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 presidential elections of 1986 have Philippine elections attracted a big number of international observers as this week’s polls. The May 14 mid-term elections were witnessed throughout the country by about 250 foreign observers coming from 24 countries. More than a third of them came from the United States, which sent 81 observers.
A number of them have observed elections in Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor and other countries torn by armed conflicts or classified as “emerging democracies.”
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MANILA — As the canvassing of party-list votes start today, the Peoples International Observers Mission (IOM) Manila team raised concerns that the hundreds of deactivated voters in the urban poor communities of Tondo are a lot of votes lost by the progressive party-list groups.
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City of San Fernando ? “This year’s elections in the Philippines made me realize just how much political dynasties (and militarization) heavily influence Filipinos’ free exercise of their right to vote.” This is what Ms. Aimee Beboso, a Filipino-Canadian had to say after her third day of observing the country’s current polls.