Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.
Lead Philippines: Can't believe this is still happening in the country. If the government does nothing, I won't be...
Keith Bacongco: who could we forget Alecks here in Mindanao... aside from PCIJ trainings, he also helped us a lot...

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hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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Voter turnout possibly lowest in six years

Posted by: Avigail Olarte | May 15, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Filed under: 2007 Elections, Comelec Watch, In the News

LARGELY due to the widespread disenfranchisement of voters, the turnout in yesterday’s elections could be the lowest in six years, a political think tank reported today.

Although the Commission on Elections reported a 75-percent voter turnout, other reports showed a 65-percent turnout, a drop from the previous elections, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) reported. Other precincts in the National Capital Region reported even lower turnouts, about 50 to 60 percent.

“If this is the case, yesterday’s elections could be the lowest in years, with 77 percent turnout in 2004 and 85 percent in 2001,” it said. CenPEG’s initial assessment of the May elections was largely based on reports from several poll watch groups and the media.

The reports showed that possibly hundreds of thousands of voters were directly disenfranchised, as names of many legitimate voters were missing in master lists; other names were found in other precincts.

CenPEG said that were also complaints of missing precincts, master lists that were unreadable, delayed opening of polling precincts, and of voting marked by long queues, preventing many voters from casting their ballots.

Another watchdog, Bantay Eleksyon 2007 (People’s Coalition to Monitor the 2007 Elections), also reported that the massive disenfranchisement was in part caused by widespread irregularities in the certified voters’ list (CVL), despite Comelec’s earlier announcement that it had cleansed 1.13 million unqualified persons from the list.

Read the report of the Center for People Empowerment in Governance here and the initial assessment of the Bantay Eleksyon 2007 here.

Also, the last-minute precinct rearrangements added confusion to voters, as well as the last-minute reassignments of Board of Election Inspectors.

“The national voters’ list is riddled with names of unqualified persons. Even underage voters are on the list,” Ramon Casiple of Bantay Eleksyon said. “There are reports of bonafide voters losing their names in the CVL, with early estimates of at least 100,000 voters being disenfranchised.”

In La Trinidad, Benguet, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) reported that many voters decided to go home after failing to find their names on the lists. In Isabela and Cainta, Rizal, there were names of dead persons on the list.

Further, Casiple said that there were numerous reports of officials of Comelec, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Philippine National Police engaging in partisan activities. There were even Comelec officials who reportedly tampered with voters’ lists.

CenPEG also had similar findings.

In at least two barangays in Guimba, Nueva Ecija, for instance, CenPEG reported that soldiers told the people not to vote for leftist party-list groups Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela, and to vote instead for Bantay. Retired Major Gen. Jovito Palparan, said to be accountable for several cases of extrajudicial killings, is Bantay’s first nominee. There were also similar incidents reported in Baguio, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Leyte, Albay, Sorsogon, the two Camarines provinces, Eastern Samar and several provinces in Mindanao.

Bantay Eleksyon further revealed that vote buying was widespread. In Manila, two men were arrested yesterday for allegedly selling their votes in favor of congressional candidate Boots Bacani, wife of outgoing Manila Rep. Rodolfo Bacani. Police, however, failed to arrest Bacani’s alleged operator.

Similarly, police caught an alleged supporter of Bacoor Mayor Jessie Castillo distributing money and sample ballots on the eve of the elections.

Police in Caloocan City also arrested two supporters of congressional candidate Egay Erice caught distributing rice along a street.

Even House Speaker Jose de Venecia accused his opponent, Mayor Benjamin Lim, of massive vote-buying. Congressional candidate Wahab Akbar of Basilan also made similar allegations against his rival.

Vote-buying occurred even inside the precincts, Bantay Eleksyon reported.

In Bukidnon, Newsbreak reported that sample ballots with fake peso bill bearing the face of former elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano were distributed near polling areas.

More deaths

Meanwhile, reports show that the country’s death toll in election-related violence reached 114 yesterday, 59 of which were candidates and 55 were supporters. The Philippine National Police however maintains that only 30 percent of the incidents are election-related.

Bantay Eleksyon said that in some cases, PNP classified cases as not election-related even if the killings were clearly politically motivated. An example of which is the murder case of Kalinga Vice Governor and gubernatorial candidate Rommel Daisen.

The police and military were also ineffective in identified hot spots like Abra, Masbate, and Nueva Ecija, Bantay Elekyson said. Just yesterday, a barangay captain was shot dead in the town of Bucay, Abra. In Masbate, a poll watcher and a brother of a mayoralty candidate in Milagros were killed in separate places.

There were also separate reports of bomb scare, bombing, shooting, abduction, and harassments, and ballot snatching in several places.

Election watchdog Kontra Daya said the most alarming reports came from Mindanao, where padding of voters’ lists, ballot-snatching, violence, and failure to conduct elections were reported.

Overall, Bantay Eleksyon said that the widespread confusion, the significant level of electoral violence, and the “increasing signs of electoral fraud” overshadowed the successful conduct of elections.

Casiple said the failure is attributed to the Comelec’s lack of political will to enforce laws.

“Its various immediate attempts at institutional reforms so far have not produced any significant improvement,” Bantay commented, “This basically guarantees that its problem of credibility will not be solved nor alleviated by its conduct in these elections.”

Bantay Eleksyon said that the next days will tell if Comelec can make good on its promise that this elections would be as clean, as honest, and as credible as possible.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 and is filed under 2007 Elections, Comelec Watch, In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 people have left comments

Obviously, when this kind of topic arises, the blame will be thrown to COMELEC. Partly, they were responsible for some irregularities and misdeeds during the last elections but still the whole direction of what COMELEC would have done was the responsibility also of the Legislative branch since they can not act on their own without the law. That is democracy everybody was talking about: deliberation, exchange of ideas the Lower House and the Senate would have done for the modernization of the electoral process. In a high tech world, when people were easily called out to streets through SMS, to oust a corrupt President, I can’t just imagine how in the world the Philippines can not modernize its electoral procedures easily, even after the so-called “Garci scandal” when obviously problems can be solved mostly by using computers. Results will come out fast, votes can not be easily padded, lost of names will be greatly minimized, disqualification procedures vs a candidate will be easily done (so that Alan Cayetano will not be airing always his concerns despite already in the magic 12); these are among other things that can make elections easily be done. Opposition was really out-of-focus (or maybe they have other agenda). Instead of spending time and money on modernizing COMELEC, it took them 2 years to shout out loud to deal with the 2004 elections, not on the purpose of reforming the election process, but to unseat the sitting President. And how hypocrite these people are (Lacson, Escudero, Cayetano, Legarda, Estrada, etc.) that after criticizing the current system of elections, and avoid purposely making laws to reform elections, as advocated by Christian and Solita Monsod, they themselves would subject to it and, right there, benefit through the process, while the others, especially the local positions, would be cheated right in front of their faces. People are actually fed up on these things. Maybe they don’t have anymore “choices” the reason they did not come out to exercise their right for suffrage. And this is really bad.

drhenry4 wrote on May 24, 2007 - 4:51 pm | Visit Link

[...] The National Citizens Movement for Free Elections, however, gave a much lower estimate: A few days after the election, it suggested that turnout could have been as low as 50 percent. Other election watchdogs said much the same thing, though they were not as pessimistic as Namfrel. [...]

Current » Turning out the vote wrote on May 28, 2007 - 11:07 am | Visit Link