As the national canvassing of votes for the recently concluded senatorial and local elections go esfull-swing, all eyes are on the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as massive fraud is alleged to have taken place in two of the regions provinces while failure of elections has been declared in another.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Election Watch
Vol. VII, No. 16 May 27-June 2, 2007
MANILA — Militants and Opposition protest against fraud May 23 at the Philippine International Convention Center where the national canvassing is being held (By Alex Remollino)As the national canvassing of votes for the recently-concluded senatorial and local elections continues to go full-swing, all eyes are on the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Shariff Kabunsuan, Lanao del Sur, Marawi City, and Maguindanao as massive fraud is alleged to have taken place in two of the regions provinces while failure of elections has been declared in another.
Maguindanao and Sulu have aroused controversy for both delivering 12-0 victories for the administration coalition Team Unity. Meanwhile, a failure of election had been declared in 14 of the municipalities of Lanao del Sur.
The ARMM has a combined total of 1,381,467 registered voters, based on data from the regional office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) there. Maguindanao has 212,795; Shariff Kabunsuan has 198,278; Lanao del Sur and Marawi City have 396,913; Basilan has 182,020; Sulu has 251,223; and Tawi-Tawi has 140, 238.
The size of the voting population in either Maguindanao or Sulu can affect the 11th and 12th slots in the senatorial race.
Based on the official Comelec count as of 7:30 p.m., May 25, Genuine Opposition candidates Antonio Trillanes IV and Aquilino Koko Pimentel are in the 11th and 12th slots, respectively.
The total number of registered voters in the entire ARMM is statistically enough to affect the rankings of all senatorial candidates.
Uncanvassed returns, pre-filled ballots
A May 25 report from the Task Force Poll Watch (TFPW) a joint effort by the progressive party-list bloc and the Genuine Opposition to monitor the counting of votes reveals that up to 190 election returns (ERs) and 38 ballot boxes have yet to be canvassed in Pagalungan, Maguindanao.
Up to now, the authorized Comelec officer has yet to collect the election returns and the 38 ballot boxes, said Faizal Kalantungan, a member of Maguindanaos Board of Election Inspectors (BEI), in an affidavit signed yesterday.
Kalantungans affidavit, which TFPW used as reference for its May 25 report sent to media, comes as a shocking disclosure considering that the Magundanao certificate of canvass (CoC) had been submitted to the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), where the Comelec en banc is conducting the national canvassing of votes.
A TFPW fact-finding team sent to investigate the reported fraud in Maguindanao discovered that the 190 uncanvassed ERs mentioned in Kalantungans affidavit contained all the votes for eight out of 12 barangays (villages) in Pagalungan.
It is highly irregular that the Provincial Board of Canvassers already finished canvassing votes in Maguindanao while the ERs remain in the custody of poll officers at the municipal level, said Satur Ocampo, first nominee of Bayan Muna (People First) which is among the initiators of TFPW.
This is a clear case of election sabotage, a criminal and election offense, Ocampo also said.
Kalantungans revelation comes on the heels of reports that teachers serving as election officials in Maguindanao were literally forced to deliver a 12-0 victory for senatorial candidates belonging to the administration coalition Team Unity.
In a news conference on May 20, the poll monitoring group Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) headed by lawyer Carlos Medina stated that a teacher from Maguindanao had talked to its volunteers and said that election officials were ordered at gunpoint to fill the ballots with the names of Team Unity senatorial candidates, starting with those of Luis Chavit Singson and Prospero Pichay.
Aside from Singson and Pichay, Team Unitys other senatorial candidates are: Juan Miguel Zubiri, Mike Defensor, Jamalul Kiram, Ralph Recto, Joker Arroyo, Mike Defensor, Edgardo Angara, Vicente Tito Sotto III, Teresa Aquino-Oreta, and Cesar Montano.
Not only that students and other children playing around on the school grounds were asked to mark the ballots with thumbprints and sign their names on the voters list.
Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos has warned of the possibility of penalty should the Maguindanao teachers allegation fail to be substantiated. We are also looking at the other side because unverified, invalidated reports, which cause alarm to our people, should not be tolerated and should not be left unpunished, the Comelec chairman said in a press conference on May 22.
Lente even stated that the teacher said no actual voting took place in Maguindanao. 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, Medina said.
Alongside Lentes expos came a report from Eric Alvia, secretary-general of the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), that Maguindanao Comelec officers withheld copies of provincial ERs from Namfrel volunteers.
Fr. Eduardo Tanudtanud, Namfrels Maguindanao chairman, said their volunteers were told that municipal election officers issued a verbal order to withhold the release of all copies of the ERs including the copy for Namfrel.
2007 Elections
