THE PPCRV, like Namfrel, is supposed to receive legal assistance from Lente, which is composed of 28 organizations. Although Lente will provide legal services to members of its network, its primary task is to monitor the canvassing process. Lente was formed just this year.

	LAWYER Carlos Medina of Lente. [photo by Isa Lorenzo]

“When it comes to canvassing, we thought it wise to bring in lawyers, law students, trained paralegals, because in certain matters, you need legal knowledge,” says lawyer Carlos Medina, one of Lente’s convenors. “For example, you need to file (a) complaint, you need to file (an) appeal.”

Lente aimed to mobilize at least 10,000 volunteers so that it could have two lawyers assisted by two law students or paralegals in each of the country’s 1,600 municipalities. It also wanted to deploy two mobile groups per major island grouping.

But after canvassing began, Medina conceded that Lente was facing many challenges in its “systems, organization, and environment.” Still, it was able to receive accounts of alleged cheating and violence during canvassing. Just last Sunday, one of its subgroups received a report from a teacher in Maguindanao who said she was forced to fill out blank ballots with the names of Team Unity senatorial candidates, starting with Luis ‘Chavit’ Singson and Prospero Pichay.

Other Maguindanaoan teachers have since staged a protest, denying they were part of any attempt at election fraud. But Lente is not the only one receiving reports of supposed cheating; similar accounts have been echoed by BE.

Strictly speaking, BE is supposed to be an observer, and thus does not have a direct involvement in the poll-watching process. Its emphasis is on documentation, with a minimum of two organized monitoring teams (OMTs) composed of five members for each cluster expected to fill out weekly monitoring forms, which will be submitted to area coordinators. In the event of an anomaly, OMTs will also fill up and submit incident reports. Another type of BE volunteer is the citizen reporter, who is supposed to give direct information to area coordinators.

Among BE’s targets for observation is the Comelec’s performance. It plans to keep on producing reports long after the winners are proclaimed.

In many ways, BE is similar to Kontra Daya, but while the former has a regular report schedule, the latter has adopted a “come what may” approach. That, however, has not meant Kontra Daya’s reports are benign. In its initial salvo, the group said the “machinery for cheating” employed by the Arroyo administration during the 2004 elections remained intact, and that the Comelec had failed to ensure the security of the production of election returns and certificates of canvass. (Read Kontra Daya’s report)

Kontra Daya — whose convenors come from a wide spectrum consisting of militant activists, teachers, IT specialists, retired generals, and church organizations — also pointed to 22 party-list organizations as allegedly having the support of, or links to, the Palace.

Halal, meanwhile, is often mistaken by many as having tasks already being undertaken by Namfrel. But Halal has taken care to note that unlike the older group, it does not seek to tabulate or consolidate votes. What it is doing, says Halal, is a “citizens’ audit” of the election tallies; specifically, it seeks to tabulate votes as these come in precinct by precinct. (See Halal flowchart)

Table 1: Election Watchdogs * for identification purposes only
NAME	DATE ESTABLISHED	BRIEF DESCRIPTION	CONVENORS	NO. OF VOLUNTEERS
Namfrel	early 1980s	The National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections was reorganized to watch the vote in the 1986 snap polls. The organization's credibility suffered as a result of its performance in the 2004 elections, but many hope that Namfrel will be able to redeem itself.	Jose Concepcion Jr. (founding chairman); Edward Go (chairman); Vicente Jayme (vice chairman); Eric Alvia (secretary general)	Around 300,000
PPCRV	1991	Conceptualized during a meeting at the residence of the Archbishop of Manila, and established in response to the challenge of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting conducts voters' education. It has been officially accredited to do poll watching since 1992.	Henrietta De Villa (national chairperson); Antonio Ventosa (vice chairman for internal affairs); Ernesto Burdeos (vice chairman for external affairs); Bro. Clifford Sorrita (secretary general)	Around 400,000
Nassa	1966	The Catholic Bishops' Cconference of the Philippines' National Secretariat for Social Action-Justice and Peace focuses on emergency relief, development projects and social justice advocacy.		Members of 89 Basic Ecclesial communities across the country
Lente	2007	The Legal Network for Truthful Elections is a nationwide network of lawyers, law students, paralegals, and other trained volunteers set up by various nonpartisan groups engaged in election monitoring work to monitor the canvassing of votes and provide legal services members of the network during the election period.	Atty. Jose Vicente Salazar; Atty. Carlos Medina	Around 10,000
Bantay Eleksyon	conceptualized in 2005, launched in 2007	Bantay-Eleksyon 2007 will conduct a comprehensive monitoring of the 2007 elections, from the electoral preparations to post-proclamation protests. Bantay-Eleksyon 2007 will focus on the performance of the Commission on Elections and its deputized agencies. It will also cooperate with election monitoring efforts focusing on campaign financing, electoral violence, voter registration, poll watching, and other aspects of the electoral process.	Andie Lasala, BE coordinator	At least two organized monitoring teams (four to five people) per area — eight areas (at least 80 people)
V-Force	P2007	V-Force is a consortium of election stakeholders, including Namfrel, PPCRV, Nassa, Lente, and Bantay-Eleksyon. It aims to coordinate the election efforts of its member organizations.	The overall effort at coordination and linkage-work is being undertaken by key leaders of One Voice including former Comelec Chair Atty. Christian Monsod, Dr. Benjamin Tolosa, Atty. Carlos Medina, Dr. Antonio La Viña, Bro. Javy Alpasa S.J., Atty. Luie Guia, Ramon Casiple and Vincent Lazatin.	Target: one million volunteers (Tolosa said that they were close to reaching this figure.)
Halal	2006	Halalang Marangal aims to tabulate the disaggregated precinct results and make them available to the public on an internet database.	Former Senator Wigberto E. Tañada; General Francisco V. Gudani (ret.); former Comelec Commissioner Mehol K. Sadain; former St. Scholastica's College president Sr. Mary John Mananzan; 2004 TOYM awardee Atty. Ma. Paz Luna, PRRM senior vice president Isagani R. Serrano; and Philippine Greens Institute Executive Director, and IT specialist Roberto S. Verzola.	Target: 640,000 (Halal doesn't have an exact figure of how many volunteers it was able to gather.)
Kontra Daya	2007	Patterned after international poll watchers, Kontra Daya aims to expose cheating and other forms of electoral fraud based on information from a wide range of convenors.	Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr.; Fr. Joe Dizon (Kairos Philippines); Bsp. Elmer M. Bolocon, UCCP Bishop. Ephraim S. Fajutagana IFI; Bishop. Deogracias S. Iñiguez (Ecumenical Bishops Forum; Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera National Artist; Fortunato Abat (ret.); Dean Pete Agabin Professor Emeritus, University of the Philippines*; Ricardo Bahague (Computer Professionals Union); Orly Castillo (Concerned Artists of the Philippines); Ana Celestial (TxtPower); Atty. Frank Chavez; RC Constantino; Rev. Reynaldo B. Cortes (Faith, Witness & Service – National Council of Churches in the Philippines); Col. Gerry Cunanan (ret.); Dean Clarita M. Curato, De Los Santos – STI*; Dr. Edelina de la Paz (Health Action for Human Rights); Dr. Sylvia dela Paz, Jossel I. Ebesate(All UP Workers Union – Manila); Amado Gat Inciong (Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties); Dr. Eleanor Jara, Bettina Legarda (Concerned Citizens); Atty. Josefina Lichauco (Bangon); Dean Giselle M. Luna, Trinity University of Asia*; Mother Mary John Mananzan, OSB; Emma Manuel (Alliance of Health Workers); Sr. Lita Navarro, ICM, Dr. Gene Nisperos; Atty. Oscar Orbos; Dr. Minguita Padilla (Sinag); Dr. Carol Pagaduan-Araullo (Bayan); Dean Consuelo Paz, University of the Philippines*; Renato Reyes Jr., (Bayan); Director Carlitos Siguion-Reyna; Atty. Louie Sison, Prof. Triccie Sison; Ateneo de Manila University*; Prof. Judy Taguiwalo (All UP Academic Employees Union); Dr. Giovanni Tapang (AGHAM); Antonio Tinio (Alliance of Concerned Teachers)	Target: around 50 to 60 for the national secretariat and quick response teams composed of four to five people

“The origin of the figures is very, very important especially if your totals will already run in the millions,” explains Halal Chairman and former senator Wigberto Tañada. “When it reaches the millions and you don’t know where they’re coming from, and you’re not able to validate the source, as well as the correctness of this count at the precinct level, then the consolidated count is of no use, right?”

That sounds like a direct challenge to Namfrel. Interestingly, though, Halal, like Namfrel in 2004, wanted to use SMS to carry out its audit for this year’s polls. But it was forced to throw out that option after realizing it would be too costly.

IN TOTAL, the number of poll monitor volunteers belonging to various groups could reach more than 1.5 million. Right before the elections, V-Force’s Tolosa said his organization was already close to reaching its target of a million volunteers; Namfrel claims some 300,000 members while PPCRV says it has about 400,000.

	Election watchdogs are wary of alleged cheating and violence during vote canvassing. [photo courtesy of Carmela Ledesma]

Beverly Hagerdon-Thakur, Chief of Party of the International Foundation for Election System-Philippines (IFES), says the practice of accrediting civil-society as poll watchdogs is quite unique to the country.

“That's a little bit dangerous, I think,” she adds. “There's a conflict of interest there when your poll-watching groups are part of the Comelec.” While she does not oppose Comelec accreditation of poll-monitoring groups, she thinks that the relationship of the commission tends to get too close at times. The line between them should be drawn more clearly, she argues.

Hagerdon-Thakur believes that poll watchdogs should remain independent and critical of the election process. “And Comelec should welcome that,” she says, “because if you're running a great election and there isn't an independent citizens’ group to say and validate that, then it's sort of your word (against public perception).”

Tolosa, however, says that an accredited citizens' arm simply means the government cannot fulfill its elections duties alone. He adds, though, that there could be a problem if the perception is that the official government agency that is monitoring the electoral process itself cannot be trusted. “And that’s why the official link with government puts you yourself under a cloud of suspicion,” he says, stressing that in this case the accredited poll watchdog’s credibility could be questioned as well.

Yet despite the increasing public criticism of Comelec, Tolosa doesn’t think this occurred in the recently concluded elections. Still, he says that nonpartisan poll watchers will be most needed in bailiwicks of the administration or the opposition, where the lack of candidates from opposing parties might lead to problems in aggregation. V-Force — whose funds come from its member organizations, donations, as well as a “democracy trust fund” set up by the influential Makati Business Club — is also focusing on densely populated areas like central and southern Luzon, and Cebu.