Kontra Daya: Palace used poverty in Mindanao poll fraud

Like it did in the 2004 presidential elections, the Arroyo government “cynically and deliberately" exploited poverty in Mindanao to pull off various poll irregularities. This was the assessment of militant poll watchdog group Kontra-Daya, whose observation team noticed several poll irregularities in Muslim Mindanao. “As in the 2004 presidential elections, the Arroyo government has cynically and deliberately exploited the impoverished and anarchic situation in Mindanao to achieve its narrow partisan objectives. It has belabored an incredible 12-0 sweep by Team Unity in selected provinces, as part of a clumsy attempt to shoehorn its trailing candidates into the 11th and 12th slots in the national count, " Kontra Daya said. "Ultimately, the Arroyo administration must bear the onus of failing miserably in fostering conditions for fair, credible, and free elections in Muslim Mindanao," the group added in its website (kontradaya.wordpress.com). “Although elections seem to have become an opportunity for the poor and desperate to earn a few pesos, it is undoubtedly the grand cheaters in power who bag the biggest loot," it added. It noted that as early as 2004, provinces in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) such as Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan and Maguindanao already figured in the “Hello Garci" tapes. Also in the 2004 elections, the opposition claimed that in ARMM, Arroyo’s votes were padded by 76,455 and her main contender Fernando Poe Jr.’s votes shaved by 41,313. In the final Congress tally, Arroyo won over Poe in ARMM, 549,944 to 272,715. But in the June 30, 2004 report of National Movement of Citizens for Free Elections (Namfrel), Poe was leading Arroyo. Now, three years later, many controversies continue to hound elections in Maguindanao, Sulu, Basilan and Lanao del Sur, where “myriad forms of cheating" were monitored. During the first two weeks of the counting, the Genuine Opposition (GO) gained the upper hand over the administration Team Unity, with an 8-2-2 outcome. “The votes from ARMM are again proving to be crucial for TU candidates desperate to make it to the magic 12. It is widely perceived that ‘special operations’ by cheating experts in Mindanao and other regions are ongoing to dislodge GO candidates Antonio Trillanes IV and Aquilino Pimentel III from the winning circle," it said. In Lanao del Sur, Kontra-Daya sent a 17-member observer mission there to monitor the special elections held on May 26. “The special elections held recently in this province amounted to a farcical exercise and was thus rendered extremely vulnerable to vote manipulation. Chaos was the order of the day," it said. It said that during the special election, there were no lists of voters posted at the polling precincts and there were no secrecy folders and lists of candidates inside the polling precincts. Poll watchers of candidates were inside the polling precincts and were seen dictating to the voters on who to vote for, while others who had already voted were not marked with indelible ink by the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs). When we asked one voter, he replied, matter-of-factly, “para makaboto uli (so that I can vote again)," Kontra Daya said. “It was worse at the Pangandaman Central Elementary School in the same town. In all of the six precincts, poll watchers of local candidates and soldiers doing guard duty took turns in filling out the ballots of every voter. Voters did not complain or resist because they said this is the “norm" during elections," it said. Members of accredited poll watchdog groups were barred from entering the counting areas, specifically at the People’s Park and at the Marawi National High School. Soldiers guarding these counting areas said the counting had not started or that they had no instructions from the Comelec provincial officer to allow observers to enter. In Lanao del Sur, heated and often violent conflicts among local rival politicians simply provide the fertile ground for crooked election officers, acting as a criminal syndicate, to engage in wanton election fraud, it said. “The extreme poverty of the Maranaos is also being exploited by the cheaters. Lanao del Sur is among the top 20 poorest provinces. Nine of its municipalities (Marogong, Piagapo, Tuburan, Sultan Dumalondong, Calanogas, Binidayan, Kapatagan, Bumbaran, Pagayawan) were included in the country’s 40 poorest municipalities in the year 2000," it said. In Maguindanao, all 12 TU senatorial candidates reportedly won while the GO candidates obtained an almost zero vote in the entire province. The opposition and almost all election watchdogs have called on the Comelec to disregard or set aside the COCs from Maguindanao because of the patent and wholesale fraud that marked the entire election process. They claimed no real elections took place in Maguindanao. “For example, more than 100 election inspectors were forcibly taken and detained, for three nights and two days, and made to manufacture votes for a local mayoralty candidate and the administration senatorial bets. This was according to four election inspectors presented by the opposition as witnesses to poll fraud in the province," it said. In Sulu, a public school teacher testified before the Comelec that she saw her fellow schoolteachers and a barangay chair fill out ballots in their town in the early hours of Election Day. Lente lawyer Raissa Jajurie, in an account published in an online publication, said she saw the BEIs writing on the ballots which had already been thumbmarked. At the national canvassing, TU allegedly won in Sulu with 10-2 outcome against the Genuine Opposition (GO). In Basilan, congressional candidate Jim Hataman-Saliman had sought the declaration of failure of elections in “certain barangays" in at least six towns of Basilan province. The canvassing of votes in the remaining town of Basilan was suspended after Saliman filed the petition. The Comelec has yet to hear Saliman’s petition. “In areas where these election irregularities have been recorded, Comelec men closely identified with the notorious former Comelec Commissioner Garcillano, have retained their positions, or worse, have been promoted," it said. Among them are Jubiel Surmieda and Renault Macarambon, members of the Comelec’s Special Action Group (SAG) tasked to oversee the conduct of special polls in ARMM. Another is Jose Tolentino Jr., head of the SAG, who was implicated in the MegaPacific scam but was not charged. Election officials repeatedly mentioned in the “Hello Garci" tapes such as Lintang Bedol and Rey Sumalipao, are still very much around, supervising the conduct of the polls in ARMM. “Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos has refused to dismantle the cheating machinery in ARMM by pulling out these implicated election officials and having them investigated. Calls for such decisive action alongside other major electoral reforms before the May 14 elections have consistently fallen on deaf ears – both at the Comelec and in Malacañang," it said. - GMANews.TV