Foreign Observers in ComVal Wary Over Elections


Monitors. Some of the foreign observers during a briefing on Sunday. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)

By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY — International observers who are in the southern Philippines to monitor today’s elections said Sunday that a clean, peaceful and honest elections in the country remains a pipe dream.

Gill Boehringer, a professor of history and philosophy at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, who is one of the five foreign delegates of the International Observers Mission (IOM) assigned in Southern Mindanao, said he did not have any illusions that the elections will be any better today, that “people would be on their good behavior.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingForeign Observers in ComVal Wary Over Elections

Suara wants general fired for campaigning vs partylists

SUARA BANGSAMORO slammed the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Eastern Mindanao Command over the public statement of its Command Chief, Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Obaniana that he has made it his “personal crusade” to campaign against alleged left-wing organizations.

(more…)

Continue ReadingSuara wants general fired for campaigning vs partylists

Philippines mulls write-off of farmers’ debt

MANILA — Farmers who availed themselves of loans provided for by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law but have not been able to pay their amortizations may soon be presented with relief from debt once a Task Force created by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo comes out with its recommendation on this proposal, Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo said today.
(more…)

Continue ReadingPhilippines mulls write-off of farmers’ debt

Two Institutions to Watch in Philippines Elections

Two institutions to watch, if one wants to ensure a clean and honest May 2007 elections, are the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Ironically, these are the very institutions supposedly tasked with ensuring the conduct of clean and honest elections. But these institutions are again in the thick of controversy — a portent of things to come?

(more…)

Continue ReadingTwo Institutions to Watch in Philippines Elections