Analysis | By Datu Michael O. Mastura | Media reporters — more accurately, opinion editors — are wrong to say that casting of votes or counting of ballots runs afoul in the ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) simply because Muslim-Moro individuals have low literacy rate. What makes such comments most absurd is anti-Moro profiling of their leaders (if not out of discriminatory slant by sheer slur) who are perceived to keep them illiterate or uneducated enough to organize them into so-called command votes constituency.
Analysis | No election has been fair and square. In the recent elections, the outcome has been decided by one’s political hold on the Commission on Elections — and the numerous compromises that powerful election authorities make with the highest bidders to rig the elections.
Commentary | The elections are a period when conflicting forces play out an act in a long-running drama. For those who control power, each election is crucial. They cannot afford to lose. They can, in another sense, afford to win through guns, goons, gold and Garci.
Commentary | The reports of massive fraud are staring the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the face and Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. and Commissioner Rene Sarmiento still refuse to conduct a thorough investigation and act swiftly to prevent further damage. And they refuse to do so only because there are no witnesses. Perhaps the Comelec is afflicted with a serious illness called Garci.
Manifesto: Until and unless EO 608 is struck down by the courts or withdrawn by President Macapagal-Arroyo, it will bolster her ongoing efforts to arbitrarily withhold information from the Filipino people, in violation of our right to information on matters of public concern.
Commentary: Intensified militarization aims to disrupt the political stability and divide the people in Mindanao. In this way, the coming elections will be under the control of the military, which serves a desperate administration that has no other way to win the elections but through fraudulent means.
COMMENTARY: Contrary to government claims, electoral fraud and violence are not integral to Philippine culture and politics. It is perpetrated by those who profit from the existing system of Philippine politics and governance.
By the Policy Study, Publication and Advocacy (PSPA) Center for People Empowerment in Governance MANILA — Not since the snap…
MANILA — As the canvassing of party-list votes start today, the Peoples International Observers Mission (IOM) Manila team raised concerns…
City of San Fernando “This year’s elections in the Philippines made me realize just how much political dynasties (and…
