An anti-fraud watchdog and several militant groups have expressed concern over possible tampering of overseas Filipino workers? (OFWs) votes.
BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat
ELECTION WATCH
Vol. VII, No. 14 May 13-19, 2007
An anti-fraud watchdog and several militant groups have expressed concern over possible tampering of overseas Filipino workers? (OFWs) votes through outsourcing the mailing of voting paraphernalia.
Filipino-Americans campaign against election fraud and violence in the Philippines through TEXT BACKIn an urgent letter to Philippine Postal Corporation (PPC) regional director Muara Baghari-Regis dated April 23, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Committee on Overseas Absentee Voting (COAV) chairman Florentino Tuason, Jr. said that his committee ?shall process and dispatch all our Return to Sender (RTS) mails that will be serviced by private couriers, outside the OAV Mailing Center.?
Tuason also asked Regis to allow them ?to vacate the OAV Mailing Center not later than 30 April 2007.?
A copy of the letter was obtained through the Confederation for the Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) and its Kawani Kontra Daya arm. The government employees? union expressed the same worry that another election anomaly was allegedly in the works.
Open to tampering
With the COAV move, the anti-fraud group Kontra Daya is concerned over ?the rigging of absentee votes through the COAV of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).?
Kontra Daya stated it received reports that of the 504,000 absentee voters, about 174,000 ballots were mailed to intended recipient voters. Of the total mailed ballots, about 80 percent or almost 140,000 ballots were marked ?return to sender.?
Based on the group?s report, these 140,000 ballots being diverted through private couriers outside the OAV Mailing Center are open to tampering.
?There are two envelopes in the OAV by mail process, an inner and outer envelope,? said Maita Santiago, spokesperson pf the Migrants Watch Network against Electoral Fraud and Violence (MigrantsWatch.Net) which has coordinators in various countries including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Japan and Italy.
spokesperson. ?To cheat, one only has to open the outer envelope and switch the inner envelope containing just the actual ballot ? and leave behind the detached portion of the ballot with the thumb mark and the signature.?
The RTS mails are ballots sent to overseas absentee voters but were not received by the target voters. These RTS mails will now be delivered to the COAV Comelec office in Manila and resent to their intended recipients via private couriers, said Kontra Daya.
?If these ballots fell in the wrong hands, because of the so-called private couriers, then fraud can easily be committed,? Kontra Daya said in its statement, noting that the COAV ?would have been an abettor of the crime because it exposed the ballots to tampering.?
Though relatively small, the group said that the alleged number of ballots diverted is significant especially in close fights for the last slots for senator.
Anomalies in the OAV
Voting by mail was expanded from three countries in 2004 to more than 60 countries this year?s elections.
Along with the political killing, repression and harassment of opposition groups, progressive party-lists and the people, Santiago said that the Arroyo regime has a ?grand scheme? for electoral fraud and violence which allegedly includes the ?outright manipulation of election results.?
?Thus, the tampering of OAV ballots is extremely plausible,? she said.
Tampering ballots, the mail containing the ballots for overseas absentee voters, the election returns ? including its destruction, mutilation and manipulation ? is an act prohibited under Republic Act No. 9189 or the Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003. Under the law, any person found guilty of committing any of the prohibited acts, shall be punished with imprisonment without probation. In addition, the guilty party shall be sentenced to suffer disqualification to hold public office and deprivation of the right of suffrage.
If the offender is an immigrant or permanent resident who did not resume residence in the Philippines as stipulated in his/her affidavit within three (3) years after the approval of his/her registration under the OAV Act and yet vote in the next succeeding elections, his or her name shall also be removed from the National Registry of Absentee Voters; he or she shall be permanently disqualified to vote in absentia; and his/her passport shall be stamped ?not allowed to vote.?
Kontra Daya said it received reports from concerned individuals in Japan, where absentee voting is done by mail, stating that the same type of fraud may have allegedly happened in 2004.
Reports from the Coalition of Enlightened Filipinos in Japan and the Philippine Women?s League of Japan said that ?there seems to be too many suspicious names in the list for absentee voters in Japan.?
Kontra Daya said this would mean that the Japanese post will return the ballots to the Philippines because there were no intended recipients and these ballots will then be filled up in the Philippines and resent to Japan for counting.
The anti-fraud relayed their sources? statement that they (contacts in Japan) will oppose the counting of any ballots resent from the Philippines.
For OFWs in Hong Kong, the disenfranchisement of OFW voters is already too much to allow possible anomalies and misconducts to further disenfranchise those who were able to vote.
Gabriela Women?s Party-List (GWP)?Hong Kong submitted a letter to the OAV secretariat in the host country of the observation and reports of the group?s poll watchers on the general conduct of the OAV and the actions of personnel involved throughout the voting process.
Included in their letter is the group complain over the OAV?s ?new procedure? in which the Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI) chairman is the one who drops the ballot inside the ballot box.
?This is most irregular for no other than the voter has right to his or her ballot and only in the counting period should it be touched by any other person,? said Cynthia Abdon-Tellez, GWP-HK chairperson.
Other points the group raised were cases of possible misconduct of SBEIs, baseless prohibitions to pollwatchers, withholding information to pollwatchers, and other concerns on the general conduct of SBEIs.
Fighting fraud
OFWs, voters or not, are united in their campaign against electoral fraud and violence in the Philippines.
In Hong Kong, Filipinos will hold a short gathering on May 13, eve of the elections, to express their desire for a fraud-free and violence-free polls. Prayers, statements and songs will be showcase the activity to show their strong opposition against guns, goons and gold that traditionally dominate the elections in the country.
Tellez said that GWP-HK will continue to ?vigilantly watch? the OAV process up to the counting and canvassing of ballots.
In the U.S., Filipino-Americans participate in the elections through text messaging.
Through the TEXT Brigade Against Cheatings and Killings (TEXT BACK), hundreds of Filipino-Americans started a massive campaign of sending cell phone text messages in Tagalog, Visayan, Ilocano, and English containing the message: ?KUNG MAHAL MO ANG BAYAN PANDARAYA LABANAN. POL KILINGS TUTULAN! SA TRAPO WAG PALOKO PROGRESIBO IBOTO? (If you love our motherland, fight against cheating. Oppose political killings! Don’t be fooled by traditional politicians, vote for progressives).
Launched on May 7, TEXT BACK is an initiative of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance)-USA member organizations, New York Committee for Human Rights (NYCHRP) in the Philippines, Anakbayan U.S. Chapters, League of Filipino Students (LFS). In the Philippines, the TEXT BACK campaign is being promoted by Kabataan Party.
?A vast number of Filipinos abroad can not vote, but the circumstances should not prevent us from directly participating and making our voices heard in the coming elections. Since we cannot vote, we want to encourage our kababayans (compatriots) to vote for whom we believe deserve our votes,? said Gary Labao, TEXT BACK-USA spokesperson and a member of Bayan-USA in New York. There are about four to five million Filipinos in the American continent.
The group also utilized the online community, including Friendster, Myspace and blogs, for their campaign.
?We will encourage them, even my brother who is in the U.S. Navy, to send the texts because there are so many Filipino youths right now enlisted in the U.S. Navy who can?t vote even if they wanted to, at least through texts, they can participate), said Bobz Manuel, a member of Anakbayan-New Jersey and a participant for TEXT BACK-USA.
Filipinos in Australia have also launched TEXT BACK-Australia.
“If not for the economic value of overseas remittances, particularly the billions from the US, the Philippine economy will sink,? Labao said. ?We deserve the right to be heard in the elections. We should have a say in who is elected in the Philippine government.? Bulatlat
