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Significance of the 2008 ARMM elections


AUTOMATION

Prelude to automated 2010 polls

  • Comelec and electoral reform advocates see the August 11, 2008 ARMM elections as a dry run for the modernized elections in May 2010.

    Comelec will use 2 kinds of technology:
     
    • Touch-screen or touchpad voting through Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) in the province of Maguindanao
       
    • Optical Mark Reader (OMR), where paper ballots were counted using machines, for the provinces of Shariff Kabunsuan, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi
       
  • The use of different kinds of automated election systems will allow Comelec to evaluate which between DRE and OMR is suitable for nationwide use in 2010.
     
  • The ARMM elections will gauge the extent automation can restrict or prevent fraud.

ARMM as pilot test area for automation

  • Automated elections were tried in the ARMM during the 1996 regional polls and the 1998 national exercise
     
  • Both were described as failures: the machines failed in terms of speed and accuracy in 1996, some of the machines rejected pre-printed ballots in 1998.

MELO AND COMELEC CREDIBILITY

The 2008 ARMM elections is the first under the supervision of Comelec Chair Jose Melo.

  • Melo is a retired Supreme Court justice who was appointed by Arroyo to the poll body in January.
     
  • His appointment was well-received; it was seen as a step in winning back Comelec's badly tarnished credibility.
     
  • In June, Comelec relieved ARMM election director Rey Sumalipao as and transferred him to the poll body's Manila office where he will be assistant project manager for the ARMM elections. Sumalipao, the provincial election supervisor in Lanao del Sur during the May 2004 elections, was identified with Garcillano and was mentioned in the "Hello, Garci" recordings.

Comelec's reputation has been in tatters for the following:

  • Allegations that former Chair Benjamin Abalos brokered for Chinese firm ZTE Corp. the government's $329-million national broadband network project. Abalos resigned in October 2007 in the wake of the allegations.
     
  • Accusations by the opposition that former Maguindanao Election Supervisor Lintang Bedol manipulated the results of the 2007 senatorial elections in the province, where administration candidates made a clean sweep of the race. Bedol snubbed Comelec hearings on the allegations and when he did surface, he said election returns in his custody were stolen.
     
  • The supposed involvement of Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and other Comelec officials and employees in Mindanao in the manipulation of the 2004 presidential election results to favor. The "Hello, Garci" wiretapped telephone conversations between Garcillano and Arroyo allegedly discussed the rigging.
     
  • The Abalos-led Comelec's anomalous purchase of P1.3 billion worth of automated counting machines for the 2004 elections. The Supreme Court voided the contract with the Mega Pacific Consortium and ordered the Ombudsman to investigate and file charges against Comelec officials but the Ombudsman absolved them.
     
  • The P6.5-billion deal between Comelec and Photokina Marketing Corp. for a voter registration and identification system, struck down by the Supreme Court in 2002. Photokina bagged the project despite the fact that its bid was beyond the amount appropriated by Congress for the project.
     
  • Questions on the credentials of the two recently appointed commissioners: retired Court of Appeals Associate Justice Lucenito Tagle and Malabon RTC Judge Leonardo Leonida.

VIOLENCE

  • Two slain Comelec law department directors, Alioden Dalaig and Wynne Asdala, hail from ARMM. Authorities believe their murders are related to an election protest case in the gubernatorial race in Shariff Kabunsuan.
     
  • In a February 2008 Social Weather Stations survey:
    • 69% of Mindanao Muslims say that violence during elections "is a way of life" in their province
    • 41% say they are more worried about their personal security during election time
    • 62% say it is good to have an unopposed candidate, since it reduces campaign violence
       
  • Rido or clan conflict is more pronounced in Muslim communities than in other parts of the country.
     
  • Two of the candidates in the 2008 ARMM elections have been charged in the kidnapping of ABS-CBN news anchor Ces Oreña Drilon, her crew, and Mindanao State University professor Octavio Dinampo last June.
     
    • The Department of Justice has filed kidnapping charges against Indanan, Sulu mayor Alvarez Isnaji and his son, Haider "Jun" Isnaji for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Drilon et al.
       
    • The Isnajis had acted as the abductors' emissaries in the negotiations for the release of the ABS-CBN news team and Dinampo.
       
    • The Isnajis are both candidates in the 2008 ARMM elections. The older Isnaji is running for ARMM Regional Governor, while the younger Isnaji is seeking a post as assemblyman of the first legislative district of Sulu.

ARROYO AND THE ARMM ELECTIONS

Bailiwick in the 2004 presidential elections

  • Arroyo won in the ARMM provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Sulu
     
  • Her closest rival, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., won in Tawi-Tawi and Cotabato City
     
  • Votes in the ARMM were crucial to ensuring Arroyo's winning margin of 1.1-million votes over Poe: it delivered 17 percent of Arroyo's Mindanao votes

Hello, Garci

  • All ARMM provinces figured prominently in the "Hello, Garci" recordings
     
  • Among the  certificates of canvass the opposition objected to during the congressional canvass of the presidential and vice presidential votes in 2004 were from ARMM provinces Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Tawi-Tawi
     
  • Defeated vice presidential bet Loren Legarda filed an election protest against Vice President Noli de Castro, claiming manipulated results in six provinces, one city and five municipalities.The provinces include Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao. The Presidential Electoral Tribunal junked the election protest in January "for lack of legal and factual basis."

2007 senatorial elections

  • Administration candidates won majority of the 12 slots in Sulu, Basilan, Shariff Kabunsuan, Tawi-Tawi and Lanao del Sur
     
  • In Maguindanao, it was 12-0 for the administration ticket
     
  • Administration senatorial bet Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri topped the controversial senatorial polls in Maguindanao and placed 12th in the national count.
     
  • In June, the Senate Electoral Tribunal decided to proceed with the election protest of opposition senatorial candidate Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III after finding "reasonable ground to believe that the final outcome of the case" could unseat 12th placer Zubiri.
     
  • In July, the Supreme Court denied with finality the petition filed by Pimentel III seeking to exclude votes from Maguindanao. SC previously denied Pimentel's petition for a TRO, leading to Zubiri's proclamation.

ARMM ELECTION BACKGROUNDER

  • ARMM is the only region in the Philippines with elected officials in the regional level.
     
  • ARMM regional elections should be held every 3 years.
     
  • This will be the 6th election in the ARMM, although it should be the 7th:
     
    • Elections were postponed several times in the past to give way to the peace process, first with the MNLF and later with the MILF. The MILF broke away from the MNLF after the latter forged a peace pact with the government.
       
    • ARMM elections were held in February 1990, March 1993, September 1996, November 2001 and August 2005.
       
    • Former ARMM governors Nur Misuari and Parouk Hussin served beyond their 3-year terms of office on holdover capacity because Congress failed to pass the law that would have expanded the ARMM and the other provisions of the 1996 peace agreement with the MNLF.

MILF PEACE TALKS/POSTPONEMENT

  • A June 16 joint official statement of the Central Committees of MILF and MNLF say they consider the ARMM election as a "grave obstacle to the ongoing GRP-MILF Peace Process and the GRP-OIC-MNLF Tripartite Talks."

    Mohagher Iqbal, chairman of the MILF Peace Panel, cited two reasons for the need to postpone the polls:
     
    • Non-postponement "would create the impression that the Arroyo administration is not determined and committed to finish the ongoing peace talks and solve the Moro Problem and the armed conflict in Mindanao during her remaining term of office;"
       
    • If the government and MILF would sign the Comprehensive Compact in 2009, the transition period cannot commence immediately except upon the termination of the terms of office of all local executives including those of the ARMM in 2011.
       
  • The MILF leadership wants the government to postpone the elections and appoint an officer-in-charge so the transition period for the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity could commence immediately.
     
  • BJE is the projected territory to be considered the ancestral homeland of an estimated 3 million Muslims in Mindanao. It is the current ARMM which may be expanded to include 712 barangays in five provinces: Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Zamboanga Sibugay and Palawan.
     
    • A plebiscite in the said areas will determine the composition of the new territory
       
    • A memorandum of agreement on the critical ancestral domain issue should be signed on August 5, but the Supreme Court issued a TRO a day before
       
    • After the formal signing of the MOA, the two parties will resume formal peace negotiations on the main talking points on how to solve the Bangsamoro problem.
       
  • Arroyo supported the postponement and certified as urgent a bill seeking the postponement.
     
  • On July 31, the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms approved the bill seeking the postponement. The bill has yet to pass second reading (as of August 5, 2008).

Sources: Mindanews.com, asiafoundation.org, ifes.org.ph, Inquirer, luwaran.com, GMA News, SWS, James Jimenez, DOJ
Tags: moroislamicliberationfront, peaceprocess, rpmilfpeacetalks, milf, ancestraldomain
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