atty. Howard Calleja, legal counsel of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), also complained that their group was also denied access to get a copy of the statement of votes.

Namfrel has already counted 83.68 percent of the total 224,748 precincts. - GMANews.TV

Lawyers figure in car chase for election returns in Lanao Sur

2007-05-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

05/29/2007 | 10:37 PM

In a scene straight out of the movies, lawyers from an election watchdog group figured in a car chase with election inspectors, in the former's furious effort to get the sixth copy of election in returns (ERs) from a town in Lanao del Sur.

Online newspaper MindaNews (www.mindanews.com) reported Tuesday night that the car chase took place Monday, ending up inside the campus of the Mindanao State University (MSU).

Lawyers from the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) were running after the BEIs to get the sixth copy of ERs from Lumbayanague town in Lanao del Sur.

The incident was only one of several reported “irregularities" that hounded last weekend’s special election in Lanao del Sur, which also included minors being allowed to vote.

Counting in the Lanao del Sur Provincial Capitol gym was also stopped several times Monday night due to the obnoxious stench of leftover food, and the use of the gym as makeshift toilets by poll watchers.

Lente co-convenor Carlos Medina said local BEIs refused to comply with the order of poll commissioner Rene Sarmiento, who twice ordered them last May 19 and May 23 to give the sixth ER copy to the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel).

“It is really frustrating. The BEIs simply refused to give us ER copies. They are following their own law here. They are not even obeying orders from the national Comelec," Medina said.

He said that when they asked the BEI of Lumbayanague why she would not give them the ER copies, she said no such order came from the Lanao del Sur election supervisor.

Medina said he and the Lente lawyers finally got copies of 31 ERs from the Lumbayanague BEI member when she alighted from a van inside the MSU campus.

Lente, Namfrel and the Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms (C-Care), have been complaining against the refusal by BEIs to give them the ER copies.

Aside from the 31 copies from Lumabayangue, Medina said they retrieved 87 copies from the 13 towns in Lanao del Sur where special elections were held last Saturday.

A total of 494 ERs are supposed to be given to Namfrel.

Namfrel provincial chair Hajji Abdullah Dalidig said they were only able to retrieve 1,042 ERs out of 2,609 expected from the 26 towns where elections was held last May 14.

Medina said they were able to get hold of the ERs from Sultan Dumalundong town before unidentified men took away the ballot boxes Monday night.

He said the watchdog group members failed to get the ERs from the municipality of Madalum when the counting was finished Monday afternoon.

Medina said they are also baffled by the absence of a number of BEIs, many of whom had reported “sick" or were supposedly “taking a rest" in neighboring Iligan City.

On the other hand, another watchdog group said minors were able to vote and there was rampant vote-buying even inside the polling centers, right in front of policemen and election special action officers.

Salic Ibrahim, Lanao del Sur coordinator for the Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms (C-Care), said the presence of hundreds of soldiers, policemen and election special action officers did not deter flying voters and vote-buying during the special elections.

“They are not exactly the heroes the Comelec wanted the public to believe," Ibrahim said.

Lily Datu, a C-Care volunteer said policemen who acted as BEI members allowed poll watchers to assist disabled and illiterate voters in the casting of their votes in Butig town last May 27.

“Often, the poll watchers gave these voters P100 or P500 to vote for their candidates," Datu said.

She said the vote-buying was done right in front of the policemen and election special action officers.

In contrast, Datu said the policemen and election special action officers did not allow her and other C-Care volunteers to loiter in the polling precincts.

Norjanah Sultan, another C-Care said she saw minors voting in some precincts in Madalum town.

Comelec special action officer Roy Prule, who was assigned to supervise the elections in Butig town, said they could not do anything against the minors because the names were in the voters’ list.

Meanwhile, the counting of ballots at the Lanao del Sur Provincial Capitol gym had to be stopped several times Monday night reportedly because the smell of leftover food had turned so obnoxious.

But the poll watchers had refused to to leave the site amid the tight security imposed by Army soldiers, and to continue on with the vigil, decided to use the stage as their makeshift toilet.

The gym is the venue for the simultaneous counting of ballots for two municipalities. At least 200 poll watchers stay inside the gym until the counting of ballots is over.

Lawyers and soldiers described the unsanitary conditions in the gym as “a health hazard."

Prule said he nearly puked when he entered the gym to bring the ballot boxes from the town of Butig last Monday.

Prule said he had asked the Commission on Elections national headquarters in Manila to find a new venue for the counting of ballots for the town of Butig.

He said it would be preferable if the venue will be transferred to the gym at the Mindanao State University.

Col. Raynard Ronnie Javier, commanding officer of the Army 103rd Brigade, said they brought fire trucks Monday night to bring water to clean the gym. - GMANews.TV

source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/44332/Lawyers-figure-in-car-chase-for-election-returns-in-Lanao-Sur

Namfrel chief doubts health made Sarmiento quit

2007-05-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

The head of the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) said he was disappointed over the decision of elections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento to leave the task force investigating Maguindanao votes that were all allegedly given to senatorial candidates of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Sarmiento, commissioner-in-charge of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, quit as head of task force on Monday.

The commissioner said in resignation letter that his involvement in the May 26 special elections in the 13 municipalities in Lanao del Sur, particularly supervising and monitoring the pre-election preparations, election proper and post elections has taken a toll" on his health.

Namfrel Chairman Edward Go, however doubted Sarmiento’s reason for leaving the task force. “I saw him in Lanao, he looked okay. Maybe the situation he witnessed in (Mindanao) was too much for him to bear," he said.

Go said Namfrel officials and representatives from other election watchdogs will meet on Tuesday morning to assess the ongoing election processes—including Sarmiento’s decision to resign. - Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/44180/Namfrel-chief-doubts-health-made-Sarmiento-quit#

Sarmiento resigns as TF Maguindanao head

2007-05-28T01:35:00.000-07:00

Poll commissioner Rene Sarmiento resigned Monday as head of a Commission on Elections-formed task force investigating alleged election fraud in Maguindanao province.

Sarmiento, commissioner-in-charge for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said he is resigning as head of Task Force Maguindanao due to health reasons.

He said he cannot physically head the investigation after overseeing the conduct of special elections in some areas in ARMM, including 13 municipalities of Lanao del Sur province, over the weekened. He said COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos should turn over his task to another commissioner.

Sarmiento added that he would have to concentrate on resolving problems that occurred during the special elections. Aside from Lanao del Sur, he said he would have to resolve some problems in the elections held in Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Sharif Kabunsuan provinces.

Abalos ordered the formation of the task force after the legal arm of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) revealed widespread cheating in Maguindanao.

The Legal Network for Truthful Elections, PPCRV's legal arm, said the Board of Election Inspectors were forced to fill up blank ballots with the names of administration candidates, including members of the Team Unity senatorial ticket. Initial reports from COMELEC officers earlier revealed that TU senatorial bets swept the elections in the province.

NAMFREL said its volunteers in Maguindanao were barred from polling precincts and were not allowed to witness canvassing.

Sarmiento wants out of probe body on Maguindanao cheating

2007-05-28T01:32:00.000-07:00

Citing fatigue, the poll official in charge of Maguindanao is not keen on heading the probe body that will look into alleged cheating in Maguindanao province.

Instead, Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Rene Sarmiento said Monday he will let another commissioner take over the task force.

"Sana ganoon. Ang inyong abang lingkod ay physically hindi makakayanan ang trabahong ito (I hope that would be the case. Yours truly is physically incapable of handling the job)," Sarmiento said in an interview on dzXL radio.

He said he has many other matters to attend to involving elections in other areas of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Sarmiento is in charge of the ARMM region.

One of these matters involves problems in elections in Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sharif Kabunsuan.

Sarmiento said the Comelec will have to decide if there was indeed a failure of elections or a postponement of elections in the said provinces.

"Kung mapatunayang may dahilan at may basehan magtatakda ang Comelec ng special elections. (Pero) kakaunti na so sa tingin ko hindi na makakaapekto sa senatorial candidates (If we can find basis, the Comelec will call for special elections. But I believe there are too few votes in those areas to affect the senatorial race)," he said.

Sarmiento had just supervised special elections in Lanao del Sur. He said the polls there were relatively peaceful, and estimated the voter turnout at 75 percent.

On the other hand, Sarmiento said many civil society groups want to take part in the investigation into alleged poll irregularities in Maguindanao.

Maguindanao is the province where administration Team Unity senatorial candidates got a 12-0 "victory."

However, teachers serving in the board of election inspectors had come forward to claim that they were made to fill up the ballots with names of TU candidates, while students were made to place their thumb marks on the ballots.

Among the groups that want to join the investigation, he said, are the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), and Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE).

"May grupo na gusto sumali sa investigation, tulad ng PPCRV, Namfrel, Lente and other civil society groups (There are many groups that want to take part in the investigation like PPCRV, Namfrel, and Lente)," Sarmiento said. - GMANews.TV

source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/44056/Sarmiento-wants-out-of-probe-body-on-Maguindanao-cheating

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 26, 2007 5:52pm

2007-05-28T01:29:00.000-07:00

As of May 26, 2007 5:52 p.m.

Precincts Tallied 179,655

Percentage of Total 79.94

1 LEGARDA, L. - 14,088,197

2 ESCUDERO, F. - 13,838,440

3 LACSON, P. - 11,951,942

4 VILLAR, M. - 11,609,985

5 AQUINO, B. - 11,041,088

6 PANGILINAN, F. - 11,035,941

7 ANGARA, E. - 9,648,879

8 CAYETANO, A. - 8,970,598

9 HONASAN, G. - 8,966,150

10 ARROYO, J. - 8,928,756

11 TRILLANES, A. - 8,657,145

12 PIMENTEL, A. - 8,398,589

Namfrel counted 87% ERs, canvassing to wind up soon

2007-05-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

The National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) will soon wind up canvassing of election returns (ER) from the May 14 midterm polls.

Namfrel Chairman Edward Go told reporters on Monday that the poll watchdog is left with only 13 percent of the total ERs from 224,748 precincts for canvassing.

“That means (we have canvassed ERs from) 87 percent of the precincts… We have about 13 percent to go…including areas where special elections were held like in Lanao del Sur," he said.

Go declined to say whether the remaining 13 percent of uncanvassed ERs would affect the standing of the senatorial candidates from the ninth to 16th place. “I don’t want to speculate kasi hindi ko pa nakikita ang bagong tally."

Go said there are still 500,000 uncanvassed votes from Maguindanao and the 13 municipalities in Lanao del Sur. - Fidel, Jimenez, GMANews.TV

source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/44109/Namfrel-counted-87-ERs-canvassing-to-wind-up-soon

Lanao del Sur polls ‘chaotic and intense’ – Namfrel chief

2007-05-28T01:12:00.000-07:00

While there were no fatal incidents reported, the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) refused to agree to police reports that the recent special elections held in 13 towns of Lanao del Sur were generally peaceful.

Namfrel Chairman Edward Go told reporters on Monday that he witnessed how the Lanao Sur elections were conducted and found it marred by disorder. He said polls in some towns, especially in Kapay, “were chaotic and intense."

“People were lining up to vote. They were shouting, pushing and shoving. It seems everybody wanted to vote first. What was the motivation? I don’t know," Go said during a press briefing at the La Salle Greenhills in San Juan.

Go described the situation in Kapay during the day of the special polls on May 26, as “very intense." “Comparing the election day in Manila, the situation in Kapay was very very far. Napakatensiyunado ng mga tao," he said.

He however forgot the name of the school where the special polls in Kapay was held but he said he “will never forget" what he had experienced there, especially the incident when some “personalities" barred Namfrel volunteers from entering the polling precinct.

The Namfrel chief also said he met Sen. Rodolfo Biazon in Lanao del Sur, the day after the elections. He said Biazon told him about the difficulties that his party encountered in getting copies of election returns (ER). “Sen. Biazon told me that they have not obtained the copies of ERs for the Liberal Party, (though it was the) minority party (acknowledged by the Comelec)." - Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV

source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/44104/Lanao-del-Sur-polls-chaotic-and-intense--Namfrel-chief

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 25, 2007 7:24 p.m.

2007-05-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

As of May 25, 2007 7:24 p.m.
Precincts Tallied 165,143
Percentage of Total 73.48

1 LEGARDA, L. - 12,654,633
2 ESCUDERO, F. - 11,379,537
3 LACSON, P. - 10,811,904
4 VILLAR, M. - 10,411,432
5 PANGILINAN, F. - 9,924,867
6 AQUINO, B. - 9,890,850
7 ANGARA, E. - 8,683,332
8 HONASAN, G. - 8,096,114
9 CAYETANO, A. - 8,035,945
10 ARROYO, J. - 7,950,336
11 TRILLANES, A. - 7,702,597
12 PIMENTEL, A. - 7,571,752

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 23, 2007 10:57pm

2007-05-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

Precincts Tallied 224,748

Percentage of Total 66.99%

1 Legarda, Loren - 11,542,261

2 Escudero, Francis A. - 11,302,892

3 Lacson, Panfilo M. - 9,934,593

4 Villar, Manuel Bamba Jr. - 9,551,576

5 Pangilinan, Francis N. - 9,110,064

6 Aquino, Benigno III C. - 9,048,021

7 Angara, Edgardo J. - 7,954,282

8 Honasan, Gregorio B. - 7,421,855

9 Cayetano, Alan Peter P. - 7,335,062

10 Arroyo, Joker P. - 7,256,260

11 Trillanes, Antonio IV F - 7,043,152

12 Pimentel, Aquilino III DL - 6,941,519

Mindanao poll fraud detailed

2007-05-23T17:14:00.000-07:00

Poll watchers report to Comelec

By Cathy C. Yamsuan, Jolene Bulambot, Charlie Señase, Nash Maulana, Edwin Fernandez
Mindanao Bureau, Inquirer, Visayas Bureau
Last updated 02:34am (Mla time) 05/24/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Poll watchdogs Wednesday gave detailed accounts of massive vote-buying, flagrant cheating and intimidation -- including death threats to a foreign observer -- in Mindanao during the May 14 elections.

The price of a vote ranged from P1,000 to P7,000 in some areas in Lanao del Sur province, according to the watchdogs’ accounts.

“Not even the Manila city jail can accommodate all the corrupt people in our area,” lawyer Nasser A. Marohomsalic, a member of the executive committee of the legal group Lente, told reporters.

Ranking officers of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) and Citizens’ Action for Responsible Elections (C-CARE) took turns detailing how rampant cheating took place in Lanao del Sur.

The officers submitted their report to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

The Comelec has ordered special elections in at least 13 towns in the province, where voting could not be held because of the presence of armed goons.

Marohomsalic said one supporter of a candidate in Ramain-Ditsaan town even had the audacity to offer P300 to a foreign observer, an Indonesian female he identified only as Marini.

Marohomsalic surmised that the person mistook Marini for a Filipino given her Malay features.

“Most buyers were inside the polling precincts coaching voters. Witnesses included local and foreign observers,” the watchdogs said in a statement.

250 votes each; only 169 voters

Marohomsalic said a Pakistani observer asked another person offering bribe money in exchange for votes in Bacolod-Kalawi town if what he was doing wasn’t illegal.

“The person only answered, ‘Do you want me to kill you’? (Gusto mo patayin kita?)’,” Marohomsalic said in a press conference.

Namfrel chair for Marawi City Mama B. Palawan presented an election return (ER) showing all 12 senatorial candidates of Team Unity (TU) sweeping the elections in Barangay Punod.

The TU candidates garnered 250 votes each even if the barangay only had 169 registered voters.

“Maybe even the ghosts voted there,” he remarked.

Palawan said the stranger thing was that an “unheard of” party-list group called NELFFI, or Novelty Entrepreneurship and Livelihood for Food, also swept the party-list race in the same barangay.

Watchers barred

Palawan also noted what he called an “oversupply” in ERs after getting his hands on two ERs with different serial numbers but reporting the same results in a single barangay.

There was also an ER accomplished without the signatures of any of the election inspectors save for a faded thumbmark which Palawan said looked like it was made with “a child’s thumb or a cat’s paw.”

A PPCRV volunteer identified as Nursaide Dipatuan was mauled by still unidentified men inside the campus of the Mindanao State University.

“His face was smashed,” the lawyer said.

The watchdogs’ statement said watchers of PPCRV and another group were denied access by the board of canvassers (BOCs) to polling precincts in several towns.

Marahomsalic said the BOCs were assisted by “members of the (Philippine National Police) and soldiers.”

During the provincial tabulation, said watchers from PPCRV, C-CARE, and Namfrel were not allowed to observe the tabulation of election returns held at the Lanao del Sur provincial capitol and the MSU campus.

Watchers were also barred by BOCs from monitoring the canvassing in Marawi City National High School.

No indelible ink

Other charges detailed in the report to Comelec included:

• Failure to apply indelible ink on the fingers of those who had voted.

• Proliferation of campaign materials inside the polling areas.

• Placement of ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia outside the polling precincts.

In many areas, votes were already being tabulated at the municipal level while ERs remained unaccomplished.

Marohomsalic said volunteers who were raising objections during the tallying at the precincts and during provincial canvassing were simply ignored by canvassers and election inspectors.

The disclosures of flagrant cheating in Lanao del Norte followed revelations earlier this week by a public school teacher in Maguindanao that she and other teachers were forced at gunpoint to fill out ballots with the names of TU candidates.

Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao are part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) -- scene of alleged cheating in favor of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2004 presidential election, according to the “Hello Garci” tapes.

Comelec officials in cahoots

Fresh accounts of how cheating supposedly occurred in Maguindanao emerged Wednesday. One account came from a teacher who acted as a member of the board of election inspectors (BEI) in one town of that province.

The alleged Maguindanao fraud gave the TU candidates a sweeping 12-0 victory in the province.

Interviewed through her cellular phone on the program “Arangkada” aired over ABS-CBN-Cebu’s dyAB, the teacher, who identified herself as Bai, accused local Comelec officials, the police and the military of collusion in committing fraud.

Bai reiterated there were no elections in Maguindanao since the teachers were ordered to fill out the ballots starting at 11 p.m. on the eve of the May 14 polls.

She also said that representatives from Namfrel were prohibited from entering voting centers in Shariff Aguak.

Bai said that she knew her life, along with those of the other teachers, was in danger but she had to expose the truth.

She said two other teachers were willing to attest to her statement.

Probe welcomed

Bai said nobody went to the polling precincts on Election Day and that anyone could see that the people who supposedly had voted had no marks of the indelible ink on their fingers.

Another whistle-blower, named “Kareem,” said in Filipino on GMA television network:

“We were given a list of senators. That was what we wrote on the ballot. It was 12-0 for TU,” said Kareem.

“We were the ones who actually wrote the names on the ballots. Look at the handwriting on the ballots. Only three people did it. The handwritings were the same.”

Maguindanao provincial administrator Norie Unas said the provincial government was willing to help in the Comelec probe of alleged election fraud in the province.

“The provincial government is ready to assist them in any way to help clear the festering issue once and for all so this thing will already rest,” Unas said.

Education officials in ARMM Wednesday led hundreds of local public school teachers to the provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak to denounce the unnamed teachers who alleged there was wholesale poll fraud in the province.

“Whoever they are, they should come out into the open with their identities so as not to destroy the image of the other teachers,” local education official Udtog Kawit said.

‘Grand design’

Unas, who is also the spokesperson for Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan, described the Maguindanao poll controversy as a “grand design” by people not happy with the TU’s 12-0 sweep in the province.

“Why blame us for this. They (the opposition) ought to be blamed for not campaigning in Maguindanao,” Unas said.

TU strategists have said the 12-0 result showed the power of the “command vote” in areas where pro-administration officials hold sway -- such as in Maguindanao, where Ampatuan is regarded as a political kingpin.

Unas bragged about Maguindanao’s “participatory democracy” under Ampatuan.

2 sets of winners

Another problem emerged Wednesday in South Upi town, also in Maguindanao, this time involving the proclamation of two sets of officials.

On May 15, local Comelec chief Monakiram Sambuang proclaimed Abdullah Campong as mayor-elect, Maria Sargan as vice mayor-elect, and eight councilors.

But a second certificate of canvass, or vote tally, showed another set of winning candidates for the town council.

Rodrigo Toriales, one of those on the first list of winners, told radio dxMS he could not understand why strange things always happened in his town.

“We are the sure winners but our names were deleted from the CoC and the Comelec put other names, why?” he asked.

Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol could not be reached for comment.

source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id=67616

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 22, 2007 11:20pm

2007-05-22T17:02:00.000-07:00

As of May 22, 2007 11:20 p.m.

Precincts Tallied 133,073

Percentage of Total 59.21%

1 Legarda, Loren - 9,624,986

2 Escudero, Francis A. - 9,370,285

3 Lacson, Panfilo M. - 8,279,916

4 Villar, Manuel Bamba Jr. - 7,933,889

5 Pangilinan, Francis N. - 7,512,265

6 Aquino, Benigno III C. - 7,470,608

7 Angara, Edgardo J. - 6,626,557

8 Honasan, Gregorio B. - 6,279,935

9 Cayetano, Alan Peter P. - 6,084,715

10 Trillanes, Antonio IV F - 5,939,286

11 Arroyo, Joker P. - 5,921,281

12 Pimentel, Aquilino III DL - 5,805,271

MBC to Comelec: Probe Maguindanao before Lanao polls

2007-05-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

05/22/2007 | 06:12 PM

The influential Makati Business Club (MBC) urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday to fast track its investigation on the alleged fraudulent election results in Maguindanao province that reportedly gave a 12-0 win to the senatorial candidates of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo under the Team Unity ticket.

In a statement, MBC chairman Ramon Del Rosario told Comelec that it should conduct the probe before the May 26 special elections in Lanao del Sur.

“We…welcome the decision of the Comelec to motu propio investigate the situation in Maguindanao, but we urge them to do so as possible and not wait until after the special election in Lanao del Sur," he said.

He added: “These anomalies have happened in previous elections in the same place. We cannot afford (to let this) happen again. If nothing is done to uncover what truly happened, it will be a travesty of justice." - GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/43431/MBC-to-Comelec-Probe-Maguindanao-before-Lanao-polls

Namfrel documents 'rampant' poll fraud in Lanao del Sur

2007-05-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

FIDEL JIMENEZ, GMANews.TV

05/22/2007 | 09:17 PM

The National Movement for Free Election (Namfrel) appealed to the Commission on the Elections (Comelec) to investigate election-related irregularities the poll watchdog documented in the towns and cities of Lanao del Sur.

In a report distributed to media on Tuesday, Namfrel alleged that vote buying was rampant in the province. The election watchdog claimed that each voter is bribed P 20 to P300 in exchange for voting a councilor, board member, representative or governor.

Namfrel said vote-buying for the mayoral position was much higher, ranging from P 1,000 to P7,000.

The group's volunteers also observed that ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia were outside the polling precincts of Bacolod Kalawi town.

The report added that Namfrel’s volunteers were denied access in the polling precincts of Pikong, Malabang, Kalanugas and Maging towns. They were also allegedly barred from entering the Lanao del Sur provincial capitol and the Mindanao State University (MSU) compound in Marawi City, were canvassing of votes took place.

Namfrel volunteers also claimed that they were denied of copies of certificates of canvass in Lanao del Sur municipalities.

One of the volunteers was reportedly mauled inside the MSU while tabulation was going on May 15, the report said.

The report was signed by Hadji Abdulla Dalidig, Namfrel’s provincial chairman in Lanao Sur; Mama Palawan, Namfrel’s chair in Marawi; Atty. Nasser Marohomsalic, of Lente, legal arm of Namfrel; Salic Ibrahim of C-Care Lanao Sur; Atty. Abdulbayan Balt, former labor secretary in ARMM.

SOURCE: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/43448/Namfrel-documents-rampant-poll-fraud-in-Lanao-del-Sur

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 22, 2007 10: 58am

2007-05-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

As of May 22, 2007 10:58 a.m.

Precincts Tallied 128,557

Percentage of Total 57.20%

1 Legarda, Loren - 9,103,567

2 Escudero, Francis A. - 8,900,587

3 Lacson, Panfilo M. - 7,887,955

4 Villar, Manuel Bamba Jr. - 7,491,080

5 Pangilinan, Francis N. - 7,102,947

6 Aquino, Benigno III C. - 7,093,108

7 Angara, Edgardo J. - 6,255,200

8 Honasan, Gregorio B. - 5,971,938

9 Cayetano, Alan Peter P. - 5,793,037

10 Trillanes, Antonio IV F - 5,651,727

11 Arroyo, Joker P. - 5,611,185

12 Pimentel, Aquilino III DL - 5,461,121

Namfrel to field more volunteers in Lanao special polls

2007-05-21T23:51:00.000-07:00

05/22/2007 | 01:38 PM

The National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) will be fielding additional volunteers in 13 towns in Lanao del Sur where special polls will be held over the weekend, the poll watchdog's chair said Tuesday.

"This time, we want to make sure that the process of election (will be) proper and peaceful...that people can vote freely and without fear," Edward Go told reporters in a press briefing.

Go said the votes in the affected towns in Lanao del Sur, plus the votes in Maguindanao could affect the results of the senatorial ranking from 8 to 15.

About 100,000 voters will cast their votes on May 26 in the 13 towns in Lanao del Sur. The province has about 396,722 registered voters. On the other hand, Maguindanao has about 300,000 registered voters.

In the same briefing, Go said his group has yet to receive any election returns (ERs) from their field volunteers in Sultan Kudarat.

Go added he is still awaiting the report of Namfrel’s chapter in Sultan Kudarat as to why no ERs have yet been delivered to Greenhills in San Juan from the area.

"Masyado kasi kaming naka-focus sa Maguindanao. But I was told that unlike in Maguindanao na hindi ma-locate noong una ang mga volunteer, sa Sultan Kudarat naman they were all accounted and nothing had happened," he said. - Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/43388/Namfrel-to-field-more-volunteers-in-Lanao-special-polls

PPCRV petitions Comelec to disregard Maguindanao votes

2007-05-21T23:46:00.000-07:00

By Joey Alarilla, Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 11:07am (Mla time) 05/22/2007

(UPDATE) MANILA, Philippines -- The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting has asked the Commission on Elections to set aside the certificate of canvass from Maguindanao province, which has arrived in Manila.

As of posting time Monday, PPCRV, the lawyers group Lente (Legal Network for Truthful Elections), and VForce (Volunteers for Clean Elections) are meeting with Commissioner Rene Sarmiento to discuss how they can help in the investigation on the fraud exposed by a teacher in Maguindanao.

Howard Calleja, PPCRV national legal counsel, said they wanted the canvassing of votes from the Maguindanao deferred until after the results of the investigation of the Comelec task force was completed.

At the same time, Calleja said this new consortium of civil society groups would send from 20 to 40 lawyers for the special elections in 13 Lanao Del Sur towns and several other places in Shariff Kabunsuan, Sulu, Basilan, and Tawi-tawi.

Former Comelec chairman Christian Monsod said that if the task force would find that the election process in Maguindanao was flawed, then special elections might be held there, complete with full monitoring by media, civil society groups, and the Marines.

Earlier on Tuesday, PPCRV chairman Tita de Villa said on local television that the Comelec could not ignore the numerous complaints, which include the similarity in handwriting in the signatures on some of these ballots.

In announcing the formation of a task force, the Comelec, which has been convening as the National Board of Canvassers for the counting, said that it could not defer the canvassing in Maguindanao, because, as Chairman Benjamin Abalos had said the poll body "could not totally disregard the result of the elections in the province on a mere allegation by someone who hides 'under a cloak of immunity.'”

De Villa said however that the Comelec must do something that would send a clear signal that fraud would not be tolerated, otherwise "no elections of ours will be credible."

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=67302

COMELEC must account for Mindanao

2007-05-21T23:43:00.000-07:00

COMELEC must account for Mindanao

INQUIRER.net
Last updated 11:46am (Mla time) 05/22/2007

We ask the Comelec - what gives in Mindanao? We are dismayed at the accounts coming out of provinces of Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Sulu and Lanao del Sur. What is more appalling is the slowness with which Comelec is responding to the various crises affecting the region. It is a pity that the Comelec doesn’t seem to be doing anything to restore the people’s faith.

We listened in alarm as “Bai”, a teacher from Maguindanao, revealed on radio that there were, in fact, no elections held in that province, that children were used to cheat for administration backed candidates. We support Lente in its plan to file a formal complaint regarding these allegations but doubt that the Comelec will act with speed on the matter. Whose interest will be better served as long as Comelec drags its feet? The protection of a life is in jeopardy here. The longer it takes for “Bai” to testify on what she witnessed, the quicker it will be for evil forces to silence her.

There is a parallel story coming out of Indanan, Sulu – a lawyer actually witnessed teachers filling out ballots in favor of Team Unity. Is this how low this administration is planning to go?

Also in Maguindanao, the local Comelec refuses to release election results, all in favor of Team Unity, to Namfrel. This is not surprising, given that this particular Comelec office is under the command of Dir. Rey Sumalipao of “Hello, Garci?” notoriety. Why hesitate in producing the results if they are seemingly in favor of those who thirst most to retain power?

News of election related violence and a four-day late start of canvassing in Shariff Kabunsuan and a failure of elections in several towns in Lanao del Sur are more than disturbing. If another “Hello, Garci?” character, Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol, is indeed appointed to head Shariff Kabunsuan’s Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBC), there will then be more room for distrust.

Let us not be sidetracked by stories of “trending” by Namfrel and other groups. These “quick” counts are not official counts. The official results will come from the Comelec, an institution that is in bad need of reform, lacking in accountability and transparency.

Despite the deluge of stories on electoral doom and gloom, we are heartened by small victories in other places. We salute the people of Pampanga as they place their trust in Among Ed Panlilio. The KO victory of Darlene Custodio over Manny Pacquiao and the defeat of Virgilio Garcillano prove that our people can make the right choices. How we wish that the Chairman and Commissioners of the Commission on Elections would do the same.

The Black & White Movement

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/mailbag/mailbag/view_article.php?article_id=67317

PCIJ: Maguindanao's 12-0 sweep for TU: 'Hello Garci' Take 2?

2007-05-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

Alecks P. Pabico, PCIJ

05/20/2007 | 11:12 AM

MALACAÑANG strategists are trumpeting the news of a 12-0 sweep by Team Unity senatorial candidates of the Maguindanao elections as the vaunted power of the administration’s political machinery at work through bloc voting.

With TU bets trailing in early tallies by both the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Malacañang has claimed that “command votes" from its bailiwicks would eventually put them in the senatorial winning circle.

As of the morning of May 16, with 73 percent of the votes in the province’s 27 towns counted, Mindanews reported that the administration ticket was lording it over the opposition in the Maguindanao tally, with Ilocos Sur Governor Luis “Chavit" Singson emerging as the surprise top vote-getter with 136,044 votes out of a total of 336,774 registered voters. Singson was followed by Bukidnon Representative Juan Miguel Zubiri (133,321 votes), and former Senator Tito Sotto (132,103 votes).

But a bewildered Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, the poll commissioner-in-charge assigned to ARMM during the May 14 elections, remarked that this is the first time he has heard of such a result, and said that the Commission on Elections will have to look into the matter.

They should, especially with how the elections turned out last Monday in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Foreign observers were witness to how the polls in the region’s six provinces were marred by widespread violence, blatant vote-buying and election irregularities.

Moreover, the Maguindanao tally brings to mind the suspicious results of the 2004 elections that came from the region, whose votes helped ensure Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s victory by a 1.1 million-vote lead over Fernando Poe Jr.

In 2004, Muslim Mindanao votes were indeed crucial to Arroyo’s winning margin as the region accounted for close to 300,000 of the lead. In fact, 17 percent of Arroyo’s total votes obtained in Mindanao came from ARMM. In seven towns ruled by the pro-Arroyo Ampatuan clan, Arroyo won over Poe by an incredible vote ratio of 82,411 to 142 (or 99.83 percent to 0.17 percent). In two towns, Arroyo garnered all the votes, with Poe getting zero.

More significantly, Maguindanao, along with Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Lanao del Sur, figured prominently in the “Hello, Garci" recordings — phone conversations between Arroyo and former Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano caught on tape allegedly detailing efforts to manipulate the outcome of the 2004 polls in Arroyo’s favor.

One of the calls made by Arroyo on June 6, 2004 sought Garcillano’s assurance about the consistency of election forms in Maguindanao. Garcillano’s reply: “Hindi naman ho masyadong problema sa Maguindanao (Maguindanao isn’t much of a problem)."

Based on official results, Arroyo won handily in Maguindanao, obtaining 199,431 (69 percent) of the votes compared to Poe’s 63,313 (22 percent). This was, however, disputed by Guimid Matalam, a losing gubernatorial bet, citing alleged cheating in 25 of 27 towns. Matalam charged that election returns were prepared even before the voting started on May 10, 2004, and that ballot boxes were never brought to the precincts.

One town in Maguindanao, Talitay, was mentioned in a call also made on June 6, 2004 by Comelec lawyer Wynne Asdala to Garcillano discussing efforts to garner more votes for K-4 senatorial candidate Robert Barbers. “Itong Talitay tsaka Columbio (a town in Sultan Kudarat), gusto nilang mag-submit ng bagong COC at saka SOV para mahabol yung si Barbers (They want to submit new COCs and SOVs in Talitay and Columbio so Barbers can catch up)," Asdala told Garcillano.

When asked for his side by the PCIJ in 2005, Asdala admitted talking with the former poll commissioner about the votes in Talitay, Maguindanao but denied the conversation was about attempts to pad Barbers’s votes.

What should also be a cause of concern is that Maguindanao’s provincial election supervisor is lawyer Lintang Bedol. In 2004, Bedol was reassigned to Sultan Kudarat shortly before the May elections. Sitting also as chairman of the Cotabato City board of canvassers, he presided over “highly problematic" counts in the two areas.

Bedol’s name was heard several times in the “Hello, Garci" tapes. Apparently, he was entrusted with “interesting" tasks during the 2004 elections, aside from reporting the results to Garcillano, as can be gleaned from these excerpts from our June 16, 2005 post, “Vidol who?“:

In the conversation that supposedly took place between Garcillano and the President at 9:47 a.m. on May 29, 2004, Arroyo wanted to know the extent of her defeat in Cotabato City.

The elections commissioner replied, “Hindi ho siguro sosobra ng (It probably wouldn’t exceed) forty, Ma’am. Nag-usap na kami ni Atty. Bedol….Kami ni Atty. Bedol, nag-usap ho ngayon (Atty. Bedol and I talked just now). But I’ll give you the exact figure ma’am in a little while, para ma-ano ninyo." The final outcome: Arroyo: 8,510; Poe, 29,417.

Meanwhile, a certain Danny, apparently worried about the Cotabato count, asked Garcillano in a phone conversation on May 25, 2004: “Sir, ano kaya, nagawan kaya ng paraan ni Bedol (Did Bedol manage to do something about this)?"

Former senator Robert Barbers, who purportedly called up Garcillano on May 29 to inquire about the Comelec en banc’s resolution transferring the canvassing venue from Cotabato City to Manila, was told, “…Bine-verify ko, pero si Atty. Bedol, yung ating tao dun, hindi makontak (I’m verifying it, but I can’t contact Atty. Bedol, our man there).

Bedol, who sources from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) describe as very close to Garcillano (the commissioner spent most of his 43 years in Mindanao), obviously wielded some power. The sources identified the voice of a woman complaining about Bedol to Garcillano as that of Comelec Region 12 Clarita Callar. She is heard saying, “Ba’t inaaway ako ni Bedol (Why is Bedol picking a fight)…"

In the tapes, Bedol was also caught talking to Garcillano at least twice. (see “Conversations with and about Bedol“)

Maguindanao’s “very high" voter turnout, with no town registering lower than 90 percent, according to Bedol, likewise lends to the improbability of the election results. It will be recalled that in the 2004 elections, the total votes cast for the party-list candidates in the province was 283,012 out of a total of 334,331 registered voters, corresponding to an unusually high 84.65 turnout. - Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 22, 2007 4:28am

2007-05-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

Legarda, Loren (GO)	8,042,545
Escudero, Francis Joseph (GO)	7,881,884
Lacson, Panfilo (GO)	7,009,371
Villar, Manuel Jr (GO)	6,575,650
Pangilinan, Francis (IND)	6,300,778
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (GO)	6,278,767
Angara, Edgardo (TU)	5,569,106
Honasan, Gregorio (IND)	5,318,070
Cayetano, Alan Peter (GO)	5,110,878
Arroyo, Joker (TU)	5,046,379
Trillanes, Antonio IV (GO)	4,976,891
Pimentel, Aquilino III (GO)	4,866,219

Fraud allegations alarm Abalos

2007-05-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

Team formed to probe poll cheating in Maguindanao

By Edson C. Tandoc Jr., Jocelyn Uy
Inquirer
Last updated 01:27am (Mla time) 05/22/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. Monday expressed alarm over reports that school teachers in Maguindanao province were forced at gunpoint to fill up ballots with the names of administration senatorial candidates, and ordered the creation of a task force to investigate the alleged cheating.

“It is very alarming. The electoral system is being attacked here. This is not good,” Abalos said.

He was reacting to a Philippine Daily Inquirer story the other day about how teachers in a Maguindanao school allegedly filled up ballots with the names of Team Unity candidates while being watched by armed men, and how school children were made to affix their thumbmarks on them.

Abalos challenged the accusers to present evidence, saying the Comelec would protect them.

Lente, the legal arm of the watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), said it had obtained confessions from a female public school teacher in Maguindanao who said that she and other teachers prepared the ballots in the middle of the night, hours before polling precincts were supposed to open.

Lente officials said the teacher did not want to be identified for fear of her safety.

The report coincided with accusations by the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections that Comelec officials in Maguindanao had refused to provide Namfrel volunteers with copies of provincial election returns, in defiance of orders from the Comelec head office.

“The credibility of the commission has been put at stake. That’s why we are conducting an investigation,” Abalos said.

Looking for the truth

Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, who is in charge of Maguindanao, said he would lead an investigation right after the special elections scheduled for Saturday in Lanao del Sur, where goons reportedly prevented elections from being held on schedule on May 14.

After the special polls in Lanao del Sur, “we will conduct an investigation in Maguindanao,” Sarmiento said.

He said he would invite regional and provincial election supervisors “to shed light on these allegations.”

“We just want to show that the commission is resolved to conclude the investigation, to ferret out the truth,” Sarmiento said.

Abalos called on Lente and PPCRV to reveal the sources of the allegations on the Maguindanao fraud so the poll body could determine if such an incident really took place.

“This is very serious because, as I said, it goes to the very essence of voting, of elections,” he said.

Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur are among the provinces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) mentioned in the “Hello Garci” tapes where votes were allegedly rigged to favor President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2004 presidential election.

The tapes supposedly dealt with phone conversations between Ms Arroyo and former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano on the manipulation of votes. Ms Arroyo and Garcillano denied they cheated.

Asked whether the National Board of Canvassers would defer the canvassing of votes from Maguindanao, Abalos said the board could not totally disregard the result of the elections in the province on a mere allegation by someone who hides “under a cloak of immunity.”

“Let’s be realistic about this,” he said.

Failure of elections

Since the Maguindanao probe will start only after the Lanao del Sur special elections, when the canvassing might already be nearing completion, the allegations of fraud would not hamper the proclamations of senatorial winners, Abalos said.

“Mere allegations, unless supported by evidence, cannot be a ground to suspend proclamation,” Abalos also said.

Sen. Franklin Drilon urged the Comelec to declare a failure of elections in Maguindanao and exclude the province from the official vote tallies in view of what he claimed was a blatant attempt by the administration to rig Maguindanao’s 300,000-plus votes.

Drilon decried what he said were arbitrary moves by the Comelec to declare a failure of elections in areas that did not favor administration candidates, while upholding the results in places where the votes had been manipulated to favor the administration.

“If you look at the election returns and the certificate of canvass, the statement of votes from the Maguindanao area and given what is reported about the teacher admitting that they filled up election returns, this should be sufficient for the Comelec to nullify the election in Maguindanao,” Drilon said in a press conference.

He said the Comelec, specifically Commissioner Sarmiento, should “stop acting like the Philippine National Police who will always tell the public, ‘you file a complaint against our erring policemen.’”

“He should stop saying that complaints should be filed before they investigate because the Comelec can motu propio investigate these complaints. The Comelec should exclude the questionable returns from the province of Maguindanao from its official canvass,” Drilon said.

Namfrel claim disputed

Drilon said the Comelec should also look at declaring a failure of elections in Lanao, Tawi-Tawi, Sultan Kudarat and Sulu.

Drilon said: “The Liberal Party is outraged over the reported massive and blatant Election Day and canvassing irregularities, especially in the areas alleged to be bailiwicks of this administration.”

Disputing Namfrel’s claims, Maguindanao’s controversial provincial election supervisor, Lintang Bedol, said Namfrel got its copies of election returns from the province.

Bedol, who was among the Comelec officials whose names were mentioned in the “Hello Garci” tapes, said that based on reports he got from poll officers from Maguindanao’s various towns, Namfrel volunteers took their sixth copies of the election returns at the precinct level.

Bedol said those who retrieved the ERs for Namfrel were given their copies after they presented identification cards. He said that election inspectors relied on the IDs presented to them.

“(Namfrel) has not provided us with the list of its volunteers despite persistent request, even prior to the elections,” Bedol said, adding the Comelec officers had no way to verify the identities of those who claimed the election returns.

If there was no such list, it was not clear from Bedol’s remarks what was the basis used by election inspectors in releasing the election return copies to the ID bearers.

Elections took place

Separately, the chair of the volunteer group Citizens’ Action for Responsible Elections (CARE), Romy Guiamel, said that residents of Maguindanao were able to vote on Election Day.

“Many people trooped to their precincts to cast their votes. There were elections in Maguindanao and we knew it took place because we have volunteers in the province,” Guiamel said.

Guiamel’s statement clashed with those from an official of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and concerned individuals who told the Inquirer that balloting did not take place in many parts of the province.

Guiamel said his group -- which works with the PPCRV -- was able to monitor the conduct of elections in Maguindanao and these were generally peaceful.

Guiamel admitted that Namfrel volunteers failed to secure their copies of the election returns but he blamed this on lack of coordination between volunteers and the Comelec.

Guiamel said the failure of Namfrel volunteers to secure their ER copies did not only happen in Maguindanao but all over the region as well.

With reports from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. and Nash B. Maulana, Inquirer Mindanao

source:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id=67248

Surprise! Comelec outpaces Namfrel ‘quick count’ tally

2007-05-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

By Norman Bordadora, Cathy C. Yamsuan
Inquirer
Last updated 02:39am (Mla time) 05/22/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- The usually slow count by the Commission on Elections became the “quick count” when its tally of votes exceeded that of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel).

As of Monday afternoon, the Comelec count for leading senatorial candidate Loren Legarda had reached the 7-million mark.

Namfrel’s count as of early morning Monday put Legarda’s votes at more than 6.3 million.

Batch 22, or the Namfrel update released at 8:40 a.m. Monday, said the latest figures came from 94,206 precincts, or about 42 percent of all precincts nationwide.

The faster-than-usual Comelec count prompted former Comelec Chair Christian Monsod to suggest that Namfrel’s tally be called a “parallel count” instead of a “citizens’ quick count.”

A Namfrel official said the group was not engaged in a race with the Comelec.

Monsod said that while the Comelec always caught up with Namfrel, it did so three days earlier this year than in the 2004 elections.

“Usually, the Comelec catches up with Namfrel on the ... 10th day. This year, it did so on the seventh day,” he said.

Was Namfrel a bit slower this year following bugs in its software and glitches in its Internet connection?

“No. In fact, Namfrel was faster this year than in 2004 (if you compare the number of votes counted in as many days after the elections),” Monsod said.

“Maybe the Comelec was a bit faster,” he said.

Monsod said there was nothing irregular about the Comelec catching up with Namfrel.

ERs and CoCs

While Namfrel starts counting the votes before the Comelec, it bases its tallies on 300,000 or so election returns (ERs).

The Comelec bases its official count on only about 140 certificates of canvass (CoCs) made at the provincial level.

“Namfrel starts its count at the precinct level. Depending on the number of precincts in a municipality or city, the Comelec has 20 or so tabulation committees in every municipality or city,” Monsod said.

“Namfrel can’t match that number of people with its volunteers,” he said.

While the Comelec starts its national canvassing later than Namfrel, it only has to go through more than a hundred CoCs.

“Now, the Comelec doesn’t start to count the votes (for national positions like senator) until it reaches the provincial level. Although, (the commissioners) start late, they only have to go through 130 to 140 CoCs,” Monsod said.

Verification process

The verification process being followed by Namfrel is slowing down its count.

Namfrel chair Edward Go earlier said Namfrel did not immediately include newly arrived tabulations until after these were verified.

Add to this the fact that Namfrel employs several steps of checking and counterchecking before it releases updates to media.

Go dismissed allegations that Namfrel was selecting data only from some areas to establish a pattern in favor of certain candidates.

“We do not do any kind of trending. We do not select the data to be posted. Everything depends on the flow of reports from the field and how quickly these are verified,” he said.

Eric Alvia, Namfrel secretary general, said the group’s quick count would eventually catch up with that of the Comelec.

“There will be a point of convergence. Even if the Comelec has already reached 7 million, the important issue is whether our count is accurate,” Alvia said.

Namfrel is holding its quick count operations at the La Salle gym in Greenhills, San Juan. School officials have given Namfrel only until Thursday, May 24 to use the gym.

“We are still hopeful that the pace will quicken,” Go said at a press conference early Monday afternoon.

In case the quick count is not completed by then, “hopefully we will be given an extension,” Alvia said in a radio interview.

Comelec to probe 12-0 TU win in Maguindanao

2007-05-21T02:46:00.000-07:00

05/21/2007 | 03:56 PM

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has formed a task force to look into the alleged fraudulent elections in Maguindanao province that reportedly delivered a 12-0 sweep to senatorial candidates of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo under Team Unity.

Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr told reporters on Monday that an investigating team was set up "to ferret out the truth" in the reported voting and canvassing anomalies in Maguindanao.

Abalos said the task force will be headed by Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, who in charge of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Sarmiento is also the head of Task Force Lanao investigating the disappearance of election officers in the province which resulted to the declaration of failure of election in several municipalities.

Abalos said the team will look into the exposé of Lente (Legal Network for Truthful Elections) and PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting) that teachers in Maguindanao were asked to fill up the ballots a day before the election.

He, however, said that the allegation, unless supported by substantial evidence, cannot be a ground for stoppage of proclamation of the winning candidates in the area.

He said the accusation will have more teeth if the person who divulged the alleged fraud won't "hide under the cloak of anonymity." "It is easy to come up with a statement," he added.

When asked if Comelec would protect the teacher if she decides to surface, he replied "of course we will."

On Sunday, radio dzBB reported that it was not only in Maguindanao that all TU bets emerged unopposed. The report said that some towns in at least eight other provinces in Visayas and Mindanao also gave all their votes to administration bets.

DzBB quoted a statement from Malacañang saying that TU bets have so far emerged unopposed in 34 towns, including 17 towns in Maguindanao, and 17 others in the Visayan provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Northern Samar and Eastern Samar and in the Mindanao provinces of Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, Sulu and Zambonga Sibugay.

The report said administration officials believed that TU bets won in these areas because of “command votes."

TU deputy spokesman Tonypet Albano had earlier said that the administration is expecting more sweeps that would be enough to push two to four of its candidates into the winning slots.

Meanwhile, Genuine Opposition candidates and the citizen’s election watchdog National Movement for Free Election urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Sunday to start investigating election tally results in Maguindanao by opening ballot boxes.

In a text message to GMANews.TV on Sunday, outgoing House minority leader Rep. Francis Escudero, GO senatorial bet, said he supports Namfrel’s call urging Comelec to send a fact-finding panel to Maguindanao.

“The noise on the reported fraud in Maguindanao is so loud. Comelec should not ignore the noise," Escudero said.

He said Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos should not allow a repeat of “Garci-like" operations under his watch. “Sobra na yan kung magkakaroon ng Garci 2 (It would be too much if there would be a repeat of the Garci scandal)," Escudero said.

Another GO Senate bet Alan Peter Cayetano, in a separate text message, said Comelec should not wait for the Namfrel or any candidate to file a petition on the alleged Maguindanao scandal.

“Kung gusto talaga ng Comelec na maging malinis ang halalan, kusa at hindi na nila dapat hintayin ang suggestion ng Namfrel (If the Comelec really wants a clean election, it will act on its own and will no longer need to be prodded by Namfrel)" Cayetano said. - Amita Legaspi, GMANews.TV

Source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/43297/Comelec-to-probe-12-0-TU-win-in-Maguindanao

Namfrel chief assuages Trillanes’ fear of fraudulent counting

2007-05-21T02:41:00.000-07:00

05/21/2007 | 03:14 PM

National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) Chairman Edward Go on Monday assuaged the fear of opposition senatorial candidate Antonio Trillanes IV and his supporters that the election watchdog is into fraudulent counting of election results.

“I want to assure him that we will not allow our organization to be used by anybody. If they know someone, tell us, so we can act accordingly," Go told reporters in an interview.

Go said he is willing to visit Trillanes in his detention cell to explain to him how Namfrel operates its quick count. “We don't do any kind of trending. The number of votes we tally depends on the flow of the reports coming from the volunteers in the field and the speed on verification of data."

Earlier, a handful of supporters of Trillanes picketed in front of the La Salle University in Greenhills, San Juan to denounce the alleged "trending" of Namfrel’s operation quick count.

In an interview with GMANews.TV Monday, Sonny Rivera, Trillanes' spokesman, said "Oplan Mercury Rising" is using the Namfrel’s quick count to precondition the mind of the public that two to four Team Unity senatorial candidates would have a chance to enter the Magic 12.

Mercury Rising is a plot allegedly for dagdag-bawas operation in certain areas in Mindanao, particularly in the ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) and Visayas regions to pad at least 2 million votes for Miguel Zubiri, Prospero Pichay, Ralph Recto and Mike Defensor.

"Our informants have told us that Recto and Defensor seem to be giving up hope that they could still enter the magic 12, so the Mercury Rising is still operating for Zubiri and Pichay," Rivera said. - Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV

source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/43286/Namfrel-chief-assuages-Trillanes-fear-of-fraudulent-counting

Maguindanao quick-count removed by Namfrel

2007-05-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

By Thea Alberto
INQUIRER.netLast updated 03:43pm (Mla time) 05/21/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- After the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) has formally removed Maguindanao from its list of provinces included in the quick count, poll watchdogs have called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to send representatives there to investigate whether cheating had really taken place.

"We are studying the filing of a complaint at the Comelec, we have a witness [to prove cheating took place] but is not yet ready to surface. We hope Comelec will not make it [complaint] a prerequisite before it acts," Carlos Medina, Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) co-convenor, told a press conference Monday.

Lente is the legal arm of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), which is allied with Namfrel.

On Sunday, Namfrel announced that Maguindanao had been deleted from its national quick count after election officials there allegedly refused to release copies of election returns and disallowed volunteers from observing tabulation centers.

"We hope Comelec will conduct its own investigation even before we have filed a complaint. It is the constitutional body tasked with the enforcement of election laws and at stake here is the credibility of electoral process," said Medina, adding that their request for an immediate investigation is "a cry for help."

Medina said it would be hard for them to file a formal complaint since one should be backed by testimonies of witnesses, who could not yet to come out in the open for safety reasons.

Lawyer Howard Calleja of the PPCRV said he found it "irregular and abnormal" for Comelec to wait for a complaint before acting. "Comelec has control in these areas, especially even if the voting has already finished," Calleja said.

Namfrel Chairman Edward Go said the Comelec was also mandated to check if the local election officials had properly performed their roles.

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 20, 2007 11:29pm

2007-05-20T17:03:00.002-07:00

As of May 20 2007 11:29pm
Legarda, Loren (GO)	5,819,588
Escudero, Francis Joseph (GO)	5,713,892
Lacson, Panfilo (GO)	5,047,379
Villar, Manuel Jr (GO)	4,762,173
Pangilinan, Francis (IND)	4,642,353
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (GO)	4,577,372
Angara, Edgardo (TU)	4,116,443
Honasan, Gregorio (IND)	3,798,589
Arroyo, Joker (TU)	3,797,095
Cayetano, Alan Peter (GO)	3,669,134
Trillanes, Antonio IV (GO)	3,581,703
Pimentel, Aquilino III (GO)	3,499,919

Legarda widens gap in latest Namfrel tally

2007-05-20T17:03:00.001-07:00

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 07:26am (Mla time) 05/21/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate Loren Legarda continues to widen the gap between her votes and that of GO colleague Francis Escudero, the latest tally of the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) showed.

As of 11:29 p.m. May 20, Legarda had 5,819,588 votes against Escudero’s 5,713,892 votes, or a difference of over 100,000 votes.

GO candidate Panfilo Lacson remained at third place with 5,047,379 votes, followed by Manuel Villar with 4,762,173 votes, then independent candidate Francisco Pangilinan who had 4,642,353 votes.

At sixth place is Benigno Aquino III with 4,577,372 votes. In seventh place is Team Unity candidate Edgardo Angara with 4,116,443 votes. At number eight is independent candidate Gregorio Honasan with 3,798,589 votes.

Ninth place is occupied by Team Unity candidate Joker Arroyo with 3,797,095 votes, followed by Allan Cayetano with 3,669,134 votes.

At 11th and 12th places are Antonio Trillanes IV with 3,581,703 votes and Aquilino Pimentel III with 3,499,919 votes.

Namfrel's latest tally covers 86,464 precincts, or 38.47 percent of a total 224,748 precincts.

Teacher details poll cheating in province

2007-05-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

By Cathy C. Yamsuan
Inquirer
Last updated 02:05am (Mla time) 05/21/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- It happened in the dead of night, hours before the polling precincts opened.

With armed guards supposedly watching over them, they were forced to fill blank ballots with the names of Team Unity senatorial candidates, starting with Luis “Chavit” Singson and Prospero Pichay.

Students and other children loitering in the school premises were purportedly even asked to mark the ballots with their thumbprints and sign their names on the voters’ list.

This was how the “election” took place at least in some areas of Maguindanao -- at least based on the account of a female public school teacher in the province.

The anonymous teacher talked to Lente, the legal arm of the watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), Lente convenor Carlos Medina said at a press conference Sunday.

Hand in hand with the teacher’s allegation, the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) accused Commission on Elections (Comelec) officers in Maguindanao of withholding copies of provincial election returns from Namfrel volunteers.

Namfrel secretary general Eric Alvia said the delay in the turnover of the ERs rendered suspect the authenticity of whatever documents would be given Namfrel in the future.

Namfrel chair Edward Go said Maguindanao’s 336,000 votes were enough to influence the outcome of the 11th and 12th places in the senatorial race.

Go said that instead of votes being tallied in precincts, all ballot boxes were hauled to the provincial capitol where the votes were counted. But no Namfrel volunteer was allowed to witness this.

Namfrel’s Maguindanao chair Fr. Eduardo Tanudtanud, OMI, said: “Our volunteers were told that municipal election officers issued a verbal order to withhold the release of all copies of the ERs, including Namfrel’s sixth copy.”

“In view of what we perceive as the systematic withholding of the ERs to Namfrel that casts doubt on the integrity of the sixth copy of the election returns, we will…not include the Maguindanao results in our quick count,” Tanudtanud said.

Following the teacher’s allegations, Lente urged the Comelec to send a Manila-based team to Maguindanao to investigate her charges.

Medina said the teacher had suggested that the Comelec open all the ballot boxes in Maguindanao to see the fraud for itself.

The teacher’s allegation followed reports that candidates of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo were posting 12-0 scores in the senatorial race in Maguindanao, which is part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Maguindanao was one of the ARMM provinces mentioned in the “Hello Garci” tapes where cheating allegedly occurred in 2004 to help Ms Arroyo win the presidential election.

The 12-0 vote TU has been getting in Maguindanao flies in the face of voting results in many other areas of the country where the Genuine Opposition candidates were registering winning tallies of 8-2-2 or 7-3-2.

While Lente remains in touch with the teacher, Medina refused to identify her.

“I cannot reveal her identity. Her safety relies on the fact that she is not known and so are her whereabouts,” Medina told reporters.

“She fears that if she is known, her entire family will be put in danger, even her relatives will be affected.”

“But what was evident in our conversation was her sense of frustration over the whole thing,” the lawyer said.

It also happened in 2004

Medina said the teacher complained this was not the first time she and her colleagues were forced to fill ballots at gunpoint.

The teacher also alleged she and the others were ordered to fill up blank ballots in the 2004 elections.

According to Medina, the teacher said she only followed orders from a superior.

“She is scared to name the governor (Natatakot niyang sabihin ang pangalan ng gobernador),” Medina said.

But the teacher was more open in discussing the specific instructions given to them.

“They had a list, first on it was Singson, second was Pichay, and so on,” Medina said in Filipino. “The instructions to them were to write these names down on the ballots.”

He also quoted the teacher as saying: “Ganito na lang ba tuwing eleksyon? Kailan ito matatapos? (Is this how it will always be during elections? When will it ever end?)”

The teacher initially sought the help of radio station dzRH, which in turn referred her to Lente -- the Legal Network for Truthful Elections.

Medina said the teacher refused to execute an affidavit, give interviews or sign any document that would establish her identity.

“Time is of the essence here,” Medina said, referring to the need for the Comelec to act urgently. “If those boxes are not opened, the contents might be changed even as we speak.”

Pichay’s lawyer, Mildred Duero-Romero, dismissed the teacher’s story.

“The teacher’s accusations are unfair. Only once these are verified will we answer her. What she said was not under oath and any Tom, Dick and Harry can issue a statement like that,” Duero-Romero said in a telephone interview.

Pichay’s bailiwick

“Butch Pichay is expected to rank high in Mindanao as he comes from said region and it is his bailiwick,” she later said in a text message.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net, also sought comments from Singson and TU spokesperson Ben Evardone, but text messages to them drew no replies.

Maguindanao officials have defended the 12-0 scores for TU candidates, saying they were not part of any vote manipulation but were in line with the local culture of reaching a consensus on matters of public concern.

Medina said the teacher “and the other teachers stayed up all night, staying inside a classroom in a still unknown public school somewhere in Maguindanao until 3 p.m. of Monday, May 14.”

“She did not sleep nor was she paid. She stayed up all night along with the board of election inspectors (BEI) filling up ballots.”

No use for indelible ink

The teacher’s claims seemed consistent with those of some local officials who said no elections took place in the province.

“The teacher said that on May 14 at 3 p.m., all precincts closed and no actual voting took place, although the teachers were all inside the precincts. The indelible ink supplied by Comelec Manila was not used at all,” Medina said.

He said other teachers had indicated interest in supporting the statement of the female witness as long as they remained unidentified and their safety was assured.

Should the Comelec continue to demand documentary evidence, the fraud committed would again go unpunished, Medina said.

“We request the Comelec to send an investigation team and talk to the common folk, look for indelible ink on their fingers because the teacher said the ink was not used,” he said.

Challenge to Abalos

To Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos’ challenge that proof must be shown that fraud was committed, Medina said: “Forego the required affidavits and witnesses. On its own, the (commission) should inspect and find out and interview people.”

One of the GO candidates fighting to stay in the Magic 12, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, and his lawyers will file an election protest with the Comelec no Monday to denounce delays in the canvassing in some polling centers in Mindanao, specifically in Maguindanao.

This was disclosed Sunday by Pimentel’s father, Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., who estimated that the election protest could affect some half million votes in Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and Shariff Kabunsuan.

Such a block of votes could hold up the proclamation of senators fighting for the last four to five slots, he said.

Pimentel said the reason for the delay of the canvassing was obvious -- operators of “dagdag-bawas” (vote-padding and -shaving) were waiting until all the votes in other areas had been counted so they would know how many votes to produce, using rigged tallies. With reports Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Maan Festejo and Kathleen Olarte

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 19, 2007 5:34pm

2007-05-19T05:39:00.001-07:00

As of May 19 2007 5:34 pm
Legarda, Loren (GO)	4,181,309
Escudero, Francis Joseph (GO)	4,028,586
Lacson, Panfilo (GO)	3,644,891
Villar, Manuel Jr (GO)	3,432,402
Pangilinan, Francis (IND)	3,422,350
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (GO)	3,286,331
Angara, Edgardo (TU)	3,062,154
Arroyo, Joker (TU)	2,717,216
Honasan, Gregorio (IND)	2,662,027
Cayetano, Alan Peter (GO)	2,590,440
Trillanes, Antonio IV (GO)	2,554,849
Zubiri, Juan Miguel (TU)	2,548,567

‘Our computers are hacker-proof’ -- Namfrel

2007-05-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

Posted May 19, 2007 18:52:00(Mla Time)

Inquirer

Cathy C. Yamsuan

MANILA, Philippines -- The National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) assured the public on Saturday that its computer system is impenetrable to hackers, following reports that an attempt had been made Thursday night to break into the poll watchdog’s system.

"We cannot prevent people trying but we can prevent people succeeding," an unperturbed Namfrel chair Edward Go told reporters.

Go made this assertion after admitting that the Internet service in its headquarters at the La Salle gym in Greenhills experienced "flickering" Thursday.

While this did not disrupt Namfrel's operations, Go said desk officers on duty at the time alerted the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company and Smart Telecommunications "to check and make sure the system was up."

Still, Go expressed confidence that it would not be easy for hackers to upset Namfrel's computers.

"Normally, you install a 'firewall' to prevent attempts to disrupt the system. But our systems provider, Synapse, provided us not just one firewall but a Great Wall with six firewalls," Go boasted at Saturday’s regular news conference.

"And if the first [line of defense] detects something, the system shuts itself down so nothing can come in and so we can still operate internally," he added.

Namfrel secretary general Eric Alvia pointed out that Namfrel has "offsite duplicates" that can recall or reproduce any information destroyed by hackers, if they succeed in breaking in.

While Namfrel has not determined the identity of the person or party that allegedly attempted to disrupt its computer system, Go appeared unfazed by the incident.

"Maybe there are malicious persons trying to test [us], trying to do harm. We cannot avoid attempts but we can ensure that we will not be hacked," he said.

Go even appeared amused when he related how "someone from Mindanao" sent "unverified information" through messages faxed several times to the Namfrel headquarters.

He said the crude attempt to alter Namfrel's tabulations was quickly noticed since it was inconsistent with previous messages sent from the same area.

Go said Namfrel's tabulation of the 2007 elections was going much faster than the one conducted in 2004.

He noted that as of Saturday, five days after the election, Namfrel had already encoded, verified and released tabulations from 25.9% of precincts nationwide.

Namfrel 2004, Go said, had tabulated results from only 17.5% of all precincts five days after the May 11 balloting.

"We have historical data to prove we are not that slow. People only get that impression because the television network counts have zoomed quickly. However, their sources are not official while our data come from election returns," the Namfrel chair explained.

Namfrel: ‘Voter turnout only 50%’

2007-05-19T05:35:00.000-07:00

Posted May 19, 2007 17:45:00(Mla Time)

INQUIRER.net

Thea Alberto

MANILA, Philippines -- Citing its own records, the National Movement for Free Election (Namfrel) said Saturday that voter turnout during the May 14 mid-term elections was only around 50 percent, way below the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) 60 to 70 percent announcement.

"Based on our record of [the] number of precincts tabulated as of 12:10 today, the total number of votes of people who voted and [which] we have processed…tend to show that the voter turnout for this year's election may be closer to 50 percent than what we have heard [Comelec say] that is 70 percent," Go told a press conference.

Comelec had predicted a 90 percent turnout before May 14.

Meanwhile, Go reiterated that Namfrel’s current quick count is faster than the one it undertook during the 2004 presidential elections.

"To those who say we are slow, we have historical data to show that compared to 2004 we are not that slow. What gives the impression of our slowness is the ABS-CBN and GMA [quick] counts very quickly zoomed to a high figure but their sources are not official sources like ours [which are] the election returns," Go said.

The Comelec has already barred the two television networks from conducting their own quick counts.

2 Namfrel volunteers reported missing in Maguindanao are safe

2007-05-18T23:19:00.000-07:00

Two volunteers of the National Movement for Free Elections who were earlier reported missingi n Maguindanao have been confirmed safe, Namfrel chairman Edward Go said Saturday.

Shiela Algabre and Joseph Fernandez, who were supposed to get Election Returns (ERs) have not communicated with their coordinator for Maguindanao, identified as a certain Fr. Tanod-tanod, since after the May 14 polls but they are confirmed out of danger.

"I spoke personally with the one of our coordinators in Maguindanao and while they said that they at the time they have previously spoken to us that they were not in touch with the volunteers, they (volunteers) are confirmed safe,"Go told reporters at a press conference.

But, Go said, the volunteers have not been able to obtain any ERs from Maguindanao because they were barred at the tabulating center.

"We have no ERs so we don’t know what ballots had been cast we cannot testify to the conduct of the elections and its results," said Go.

Lawyer Howard Calleja of the Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said trying to press the volunteers in obtaining ERs would compromise their safety.

"Among everything, what isimportant is we keep the safety of our volunteers. They are residents of the area, they would still be there after the elections. More than results, we are concerned for their security," said Calleja.

Posted by : Thea Alberto at Namfrel HQ, in La Salle Greenhills

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 19, 2007 4:54am

2007-05-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

As of May 19 2007 4:54 am
Legarda, Loren (GO)	3,691,492
Escudero, Francis Joseph (GO)	3,572,953
Lacson, Panfilo (GO)	3,243,359
Pangilinan, Francis (IND)	3,049,713
Villar, Manuel Jr (GO)	3,027,188
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (GO)	2,932,541
Angara, Edgardo (TU)	2,699,922
Arroyo, Joker (TU)	2,404,886
Honasan, Gregorio (IND)	2,353,895
Cayetano, Alan Peter (GO)	2,312,028
Trillanes, Antonio IV (GO)	2,269,485
Zubiri, Juan Miguel (TU)	2,250,989

Namfrel men barred from Maguindanao canvassing

2007-05-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

Posted May 19, 2007 01:36:00(Mla Time)

Inquirer

Cathy C. Yamsuan Norman Bordadora

MANILA, Philippines—Volunteers of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) have confirmed that elections did take place in Maguindanao, but they are clueless as to whether the results have been tabulated or any of the votes cast on May 14 have been counted at all.

This was disclosed yesterday by Namfrel chair Edward Go, who said all volunteers doing monitoring work for the group had finally been accounted for, following earlier fears that they might not be safe.

Go said chapter coordinators in Maguindanao reported that no one among the volunteers had received copies of the election returns (ERs) supposed to be given to Namfrel representatives monitoring the precincts where these were accomplished.

“They have no ERs. No one has seen an ER because they were not allowed to enter the Maguindanao capitol in Shariff Aguak,” Go told the Inquirer last night.

Unlike other areas where the tallies of votes cast are done inside the precinct after polling places close, “in Maguindanao there is what you call centralized tabulating,” Go said.

“They bring all the ballot boxes to a centralized place, in this case the capitolyo in Shariff Aguak, where they tabulate everything,” he said, adding:

“However, the volunteers are not allowed to enter the area where the tabulation is taking place. So I asked who was the person barring our volunteers. But the chapter coordinators said they will still ask them.”

100 volunteers

Earlier yesterday in a press conference, Go said Namfrel had yet to hear from its volunteers in Maguindanao.

“We hope they are not in danger, but we cannot conclude [so],” he said, adding that while the Namfrel headquarters in Greenhills, San Juan, remained in touch with chapter officers in Maguindanao, “they are, in turn, unable to contact the volunteers assigned to monitor the canvassing [there].”

After the news conference, Namfrel secretary general Eric Alvia estimated that about 100 volunteers in Maguindanao were unaccounted for.

He said Maguindanao had around 336,000 voters, although Go put the figure at 360,000 during the news conference.

Alvia explained his estimate this way: If there are 336,000 voters in Maguindanao and 200 voters in each precinct, there should be around 1,680 precincts in the province. If a volunteer is to get the [ERs] from an average of 10 precincts, “there would be around 160, 150 [volunteers], but as you can see, we have a shortage of volunteers, so [conservatively], there might be about 100.”

Also earlier, Namfrel said it also had no communication with provincial officers and lawyers of the Commission on Elections in Maguindanao.

So far, Namfrel has received only 8.85 percent of tabulations from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which includes Maguindanao. Batch 13, the Namfrel update released at 1:47 p.m. yesterday, indicated there were no tabulations received at all from Maguindanao.

According to Go, the votes in Maguindanao are sufficiently significant to influence who will occupy the 11th and 12th slots in the senatorial race.

‘Show proof’

Maguindanao has lately hogged the headlines with initial returns showing a Team Unity 12-0 sweep, in contrast to early results elsewhere showing a dominant Genuine Opposition. Local officials, residents, as well as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, were quick to claim that no election was actually held in many parts of the province.

To this, as well as claims of ballot-switching and vote-padding during canvassing in other parts of Mindanao, Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. said: Show proof.

“Allegations like these should be supported by evidence,” he said yesterday before presiding over the national canvassing, which has been in process at the Philippine International Convention Center since Wednesday.

“How can you say that voting in Maguindanao did not take place when you are in Manila? That statement is hearsay,” Abalos also said.

Maguindanao provincial elections supervisor Lintang Bedol denied the claim no elections were held in the province on May 14.

Explaining the TU sweep, Bedol said the law now recognized the factor of leadership influence upon the electorate of local government units.

“There is now the ‘Bailiwick Doctrine’ in which the law recognizes the influence of political leadership to generate [block] voting,” he said.

Abalos said he would not be surprised to see the results in Maguindanao giving the administration senatorial candidates a clean sweep.

“People should understand the culture of these tribal groups,” he said. “These tribal groups really act as one. Why do we not question religious groups with block voting?”

Abalos said those alleging fraud “should come out with specifics, with concrete evidence.”

No means to prosecute

Also at the Namfrel news conference, Go presented lawyers belonging to the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), who warned that if the volunteers had not yet surfaced as of yesterday, it may be possible that they also failed to secure the sixth copy of the ERs from their assigned precincts.

Namfrel, following its accreditation as citizens’ arm in poll monitoring, has been allowed by the Comelec to obtain the sixth copy of all ERs. Figures from the ERs are relayed to Namfrel headquarters for tabulation in its unofficial canvass.

Lente is a nationwide group of legal experts, paralegals and law students who help the Namfrel and the PPCRV in monitoring the canvassing of votes.

Lente co-convenor Carlos Medina complained that the group’s members had failed to secure the sixth copy of the ERs in many areas nationwide.

In the case of Maguindanao, since no single ER has been received, it will be difficult for Lente to prosecute parties responsible for any instance of election fraud because of lack of documentary evidence to present to court, he said.

Thus, Lente lawyers have had to monitor the canvass with no clue as to whether cheating was taking place, he added.

“The Lente canvass watchers were just looking at what was being written on documents used in the canvassing. There was no basis to know whether there was cheating since we ourselves do not know the real figures, not having ERs to base figures on,” Medina said, adding:

“If you do not have the ER from the precinct, how do you check the authenticity of the canvass at the municipal level? And ultimately, the certificates of canvass at the provincial and national levels?”

National tally first

PPCRV national legal counsel Howard Calleja, on the other hand, expressed alarm over the reported practice of many canvassers of prioritizing the tabulation of the local elections and putting aside the outcome of the senatorial and party-list elections for later scrutiny.

“The law says the [tabulation] should be done together, and if ever they are done separately, the national tabulation should be done first,” Calleja said.

Namfrel’s Alvia warned that this practice would discourage many volunteers from completing their monitoring duty.

“In most cases, if the [volunteers are] more concerned with the local tally, they lose interest in the national tally if this is done later. That’s why the national tally should be done ahead,” he said.

Medina went further, warning that if volunteers lost interest in completing their monitoring duties, they would leave the canvassing—“and that’s when the magic happens.”

Medina also said Lente volunteers in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, were barred from entering the room where the provincial canvassing was supposedly taking place.

“The board of canvassers denied us entry even if we presented our PPCRV identification, which serves as our authorization letter,” he said.

Legarda to sue

Elsewhere, GO candidate Loren Legarda yesterday threatened action against persons found involved in election fraud across the country.

Legarda said she would pursue charges against those engaged in dagdag-bawas (vote-padding and -shaving) and other forms of cheating.

“It’s not about being No. 1 or No. 12. It’s about the votes getting credited to the candidates who were meant to receive them,” said Legarda who, along with fellow GO candidate Francis Escudero, have been leading in Comelec and Namfrel counts.

Legarda made the statement in the wake of the alleged fraud in Maguindanao. She said she had also received reports of her votes getting shaved in Mountain Province.

“I’ve been a victim of cheating before, and I will not let the true will of the people be subverted yet again,” she said.

Escudero backed calls for an investigation of irregularities in the May 14 elections, and dismissed claims that the apparent victory of GO candidates was proof that the political exercise was clean and honest.

“The argument advanced is facile and faulty, one that assigns an effect to the wrong cause. We are winning in spite of the fraud,” Escudero said.

“The Comelec should proceed with its announced plans to look into possible cheating in Maguindanao,” he said.

The GO had earlier called on the poll body to investigate the allegations made by Namfrel provincial chair Hadj Abdullah Dalidig that the number of registered voters in Maguindanao had increased from 275,572 to 396,772.

Not so fast

Administration congressmen, however, believe that the Comelec has no authority to probe the Maguindanao elections in the absence of a poll protest.

House Deputy Majority Leader Antonio Cerilles of Zamboanga del Sur and Antique Rep. Exequiel Javier, both lawyers, said the Comelec should wait for a formal protest from an aggrieved party before conducting an inquiry.

“There’s nothing strange or irregular with Team Unity’s 12-0 win in Maguindanao with the absence of a political machinery of the Genuine Opposition in the province,” Cerilles said.

“TU bets campaigned hard and their efforts were matched by the support given by the administration coalition’s political machinery. Hence, we urge the Comelec to be objective in dealing with issues raised against TU, especially if these are not backed by any formal complaint,” he said.

Javier said the vote-rigging claims of GO were mere allegations and “should not be dignified by the Comelec [with] an outright probe.”

“Let the accusers file their poll protest so this can be resolved at the proper forum,” he said.

Lanao del Sur

In Lanao del Sur, local election monitors believe that vote-rigging operations are ongoing.

According to Namfrel’s Dalidig, this is indicated by the refusal of local Comelec officials to hand over to them the sixth copy of ERs from the precincts.

“There is the possibility that dagdag-bawas has now gone down to the level of the ER,” Dalidig said.

A quick count is supposed to be a countervailing measure against a rigged official count. With the ERs not on hand, Namfrel is effectively defanged as a citizens’ arm to monitor irregularity in the counting of votes.

Dalidig believes this is a deliberate strategy on the part of Comelec officials “to hide the mysteries that they are going to do.”

It was Dalidig who, armed with figures derived from the ERs, blew the whistle on the alleged massive fraud committed by Comelec officials in Lanao del Sur to favor President Macapagal-Arroyo in the 2004 presidential election.

As of yesterday morning, 12 towns have completed the precinct-level canvass. But Namfrel is in possession of only five complete sets of ERs from five towns—Bumbaran, Malabang, Ditsaan Ramain, Bubong and Madamba.

Most of the Marawi ERs are also with Namfrel.

The release of ERs to Namfrel was done on a bulk basis, meaning, after the canvass of all the precincts in a town has been completed.

Although this arrangement does not sit well with Dalidig, he said he still allowed local Comelec officials the benefit of the doubt, as long as the ERs were delivered within the day the last precinct-level canvass was completed.

Failure of elections

Macabangkit Lanto, a congressional candidate of Ms Arroyo’s party, Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi), yesterday asked the Comelec to declare a failure of elections in Picong, Lanao del Sur.

Lanto complained that in Picong, he scored zero, the members of the boards of election inspectors were fakes, and election returns were filled up in advance.

“The elections in the entire municipality of Picong is invalid, illegal and sham. In effect, there was no election to speak of,” said Lanto, a lawyer, and a former justice undersecretary and ambassador to Egypt. With reports from Jerome Aning and Edson C. Tandoc Jr. in Manila; Ryan D. Rosauro and Nash B. Maulana, Inquirer Mindanao

Namfrel suspects outside interference in count glitch

2007-05-17T23:14:00.000-07:00

05/18/2007 | 08:04 AM

The National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) suspects outside interference behind an Internet connection glitch that stalled its canvassing for more than 12 hours.

Namfrel secretary general Eric Alvia said Friday the watchdog group has asked its telecommunication partner to trace the source of the glitch that delayed its quick-count operation.

“Pinapaalam namin ngayon sa telecom partner namin. Sa loob, secure naman. Pinapa-trace namin ang problema sa labas (We have asked our telecom partner to trace the problem. We checked our internal network and it appeared secure. We are now having it traced to an external problem)," Alvia said in an interview on dzBB radio.

Alvia said the latest glitch was resolved at 5 a.m. Friday, with the Internet connection having been restored so the Namfrel tallying center can receive reports from the field.

But Alvia maintained that despite the glitch and a tabulation error that set back its counting, Namfrel remains on track in its quick-count operations.

He said the quick-count so far has accounted for 19 percent of the votes so far, compared to some 12 percent during the same time period in the 2004 presidential election.

“We’re ahead and on track. Nagulat kami despite the problems we’re still ahead of 04 (We’re ahead and on track compared to the same time frame in 2004. We are surprised because this is despite the problems we’ve been experiencing)," he said.

On the other hand, he said Namfrel has become even more cautious in coming out with its tallies, having its field personnel get sleep first before validating figures.

Alvia also downplayed speculations that the recent glitches and problems the poll watchdog group had experienced in past days will pull down its credibility.

Last Thursday, militant party-list groups announced they were planning their own quick-count operations to counter what they claimed was “trending" by Namfrel.

“Hindi naman. Inamin naman namin may problema, kung may problema inaamin agad namin (I don’t think our credibility will suffer. We admit problems when we see them, and we do something about it)," Alvia said. - GMANews.TV

Namfrel can't locate volunteers in Maguindanao

2007-05-17T23:03:00.000-07:00

Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV

05/18/2007 | 12:47 PM

The National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) can't find its volunteers in Maguindanao, the province that gave a 12-0 sweep in favor of the administration's Team Unity senatorial ticket, the poll watchdog's chairman Edward Go said Friday.

Go said during a press briefing that they still don't know if the Namfrel volunteers assigned to get the election returns from Maguindanao are missing or in danger.

The Namfrel is accredited by the Commission on Elections to do a quick-count of votes cast in the May 14 polls and is supposed to get the sixth copy of election returns.

The Maguindanao senatorial vote was topped by Ilocos Sur Governor Luis "Chavit" Singson, who has placed in the 20s in other vote counts.

No candidate from the Genuine Opposition, other non-administration parties or those running as independents made it to the Top 12 in Muslim-dominated Maguindanao, which has 336,000 registered voters.

The 13th placer was GO bet Francis "Chiz" Escudero, who tallied less than half the votes as the TU 12th placer and lone Muslim candidate Sultan Jamalul Kiram.

A top Comelec official earlier said it is considering to look into the reported irregularities that marred the voting in Maguindanao province where the administration's Team Unity bets swept all its opponents in the senatorial race.

"This is the first time I've heard of this so we will have to look at it," Commissioner Rene Sarmiento told reporters during a break in Thursday's canvassing at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

Based on the Maguindanao tally, not a single opposition senatorial bet made it to the winning circle, receiving low votes in the province's 27 towns. The province has a total of 336,000 registered voters.-GMANews.TV

Namfrel unable to achieve 60% target count by May 18

2007-05-17T23:00:00.000-07:00

Posted May 18, 2007 08:08:00(Mla Time)

INQUIRER.net

Alexander Villafania

MANILA, Philippines -- The National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) will not be able to achieve its expected target of 60 percent tallies by Friday, according to an executive of the poll watch group.

“Obviously we won’t be able to achieve our original target on time,” Namfrel chairman Edward Go said in a chance interview with INQUIRER.net.

Go had earlier told reporters that the Namfrel intends to finish counting 60 percent, or about 28 million, of the votes by Friday.

However, as of 5:15 a.m. Friday, Namfrel finished counting only 18.95 percent of the total number of votes from 42,585 out of 224,748 precincts.

Go added that they are still hopeful to finish counting 10 million votes, or one-third of the total votes, until Sunday, May 20.

In a separate interview, Namfrel secretary general Eric Alvia said they could achieve 10 million votes by Sunday as the main Namfrel headquarters at the La Salle Greenhills gym in San Juan has been receiving more election returns from the field.

The reports come in either through faxed format, email or web upload.

He admitted that they intentionally did not come up with new tallies Thursday night, explaining that they had to verify their figures first with their field officers.

“When we get the field reports, we have to encode them here. Then we have to send our own tallies back to the field officers to verify the numbers,” Alvia said.

He added that they cannot cross-check the figures at night since Namfrel volunteer officers from the headquarters and the field were already tired.

“They’ve been working round the clock since election day. We can’t risk any mistakes in the numbers, especially with tired volunteers,” Alvia said.

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 18, 2007 5:15am

2007-05-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

As of May 18 2007 5:15am
Legarda, Loren (GO)	2,792,353
Escudero, Francis Joseph (GO)	2,735,202
Lacson, Panfilo (GO)	2,486,625
Pangilinan, Francis (IND)	2,335,062
Villar, Manuel Jr (GO)	2,317,438
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (GO)	2,232,994
Angara, Edgardo (TU)	2,024,755
Arroyo, Joker (TU)	1,821,143
Honasan, Gregorio (IND)	1,792,977
Cayetano, Alan Peter (GO)	1,771,800
Trillanes, Antonio IV (GO)	1,724,703
Pimentel, Aquilino III (GO)	1,705,976

Namfrel credibility on the line as erroneous figures surface

2007-05-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

05/17/2007 | 07:47 PM

National Movement for Free Election (Namfrel) chairman Edward Go admitted Thursday it committed an error in the National Capital Region and several regional counts that resulted in the deduction of votes of almost all candidates.

In a press conference, Go also said they also spotted errors in the tabulation of votes coming from La Union and Maguindanao.

In its report No. 9 released Thursday at 5:37 a.m., a total of 1,165 precincts were mistaken for Maguindanao’s. The province is under Region 13.

Go explained that La Union was assigned the number as “132" corresponding to region 1, its being 3rd in the list of provinces in the tabulation and 2 as code that the votes where from municipalities or cities.

“We were told by our volunteers in Maguindanao that they have not sent us report, so when we checked our record, we have traced that the votes came from San Fernando, La Union," he explained. “The tabulators mistook the La Union (1-3) as region 13."

Go said the mistake, including the discrepancies in the report 9 and 10, has been corrected. He explained that error happened in encoding the results of votes from the field.

“We ask our desk officers to remind everybody to send and use running total and not merely the increases in the votes… that’s the way it’s supposed to be done," he said.

It was the staff of candidate Noynoy Aquino who uncovered the discrepancies in the votes of opposition candidate in the NCR, Region 8 and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

But further scrutiny of media men covering the Namfrel count revealed other discrepancies in other regions affecting the votes of almost all candidates particularly in NCR.

Asked for comment, Aquino told GMANews.TV that he understands the situation of Namfrel volunteers and hopes that tabulators would be more careful to avoid other mistakes that might put the credibility of the quick count in question.

Go, meanwhile, assured that the error was not deliberate. - GMANews.TV

Namfrel chief: Slow count still faster than 2004

2007-05-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

FIDEL JIMENEZ, GMANews.TV

05/16/2007 | 05:38 PM

Though the National Movement for Free Elections' (Namfrel) supposed quick count was slowed down by technical glitches in the last two days, its chairman took up the cudgels for the election watchdog on Wednesday, saying the organization’s counting is in fact “faster" than the previous polls.

“With our last tally at 12:22 p.m. with 10.61 percent of precincts that we have counted, we are much faster compared to the last election," Namfrel chairman Edward Go told reporters in an interview.

He said a slower count has its own advantage of avoiding hasty counting. “We just very careful in the double checking the information that we are getting in the field to make sure that the result would be credible," he said.

Go also said that even with its slow counting, Namfrel can still surpass Commission on Election (Comelec)’s counting. “I don’t think that Comelec can over take us. The Comelec will use certificate of canvass (COC) in their tabulation. Compared to us, we get the numbers through the election return," he said.

He said Namfrel will continue the quick count even if the Comelec has started it own “official" tabulation at the PICC Complex in the Pasay City.

Go is confident that they can issue tally results every three hours. He is hopeful that by Friday, Namfrel can meet their target of canvassing poll results from 60 to 70 percent of election precincts.

He said Namfrel is also trying to have the tally results seen on line through www.namfrelphilippines.org within the day. - GMANews.TV

NAMFREL COUNT: AS of May 17, 2007 5:39pm

2007-05-17T04:15:00.000-07:00

As of May 17 2007 5:39 pm
Legarda, Loren (GO)	2,414,813
Escudero, Francis Joseph (GO)	2,371,648
Lacson, Panfilo (GO)	2,174,720
Pangilinan, Francis (IND)	2,024,294
Villar, Manuel Jr (GO)	2,009,308
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (GO)	1,948,585
Angara, Edgardo (TU)	1,775,139
Arroyo, Joker (TU)	1,603,630
Honasan, Gregorio (IND)	1,550,519
Cayetano, Alan Peter (GO)	1,548,492
Pimentel, Aquilino III (GO)	1,501,488
Trillanes, Antonio IV (GO)	1,493,808

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 17, 2006 5:37am

2007-05-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

As of May 17 2007 05:37 am
Legarda, Loren (GO)	2,115,936
Escudero, Francis Joseph (GO)	2,082,908
Lacson, Panfilo (GO)	1,942,396
Villar, Manuel Jr (GO)	1,745,048
Pangilinan, Francis (IND)	1,739,306
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (GO)	1,695,740
Angara, Edgardo (TU)	1,484,162
Honasan, Gregorio (IND)	1,389,149
Cayetano, Allan Peter (GO)	1,373,173
Arroyo, Joker (TU)	1,344,835
Trillanes, Antonio IV (GO)	1,343,944
Pimentel, Aquilino III (GO)	1,316,050

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 16, 2007 9:11pm

2007-05-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

As of May 16 2007 9:11pm
Escudero, Francis Joseph (GO)	1,588,156
Legarda, Loren (GO)	1,588,040
Lacson, Panfilo (GO)	1,497,449
Villar, Manuel Jr (GO)	1,323,278
Pangilinan, Francis (IND)	1,322,126
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (GO)	1,291,880
Angara, Edgardo (TU)	1,128,844
Arroyo, Joker (TU)	1,059,737
Cayetano, Allan Peter (GO)	1,040,925
Honasan, Gregorio (IND)	1,040,122
Trillanes, Antonio IV (GO)	1,011,804
Pimentel, Aquilino III (GO)	1,004,199

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 16, 2007 12:22PM

2007-05-15T23:41:00.000-07:00

As of May 16 2007 12:22 PM
Legarda, Loren (GO) 1,116,587
Escudero, Francis Joseph (GO) 1,113,504
Lacson, Panfilo (GO) 964,484
Villar, Manuel Jr (GO) 960,615
Pangilinan, Francis (IND) 954,820
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (GO) 923,962
Angara, Edgardo (TU) 829,879
Arroyo, Joker (TU) 792,960
Cayetano, Allan Peter (GO) 724,479
Honasan, Gregorio (IND) 719,643
Pimentel, Aquilino III (GO) 710,979
Zubiri, Juan Miguel (TU) 704,690

Namfrel releases party-list tally

2007-05-15T23:40:00.000-07:00

May. 16, 2007 13:26:00

Namfrel releases party-list tally

The National Movement for Free Elections has released its partial, unofficial tally for the party-list polls.

Buhay topped the 12:22 p.m. Namfrel list, with 23, 128 votes.

Posted by : Thea Alberto at Namfrel HQ in La Salle Greenhills

Abalos: TV networks to face sanctions if they continue quick count

2007-05-15T23:36:00.000-07:00

The Commission on Elections on Wednesday asked the two television networks ABS-CBN and GMA 7 to stop their "unauthorized" quick counts.

In a press conference, Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos said only Namfrel (National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections) is accredited by the poll body to do a quick count.

"The stations should not do it because it confuses our people. It shows trending and we do not allow trending because they might be reporting from places favorable to their candidates of choice," he said.

"Our agreement with them is that they will report what they see, and the exit polls. This is not under the exit polls anymore. They are not supposed to consolidate votes… They are not supposed to report unofficial counts. We are requesting them to put a stop to the quick count," he added.

Abalos also noted that the sources of the numbers from the two networks are not known. He said the public has a right to correct information, "not unofficial counts."

The poll chief said the television networks might be cited for contempt if they continue with the quick count. He said the Comelec's education and information department has already made representations with the two networks.

"We will impose sanctions (if they don't follow), but I don't think they will disregard our instructions… They can be cited for contempt," he said.

"For instance, the initial count by the Comelec that we just finished, you report that and that's OK, that's reporting… The people are entitled to know from which precincts the figures are and if they're complete," he added.

Abalos said the computer schools AMA and STI are not part of the order because they are just "tools."

Earlier, Team Unity officials criticized the quick counts of the two television networks.

Posted by : Veronica Uy at PICC in Pasay City

Namfrel fixing PC software bugs that slow quick count

2007-05-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

AMITA LEGASPI, GMANews.TV

05/15/2007 | 04:18 PM

The quick count of the election returns may not be as quick as the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) may want it to be because of computer glitches that had somewhat slowed down processing of results from the field.

Namfrel said earlier on Monday that it would release an update of its quick count at around 1:30 p.m., it never happened.

Namfrel national chairman Edward Go told reporters on Tuesday that the software being used in the quick count is now being modified.

"It is a very complicated Excel program," he said when asked to elaborate on the problem they experienced.

He said they have started noticing the problem Monday night when the result of the election from different areas started coming in.

He added they reached the conclusion that something is wrong Tuesday morning.

He further said they are carefully checking the figures sent to them to avoid duplication.

"We want to make sure (there is no duplication) before we approve to upload (the figures)," he said.

Go said their people were having difficulty modifying the program because they were not the ones who developed the program.

He expects that the glitches will be solved by Wednesday and they will be in "much faster pace."

He also hoped that they will be able to cover 60 percent of the votes by Friday and end the canvassing by May 24.

"We have to move out by May 24 because La Salle Greenhills have committed the place (to other people)," he said.

If they will not be able to finish the canvassing by that time, he said they will transfer to another site just to continue counting the votes.

"We cannot jeopardize accuracy," he said.

He said in 2004 elections they were able to tabulate 83 percent of the election returns they received.

Nevertheless, he is still wishing that they had a smoother and faster canvassing for the first day.

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 16, 2007 2:07am

2007-05-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

As of May 16 2007 2:07 am
Escudero, Francis Joseph (Chiz)	828,942
Legarda, Loren (Loren)	827,932
Villar, Manuel Jr (Manny)	750,955
Pangilinan, Francis (Kiko)	739,996
Lacson, Panfilo (Ping)	706,653
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (Noynoy)	692,893
Angara, Edgardo (Ed)	626,674
Arroyo, Joker (Joker)	607,388
Cayetano, Allan Peter (Companero)	536,653
Zubiri, Juan Miguel (Migz)	533,005
Recto, Ralph (Korecto)	526,647
Honasan, Gregorio (Gringo)	521,948

Namfrel to file protest against alleged Comelec lawyer

2007-05-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

The National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) is condemning the arrest of one of their district chairpersons in Caloocan City early Tuesday by a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team, led by a woman identifying herself as a lawyer for the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Namfrel will file a letter of complaint to the Comelec for the wrongful detention of Namfrel Caloocan District Chair Jom Curio by a certain Melanie Malaya, who identified herself as a Comelec lawyer.

Namfrel National Chair Edward Go also said they will be requesting the Philippine National Police and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines to administer the fullest force of the law against Malaya.

“We don’t want this incident to happen again to any of our volunteers who are just doing their job,” Go said.

Narrating his experience during the latest Namfrel press conference, Curio said that the arrest happened around 2 a.m. while he was retrieving a third batch of the sixth copy of the election returns (ER).

Malaya insisted that Curio was not entitled to obtain the ERs, despite showing all identification cards and accreditation letters. Curio said he was later led to a detention room near the polling precinct. Malaya broke down during his narration, arguing that he was illegally detained while doing his job.

Curio said he was released after an hour but held his ground near in Caloocan to continue his duties. He added that four to five ERs taken from him disappeared, along with Malaya.

Posted by : Alex Villafania at the Namfrel HQ in La Salle Greenhills

NAMFREL COUNT: As of May 15, 2007 5:34pm

2007-05-15T06:37:00.000-07:00

As of May 15 2007 5:34pm
Legarda, Loren (Loren)	144,902
Escudero, Francis Joseph (Chiz)	144,744
Lacson, Panfilo (Ping)	128,204
Villar, Manuel Jr (Manny)	120,523
Pangilinan, Francis (Kiko)	114,893
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (Noynoy)	112,146
Honasan, Gregorio (Gringo)	100,736
Trillanes, Antonio IV (Magdalo)	97,757
Cayetano, Allan Peter (Companero)	97,601
Angara, Edgardo (Ed)	96,889
Pimentel, Aquilino III (Koko)	87,486
Arroyo, Joker (Joker)	85,511

PNP, Comelec urged: Investigate ambush of Namfrel volunteer

2007-05-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) chairman Edward Go is asking the Commission on Elections and the Philippine National Police “to commit its best resources to the investigation and prosecution of the persons responsible” on the ambush of their volunteer in Abra.

Namfrel volunteer Ronable Alinday was injured during the ambush at Lagayan, Abra, a day before election day.

"The initial investigation led us to believe that the ambush, audaciously carried out even if the victims were escorted by PNP personnel, was conducted by private armed groups," said Go in a press conference.

Posted by : Thea Alberto at the Namfrel HQ in La Salle Greenhiils

Namfrel to prod precincts to release party-list results

2007-05-15T03:24:00.000-07:00

May. 15, 2007 17:25:00

Namfrel to prod precincts to release party-list results

Responding to calls from left-wing groups that the party-list elections be included in quick counts, National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) chairman Edward Go on Tuesday said he would prod polling precincts to include these in the results they submit.

"They [precincts] have not come out with tabulation of party-list…they are concentrated [on] the senatorial candidates," said Go. "I will have to follow it up."

Nevertheless Go said he is hopeful the initial first party-list tally will be released later in the day.

Earlier in the day, mobile phone users’ group TXTPower urged the Commission on Elections to order Namfrel to release a party-list quick count result.

Bayan Muna (People First) Representative Satur Ocampo also expressed concern over what he called a "lack and shortage of information on the party-list elections."

"We are deeply concerned over the lack and shortage of information on the partylist elections. Such a situation serves the purposes of those who seek to subvert the party-list system and deny victory for winning party-list groups," said Ocampo in a statement.

Posted by : Thea Alberto at Namfrel Headquarters in La Salle Greenhills

'Software problems' slowing count -- Namfrel

2007-05-15T02:23:00.000-07:00

May. 15, 2007 16:53:00

'Software problems' slowing count -- Namfrel

"Software problems" have been slowing down the quick count operations of the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), the chairman of the poll watchdog group admitted Tuesday.

"I have to say there have been some software problems," said Go at a press conference.

Go said Namfrel volunteers "had to modify the program" on Tuesday morning. But aside from the software problem, he also admitted an apparent lack of training of volunteers.

Namfrel uses Microsoft Excel, said Go.

"I thought there were people who have perfected the systems already [but] we've never tested the program, [which was] developed by Muntinlupa for the 2004 [presidential] elections," said Go, who assumed Namfrel chairmanship on April 13.

He said the volunteers had to remove the slots for president and vice president slots.

The Namfrel chairman also attributed the slow count to the delayed transmission of data from precincts all over the country.

"They have not transmitted the data as quickly as it happens," said Go, explaining that Namfrel tallies are based on election returns from municipalities.

"We are now shifting to reporting by ERs [election returns] so we make sure it [tally] is clean before we upload," said Go.

Namfrel last released an unofficial, partial tally shortly before lunch, an update of its 9: 40 am tally.

Namfrel is expected to release its latest count around 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Posted by : Thea Alberto at Namfrel Headquarters in La Salle Greenhills

Namfrel Count: As of May 15, 2007 9:40am

2007-05-15T00:56:00.000-07:00

As of May 15 2007 9: 40 am
Escudero, Francis Joseph (Chiz)	35,942
Legarda, Loren (Loren)	34,340
Lacson, Panfilo (Ping)	31,204
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (Noynoy)	29,636
Villar, Manuel Jr (Manny)	28,538
Pangilinan, Francis (Kiko)	26,404
Cayetano, Allan Peter (Companero)	26,029
Trillanes, Antonio IV (Magdalo)	25,405
Honasan, Gregorio (Gringo)	24,312
Pimentel, Aquilino III (Koko)	21,942
Arroyo, Joker (Joker)	19,113
Angara, Edgardo (Ed)	18,583

In Lutayan, where are the Namfrel volunteers?

2007-05-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

In Lutayan, where are the Namfrel volunteers?

Written by MindaNews
Monday, 14 May 2007 17 47 57
LUTAYAN, Sultan Kudarat (MindaNews/14 May) – Where have all the watchers gone? The Board of Election Inspectors opened the precincts for voting at 7 a.m. but no volunteer of election watchdog National Movement for Free Elections was around to monitor the voting in this bailiwick of the Mangudadatus. Governor Pax Mangudadatu, who hails from this town of 26,291 voters, is running for the first district seat in Congress. His son, Suharto, is running for the gubernatorial seat he will vacate noon of June 30 while his daughter, Ruth Sakalura, is running for mayor. The incumbent mayor is Ruth’s husband, Raden. Ruht’s father, Pax and brother Suharto also served as Lutayan mayor before. Ruth and her entire slate in Kampi are running unopposed. The elder Mangudadatu, fresh from a tennis game, voted around 8:30 a.m. flanked by security escorts, while the younger Mangudadatu voted about an hour later, also with heavy security escorts. They voted at the Tamnag Elemtary School here, where voters’ turnout in some precincts reached 60% just two hours after the precincts opened. BEI members in at least two precincts said Namfrel representatives were not around to monitor the conduct of elections. MindaNews tried but failed to look for Namfrel volunteers even within the Church compound here, which was closed. Michael Abbas, Commission on Elections director for Southwestern Mindanao, said the “presence of Namfrel volunteers in the polling precincts is not necessary so long as the poll watchers of rival politicians are around to monitor the conduct of elections. The function of Namfrel is for the quick count,” he said in a telephone interview. The elder Mangudadatu expressed confidence that the administration-backed Team Unity senatorial candidates would emerge victorious here. The Mangudadatus are close allies of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Mangudadatu said he is confident that in the four other towns under their influence - Lambayong, Columbio, President Quirino and Esperanza -- TU candidates will also get majority of the votes. “These towns are under our influence,” he told reporters. He also acknowledged that in the other towns in the province -- Bagumbayan, Isulan and Tacurong -- are not under our control.” Meanwhile, due to lack of manpower, the Comelec here has been beefed up by employees from the municipal government. Several voters also complained of having a hard time finding their names in the precincts. Sample ballots were also seen distributed at the gates of the polling precincts. In the 2004 elections, voters’ turnout in this municipality was “unusually high,” pegged at 98%, overwhelmingly in favor of the Mangudadatus. Estimates then placed the usual voter’s turnout usually within 45 to 50 percent. Official count showed that 25,631 voters exercised their right of the total 26,198. (MindaNews)
Last Updated ( Monday, 14 May 2007 17 54 08 )

NAMFREL COUNT - As of May 15, 2007 4:44am

2007-05-14T17:26:00.000-07:00

As of May 15 2007 4:44 am
Escudero, Francis Joseph (Chiz)	18,784
Legarda, Loren (Loren)	17,729
Lacson, Panfilo (Ping)	16,929
Aquino, Benigno Simeon III (Noynoy)	16,009
Villar, Manuel Jr (Manny)	15,420
Pangilinan, Francis (Kiko)	14,512
Cayetano, Allan Peter (Companero)	14,124
Trillanes, Antonio IV (Magdalo)	13,449
Honasan, Gregorio (Gringo)	12,699
Pimentel, Aquilino III (Koko)	12,477
Angara, Edgardo (Ed)	10,009
Arroyo, Joker (Joker)	9,850

Namfrel to be given canvass copy

2007-05-11T01:26:00.000-07:00

THE National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections will get a copy of the certificate of canvass on top of the seventh copy of election returns to ensure a more credible quick count, a leader of the volunteer group said yesterday.

“Armed with the election returns and the certificates of canvass, we can assure the public that the quick count will be accurate and credible,” said Christian Monsod of One Voice, which is part of the Namfrel network that will do the parallel count.

Namfrel last received copies of the certificates of canvass in 1992 and used them to check the accuracy of the quick count that was based on election returns.

Another Namfrel volunteer, Eddie Nuque, said Namfrel would also be able to compare the summary of votes from the city, municipal and provincial levels with the election returns.

Nuque’s group, Legal Network for Truthful Elections, is part of the Namfrel quick count. It has 5,000 to 6,000 volunteers to monitor the elections, but needs 4,000 more to cover all precincts at the regional level nationwide.

On Saturday, Namfrel chapters will hold a national assembly to prepare for the seven-day quick count.

Namfrel aims to tabulate 100 percent of the election returns across the country with a 1:1 ratio of volunteers and poll precincts.

Volunteers will then transmit the election returns and certificates of canvass to the Namfrel center at the La Salle Greenhills for tabulation after Election Day.

Namfrel co-chairman for Metro Manila, Danny Magbual, said preparations were going smoothly despite minor hitches.

The country’s official poll watchdog will start setting up equipment and other paraphernalia for the May 14 election monitoring and countdown at their headquarters at the La Salle Greenhills in San Juan.

Magbual said Namfrel would also set up a public assistance desk to gather feedback from voters on the conduct of the elections.

Magbual said that the Commission on Elections was on schedule in distributing election materials—tally sheets, indelible ink, ballpens and stamp pads—to the 224,748 polling precincts in the country that started a week ago.

Other election materials such as official ballots, election returns, and certificates of canvass are expected to be released by the Comelec today in polling precincts for the far-flung regions and on the eve of Election Day in Metro Manila and its neighboring areas.

Based on Namfrel’s records, 45,029,668 voters are expected to troop to the polling places on Monday, Election Day. Joyce Pangco Pañares and Romie A. Evangelista

Poll watchdogs learn from Garci: Focus on canvass

2007-05-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

MANILA, Philippines

It's the canvassing, stupid.

That's the lesson of "Hello Garci," according to independent poll watchers mobilizing to guard against fraud in the May 14 elections.

In the past, watchers tended to focus more on the conduct of elections -- on the counting at the precinct level and on the integrity of the election returns (ERs), said Carlos Medina, one of the convenors of the newly organized Lente (Legal Network for Truthful Elections).

An ER is the document on which is tallied the 200-250 votes cast per precinct.

"Before there was dagdag-bawas (vote-padding and -shaving), we thought that cheating was mostly done on election day itself, through vote-buying, flying voters, etc., and during the counting. But it is at the canvassing that wholesale fraud is committed; so the 'lesson' is not to lose focus come canvassing time," he said.

Eric Alvia, secretary general of the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), echoed Medina's concern: "We only focused on ERs before."

With the country still stuck with manual elections, it takes days for volunteers to start spotting discrepancies between individual ERs and the resulting Certificates of Canvass (COCs), the tally of ERs gathered in a municipality or city, he lamented.

By the time municipal, city and provincial COCs start coming out, "two to four weeks" had already passed since Election Day.

Human interventions

In that span of time, Alvia said, a lot of "human interventions" could have taken place -- the bribery of canvassing board members, tampering or switching of COCs.

And by then, at the height of the canvassing process, the number of active Namfrel volunteers would have dropped to "25 percent" of their original size during Election Day.

"Only one out of four volunteers would still be reporting. The rest would have returned to their jobs, businesses, schools," Alvia said.

Their ranks have so thinned that there would be no one left to "return to the municipality or city" where the discrepancies occurred and produce the ERs covered by questionable COCs. (An ER is considered the more reliable source document since it was produced "closest" to the polling day, executed by the teachers who oversaw the balloting.)

"Who else can we give instructions to?" Alvia said. Namfrel may have accumulated data possibly indicating massive fraud, yet that data could not be "acted upon" quickly enough for lack of personnel.

Missing element

With Lente around, perhaps this missing element would now be in place -- a recognized, nonpartisan legal team that can immediately file a manifestation or protest based on the information gathered by the other volunteers, Alvia said.

While the watchers have the zeal, the power of faith, and probably the numbers to cover enough ground, they realize they are up against formidable, mostly unseen forces capable of pulling off another "Hello Garci."

With "lessons" learned from the "Garci" scandal, the poll watchers undoubtedly need to retool against increasingly sophisticated modes of cheating, whether these are done at the precincts, at the canvassing boards or, worse, in higher circles only wiretapping experts can penetrate.

After all, it still took political insiders, intelligence operators, and partisan figures -- not whistle-blowers from the ranks of poll watchers -- to pry the Garci scandal wide open in June 2005, more than a year after the May 2004 presidential elections.

Wiretapped conversations purportedly between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano were made public, indicating she may have stolen the 2004 presidential election. The President and Garcillano have denied any wrongdoing.

1st time: Lawyers as poll watchers

Lente, the new group joining the old watchdogs like Namfrel and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), believes that adding lawyers, paralegals and law students to the army of poll watchers could significantly deter any schemes to manipulate the election results.

That army includes half a million volunteers called to action by the Catholic Church in the country.

"Whatever they may be planning out there, we will be waiting when they start to implement it on the ground," said Medina. "With our presence, they better come up with other ideas."

Medina, a law professor who is also executive director of the Ateneo Human Rights Center, said the coming elections would mark the first time lawyers would form part of the poll-watching "structure."

In previous elections, lawyers figured in the canvassing mainly as private attorneys for the competing politicians. This time, Medina said, there will be Lente members working simultaneously with Namfrel or PPCRV volunteers, the latter being mostly laypersons not versed in the legal technicalities of a poll canvass.

Lente, which aims to deploy at least 9,600 lawyers, paralegals or law students nationwide, can be most useful in applying the "lessons" poll watchers have learned from the "Garci" episode, he said.

Numerical tricks

Just what are those numerical tricks poll watchers are trained to spot when examining ERs and COCs? Alvia gave actual samples that Namfrel has culled from past elections:

• The figure "lllll-ll" got written as "five two" instead of "seven." This was spotted in Marikina in 1998.

• The numeral "19" got written as "ninety." It happened in Manila in the 2001 polls.

• With just two strokes of a pen, "1,382" in the municipal COC became "4,382" in the provincial COC; Zamboanga del Norte, 2001.

• "2,599" grew almost five-fold and became "12,599," while "13,784" morphed into "28,784." This was documented in two towns in Pangasinan in 1995. Twenty-two other towns in that province produced a total of 112,994 "extra" votes.

• And in the 2004 elections, this was encountered in Tawi-Tawi: With already 89 percent of the votes canvassed in the Namfrel Quick Count, Presidential Candidate A had garnered only 15,925 votes against Candidate B's 58,292 votes. B was thus enjoying an insurmountable lead of 42,367 votes.

But after the remaining 11 percent or 9,553 votes were canvassed, the official tally showed B getting a total of over 49,803 votes over A's 33,634 votes. B still won in the province, yes, but by a much narrower margin.

This was because about 31,000 votes cast for B went instead to A, Alvia said. Similar occurrences were also observed in seven other provinces in Mindanao, wherein a total of 598,560 "B" votes got moved to the "A" column.

Known forms of cheating

There are forms of cheating which poll watchers can easily detect, he said, such as vote-buying, the use of "flying voters," ballot-box switching, and various tactics to sow confusion, delay the process, or discourage people from trooping to the poll booths.

But beyond the precincts, there would be hazy areas way outside their radar. Alvia wondered: What if candidates themselves connive to engage in dagdag-bawas? A winning senatorial candidate with a safe lead willing to donate some of his votes to a party mate so the latter can make it to the Magic 12?

"Of course, we cannot -- and will not -- monitor phone calls. That's not part of our mandate," said former Ambassador Henrietta de Villa, PPCRV national chair.

As the accredited citizen arm of the Comelec, the Church-based group aims to deploy half-a-million volunteers or at least two per precinct nationwide. Established in 1992, it will be monitoring its 16th elections this May 14.

"But we can't be frustrated. What we are doing is living a part of our (Catholic) faith. Our mere presence is about restoring credibility to our elections, otherwise more and more will just shy away from them," De Villa said.

( www.inquirer.net )

NAMFREL drops SMS, goes back to 'old school' tabulation

2007-05-08T00:47:00.000-07:00

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 03:09pm (Mla time) 05/08/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- After experiencing difficulties in using short-messaging system (SMS) in tabulating the results of the 2004 Presidential elections, the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMREL) is going back to using e-mail, fax and courier service in collecting copies of election returns for the upcoming May 14 general elections.

In a phone interview, NAMFREL Secretary General Eric Alvia said that the system they will be using this year is the same one used in the 2001 general elections. Alvia said they are giving NAMFREL volunteers the option to use any means necessary to send municipal results to the NAMFREL headquarters in La Salle Greenhills in San Juan City.

"They can send their reports via e-mail, fax or they can call. If they don't have any electronic transmission methods they can opt to send it using courier service until the reports come to our headquarters," Alvia said.

On the other hand, Alvia said they are trying the WeRoam wireless broadband access service of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), which is supposed to reach areas with no Internet connection.

Likewise, Alvia said Namfrel is putting up a new free-to-view website that will host all of the tabulated results.

"The NAMFREL website will be up within the week, before the May 14 elections," Alvia said.

NAMFREL had tested an SMS process of sending election returns to the NAMFREL headquarters in the 2004 Presidential elections. However, it suffered various problems including flooding of thousands of text messages into the dedicated NAMFREL server.

Likewise, the entire process of tabulating the SMS reports took almost as long as the manual method.

'No local Namfrel quick count'

2007-05-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

'No local Namfrel quick count'
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO - Bacolod City, Philippines (Visayan Daily Star)
http://www.visayandailystar.com/2007/May/07/topstory6.htm

The National Movement for Free Elections in Bacolod City will only conduct a "quick count" on senatorial candidates, Bacolod Comelec registrar Mavil Majarucon said.

She said Social Action Center director Fr. Aniceto Buenafe has informed her that the quick count of the national candidates will be done at the Bishop's House. She said that due to time constraints, NAMFREL could not deploy watchers in the polling precincts in the May 14 elections. Majarucon said she has informed the Department of Education through the Board of Election Inspectors, that NAMFREL will get their copies of the election returns at the Bays Center where they will be putting up a desk.

She said the list of BEI's were finalized last week and she has instructed her election assistants to provide copies to political parties like the Lakas and Nationalist People's Coalition that have pending requests with her office, for transparency.

Majarucon said three BEI's will be assigned to each precinct in Bacolod City

Meanwhile, Majarucon said she has only received 500 Election Day Computerized Voter's List from Comelec Manila and they still lack 1,197 for the total 1,697 precincts. The EDCVL contains the biometric data of voters, she said.

However, she perceives no problem during elections since they have already posted in the different barangays the list of voters for them to know their precinct numbers, Majarucon said. They have also conducted Voter's Information drives in the malls, she said.

Majarucon again appealed to the public to check the list of their precinct numbers in their barangays so they will have no problem locating them during the May 14 election.*CGS

Banker Edward S. Go takes over as Chairman of Namfrel

2007-05-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

By FIL C. SIONIL

Veteran banker Edward S. Go has assumed the chairmanship of the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) which is accredited by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to conduct its own voting tabulation.

From its inception 23 years ago, Namfrel had been headed by industrialist and former trade and industry secretary Jose Concepcion Jr.

Concepcion was honored during the Namfrel National Assembly "for his outstanding achievements as chairman of the Namfrel," a poll watchdog he founded during the last years of the Marcos era to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process.

As a barangay chairman of Forbes Park in Makati City, Concepcion is covered by the Comelec ban prohibiting elected officials from holding a position in Namfrel.

Go was treasurer of Namfrel in the last two elections. He was recommended by Concepcion as his successor in the private poll watchdog.

In an interview, Go said Namfrel will be teaming up with the National Secretariat for Social Action for the quick count at the De La Salle gymnasium, in Ortigas, Greenhills.

Aside from tabulating the votes of the senatorial, congressional and local elections, Go said the quick count will collate the votes for party-list sectoral representation in Congress..

Namfrel will be given the sixth copy of the certificate of elections return which will be the basis for its tabulations.

"We will do this as quickly as we can. But Namfrel will not sacrifice accuracy for quickness," said Go.

Meanwhile, Go is soliciting private sector assistance to help finance Namfrel’s costs.

Namfrel has already obtained the commitment of food and beverage conglomerate, San Miguel Corporation, the Ayala Corporation, and the Lopez Group of Companies.

Telecommunications-giant, Philippine Long Distance Company (PLDT) has offered to handle the communications aspect of the quick count.

As a former president of the Bankers Association of the Philippines, Go is looking forward to tapping the assistance of his former colleagues in the industry.

Go, who will turn 69 this July, described himself as "semi-retired" since he left his last banking post as chair of United Coconut Planters’ Bank (UCPB). Before UCPB, Go was executive director of Global Business Bank; president and chief operating officer of Asian Bank, and chairman and chief executive officer of China Banking Corporation.

A graduate of Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila University, Go is an honorary consul for the Republic of Senegal.

He also sits on the board of various private sector firms, among them, Metro Pacific Corporation; Negros Navigation Co., Inc.; Mighty Beaut Minerals, Inc. of Canada; and Philippine Telephone Corporation, the sister-company of PLDT.

He is also the chairman of Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc.

Machinery for Cheating in ARMM Being Laid Out - Dalidig

2007-04-28T23:43:00.000-07:00

Hadji Abdullah Dalidig, the Namfrel officer in Lanao del Sur who testified before the Senate in 2005 about the manipulation of election results in his province during the May 2004 elections said that the very same machinery and practices are being put into place in preparation for the May 2007 elections.

BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
In the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), flying voters are paid P200 each ($4.21 at an exchange rate of $1=P47.46) to register in as many precincts as possible, Hadji Abdullah Dalidig said in an interview with Bulatlat.

Dalidig is the controversial Namfrel (National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections) officer in Lanao del Sur who testified before the Senate in 2005 about the manipulation of election results in his province during the May 2004 presidential elections. In his testimony before the Senate, Dalidig said the May 2004 presidential elections was the “dirtiest” of all five elections he has monitored in Lanao del Sur.

Daligdig said that these newly-recruited flying voters would augment the flying voters who registered for the May 2004 elections but “have not been deleted” from the official list of registered voters. Records from the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) shows there are 100,000 more registered voters for the 2007 elections than in 2004 in Lanao del Sur.

Hadji Abdullah Dalidig, ex-Namfrel official and Lanao del Sur poll fraud whistleblower

“I doubt that the May 2007 elections will be credible,” the Namfrel officer said. Dalidig will again serve as Namfrel officer in Lanao del Sur for the coming elections. The COMELEC approved the petition of Namfrel to conduct a quick count of the results of the May 2007 elections.

Lanao del Sur is one of the five provinces of the ARMM together with Basilan, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

As of April 28, 2004, the number of registered voters in ARMM is 1,057,458. Lanao del Sur registered the second highest number of registered voters (275,572) from among the five ARMM provinces.

Vote buying

Vote buying is also rampant in ARMM, Dalidig said.

In fact, he said a powerful political clan in ARMM, which is aligned with the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration has allegedly sworn to give each mayor a cash incentive of P1 million ($21,070) each if Team Unity, the administration’s senatorial slate, wins 12-0 in their respective municipalities.

Another source, whose name is withheld for security reasons, said the same powerful clan is allegedly Macapagal-Arroyo’s “cheating operator in ARMM.” The clan has allegedly received P60 million ($1,264,222) from three wealthy senatorial bets of the administration to ensure their win in the region. The said clan has also allegedly received P200 million ($4,214,075) from the administration to ensure a 12-0 win for Team Unity, the source said.

To ensure the “grand plan” for cheating in the May 2007 elections in ARMM, the source said, a member of the clan will be appointed as the seventh COMELEC commissioner just before the May 2007 elections. The new appointee will replace Virgilio Garcillano or “Garci,” the COMELEC official caught on tape talking with Macapagal –Arroyo in the infamous “Hello, Garci” scandal. In the said tape, the president was allegedly overheard asking Garcillano to make sure she leads by one million votes over her rival, actor Fernando Poe Jr., in the May 2004 presidential elections. Bulatlat

Treasurers’ reshuffle set in NCR

2007-04-28T23:38:00.000-07:00

Soldiers start casting their ballots in advance voting Reshuffle of Metro Manila treasurers okayed by DoF

By ARIS R. ILAGAN

The Department of Finance (DoF) has approved the recommendation of the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and the Philippine Election Forum (PEF) to reshuffle all the city and municipal treasurers in Metro Manila to spare them from possible political pressure from candidates in the May 14 elections.

In a speech during the Namfrel General Assembly at the Traders Hotel in Pasay City, Dr. Vic Endriga, head of the Philippine Association of Local Treasurers and Assessors (PHALTRA), said teachers with poll duties in the May 14 elections will be given their allowance when they get the ballot boxes.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has already approved the release of funds, Endriga said.

"Now with the proposal of Namfrel to reshuffle all treasurers nationwide, we would like to announce that partially, it is already being done," Endriga told Namfrel members, representatives of government agencies, and other volunteers in ensuring the conduct of clean, honest, and peaceful elections.

"All of the treasurers from the National Capital Region will be reshuffled," Endriga said. The treasurers in cities and municipalities officially receive election paraphernalia including ballots and ballot boxes from the Comelec, and are duty-bound to do safekeeping work on the ballots and election returns for the poll body.

Among those present in the gathering were Comelec Commisioner Resurreccion Borra, Namfrel national chairman Edward Go, Namfrel founding chairman Jose S. Concepcion Jr., Namfrel national co-chairman Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez, and Philippine National Police National Task Force HOPE (Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections) head Deputy Director General Antonio Billiones.

Endriga, city treasurer of Quezon City, said that he already received notice that he will be re-assigned to Makati City.

The city and municipal treasurers had been deputized by the Comelec to prepare election materials and paraphernalia for distribution to polling precincts.

While still waiting for Comelec approval of the reshuffle, municipal and city treasurers in Metro Manila have began preparing for their transfers, Endriga said.

He said that the Namfrel, through the PEF, had earlier recommended the reshuffle of city and municipal treasurers in different parts of the country 15 days before Election Day to prevent them from being influenced by political candidates.

The Namfrel and the PEF recommended to the Comelec that the city and municipal treasurers stay in their post 15 days more after Election Day.

Endriga expressed optimism that the reshuffle of treasurers will not only be implemented in Metro Manila, but also in other parts of the country to ensure clean and fair elections this year.

On the early release of allowances for teachers with poll duties, Endriga said: "This is very good news. For the first time in the history of elections, the teachers will immediately get their allowances on the day they get the ballot boxes."

Under the new scheme, 50 percent of the total R3,000 election allowance, or R1,500, will be given to the teachers on the first day they assume their poll duties and the balance of R 1,500 will be paid immediately when they return the ballot boxes.

Aside from the timely pay of election allowances, Endriga said the teachers will also receive R300 transportation allowance.

During previous elections, government was swarmed with complaints from public school teachers about the delay in the release of the allowance for poll duties, some complaining they got their allowances four months after the elections.

900 soldiers expected to vote in local absentee voting

The six-day local "absentee voting" for Philippine Army personnel started yesterday in Fort Bonifacio to allow the soldiers to provide support to the Philippine National Police (PNP) during the May 14 elections without depriving them of their right to vote.

Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, Philippine Army spokesman, said about 900 Army soldiers who applied for "absentee voting" privileges were expected at polling places inside Fort Bonifacio.

Torres said that another round of absentee voting will be conducted for Army soldiers from May 4 to May 6.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has allowed "absentee voting" for members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines who are expected to be assigned to far- flung areas to ensure the conduct of honest, orderly, and peaceful May 14 elections.

The Comelec is also authorized to order the deployment of troops in critical areas where private armed groups, communist insurgents, secessionist rebels, and terrorist elements might disrupt the electoral process.

"The AFP would continue to review and assess the situation to determine if there is a need to maintain, increase, or reduce the deployment of troops in some areas," Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., AFP chief of staff, said.

The deployment of soldiers in critical areas considered by Comelec as "areas of immediate concern" will depend on the recommendation of the PNP.

"We thank all those who are with us in advocating for educated voters. However, we shall give priority to Comelec-ordered deployments, especially where there will be a serious armed threat or violence due to intense political rivalry," Esperon said.

In a telephone interview, Torres said that the absentee voting was being watched by representatives of the Comelec in Fort Bonifacio.

He said that top Army officers had ealier instructed Army commanders "to encourage their subordinates to take part in the absentee voting in anticipation of possible election duties as required by the Comelec on Election Day and after." (Aris R. Ilagan)

Low turnout seen on first day of local absentee voting

By E.T. SUAREZ

The six-day local absentee or advance voting for 39,580 military, police and government employees who have poll duties on May 14 was off to a smooth start yesterday but yielded a relatively low turnout, the Commission on Elections said.

The low turnout was reported even in areas where thousands had applied to vote in advance such as Region 9 (Western Mindanao), Region 11 (Northern Mindanao), Region 5 (Bicol), Region 4A (Southern Tagalog), and Region 8 (Eastern Visayas).

Records at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Committee on Local Absentee Voting headed by Commissioner Florentino A. Tuason Jr. showed that of the 6,704 in Western Mindanao who applied to vote in advance, 5,162 have been approved, while of the 6,997 applicants in Northern Mindanao, 4,624 have been approved.

The other regions with high number of applicants approved for local absentee voting but yielded a low turnout on the first day are Bicol with 3,795 advance voters, Southern Tagalog 4A with 3,775, and Eastern Visayas with 3,704.

The other regions and their corresponding number of local absentee voters are National Capital Region (NCR), 2,054; Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), 396; Ilocos, 523; Cagayan Valley, 1,786; Central Luzon, 2,085; Southern Tagalog-B, 1,305; Western Visayas, 2,359; Central Visayas, 833; Southern Mindanao, 1,291; Central Mindanao, 2,673; Caraga, 1,050; and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), 2,027.

Members of the Committee on Local Absentee Voting are confident the turnout out will improve in the next five days.

Tuason said those who applied for advance voting but have not yet voted could do so today and on April 30, and May 4, 5 and 6.

Namfrel appeals Concepcion removal from roster

2007-04-26T17:15:00.000-07:00

MANILA, Philippines -- The National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) has asked the Commission on Elections to re-examine its decision to accredit the poll watchdog on condition its former chairman, Jose Concepcion, be removed from the organization.

In its manifestation submitted April 19, a copy of which was obtained by INQUIRER.net, Namfrel argued against the legality of requiring Concepcion's removal, calling it "arbitrary and discriminatory."

Concepcion's removal from the organization was based on his being chairman of Barangay (village) Forbes in Makati City.

But Namrel lawyer Jose Bernas said the laws cited by Comelec only prohibit barangay officials from being appointed as members of boards of election inspectors (BEIs) or poll watchers of any political party.

The Comelec condition for Namfrel's accreditation was based on a Resolution 7798, which was derived from Executive Order (EO) 94 issued by former president Corazon Aquino on December 17, 1986.

"This directive imposed a prohibition on the appointment of barangay officials as members of BEIs or as official watcher of each duly registered major political party or any socio-civic, religious, professional or any similar organization," the Namfrel manifestation said.

It also stressed that EO 94 applied only to the February 2, 1987 plebiscite.

The Namfrel manifestation also argued that the prohibitions contained in the EO 94 are clear.

"The chairman of Namfrel is not and will not be appointed as a member or the BEI or as a poll watcher of any political party. Accordingly, the prohibition under Executive Order 94 does not apply to him," it added.

"Clearly, Comelec Resolution 7798 was not based on law and is therefore arbitrary and discriminatory. Neither can a Comelec resolution supplant nor go beyond the mandates of a law for the simple reason that Comelec has no lawmaking powers," it said.

It argued that the Namfrel chairman does not stay in the precincts, as he only oversees the overall conduct of quick count.

"Thus there is no danger of the Namfrel chairman interfering in the proceedings of the BEIs, whether as a member thereof or as a poll watcher. Moreover, as chairman of Barangay Forbes, the Namfrel chairman cannot be presumed to have such 'influence' over all electoral precincts nationwide," it said.

Meanwhile, Namfrel also announced in a separate manifestation to the Comelec that it had agreed to work with the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (NASSA). Both groups entered into an agreement on April 18.

Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez agreed to remain co-chairman of Namfrel. (www.inquirer.net)

Catholic Church arm to help Namfrel do quick-count

2007-04-24T22:05:00.000-07:00

The Catholic Church will help poll watchdog National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) conduct its “quick count" for the May 14 polls.

Namfrel Chairman Edward Go said under a deal he signed on April 18 with Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez, director of the Church’s National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (Nassa), seeks to combine their manpower to quickly produce the elections' unofficial results.

Nassa, social arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), earlier unsuccessfully vied to do the quick count.

"There are regions in the country where (one of either of our groups) has a better presence. There are also areas where we jointly manage. We want to use the best of both
organizations. We want to (cover all the gaps)," said Go.

Go replaced businessman Jose Concepcion as Namfrel chairman on April 13 after the Comelec made his resignation a prerequisite for the poll watchdog’s accreditation as quick count arm.

The Comelec noted that Concepcion is not allowed to head a citizens arm because he is an elected official, being village chairman of posh Barangay Forbes Park in Makati City.

In April 2, the Comelec voted 4-2 in favor of Namfrel doing the quick-count, effectively junking NASSA’s separate application. -GMANews.TV