Assessment of 2004 Election

THE MAY 2004 ELECTIONS: ASSESSMENTS
National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL)
Picking Up the Election Returns

Of the 216,382 election returns available, NAMFREL picked up approximately 90 percent of the documents and tabulated 82.98 percent of the returns or 179,564 precinct reports.

Reasons for failure to receive all Election Returns

• Not all Boards of Election Inspectors turned the Election Returns over to NAMFREL.
• NAMFREL was not able to send in volunteers into an area for various reasons including the lack of volunteers or the risk of entering a “hotspot.”

Reasons why not all Election Returns in NAMFREL’s possession were tabulated

• Some returns were unreadable, some contained errors, some were missing key information, and some were with missing pages.

Nonetheless, the operation for 2004 was the largest in NAMFREL’s history in terms of percentage covered and actual number of returns picked up and tabulated. While it was not our fastest in terms of speed, its broad coverage more than made up for this shortcoming.

Initial Problems With the Certified Voters’ List

• Comelec’s Voter Validation program to prepare new voters lists using a biometric system failed.
• Comelec missed several of its own self-imposed deadlines to publicly post the list or to close the voters’ books before election day. In the weeks immediately prior to election day, it became increasingly clear that the lists would never be posted on time.
• Among the lists which were made publicly available, encoding errors were found where names, dates of birth, addresses, and consequently precinct assignments were mixed up. Comelec decided to go with several lists on election day, resorting to the old voters’ list when all else failed. The result was some confusion on election day when some voters could not find their names on lists in their old, regular voting centers and were thus unable to vote.

Voter Turnouts and Fill-up Rates

• The confusion over the voters’ lists may have had an effect on the actual voter turnout on election day but not enough to constitute a so-called “massive disenfranchisement” as some allege.
• Normally, Presidential elections have around 80 percent voter turnout rates. For the 2004 elections, voter turnout rate was estimated at 74.3 percent, indicating that disenfranchisement may have run as high as two million voters rather than the 900,000 that exit polls had suggested.
• Among those who voted, three percent abstained from voting for a President while nine percent abstained from voting for a Vice president. Voters also elected an average of 7.56 Senators (e.g. between 7 and 8 out of possible 12).

Fact And Figures

Seats For Grabs

Senate: 12 seats

House of Representatives: 219 district representatives, excluding party-list representatives

Governors: for 81 provinces (also vice governors and provincial council members)

Mayors: for 118 cities, 1,510 municipalities

Sanggunian members (Councilors): 770 Sangguniang Panlalawigan, 1,314 Sangguniang Panglungsod, 12,092 Sangguniang Bayan

Number of Voters:

43,522,634 registered voters for 2004. 76.99 percent voted in May 2004, or 33.5 million voters.

SENATE:

• 12 seats up for grabs (to replace outgoing senators Franklin Drilon, Manuel Villar, Panfilo Lacson, Joker Arroyo, Edgardo Angara, Francis Pangilinan, Juan Flavier, Sergio Osmena III, Ralph Recto, and Jun Magsaysay. Noli De Castro is the 12th slot)
• The 12 senators who will remain in office are Mar Roxas, Bong Revilla, Nene Pimentel, Jamby Madrigal, Dick Gordon, Pia Cayetano, Miriam Santiago, Fred Lim, Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Lito Lapid and Rodolfo Biazon.
• Of the 12 outgoing senators, six are reelectionists: Villar, Lacson, Arroyo, Angara , Pangilinan, and Recto. Four others (Drilon, Flavier, Osmena, Magsaysay), except for De Castro who is serving as VP until 2010, are last-termers.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

All provinces and several cities have at least one congressional/legislative district, whose residents vote for their own congressman. Each district covers a population of approximately 250,000 to 500,000 people. Provinces that have only one congressional/legislative district are divided into two provincial districts. For provinces that have more than one congressional/legislative district, the provincial districts are identical to the corresponding congressional/legislative district.

source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/33889/Fast-Facts-Eleksyon-2007

For the detailed numbers of voters please go to http://www.inquirer.net/map_api/balloon.php?marker_id=1

Namfrel Bay Calls for Supports

The National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) has received accreditation from the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to initiate activities necessary to conduct and accomplish Operation Quick Count for May 2007 Elections

In a Resolution promulgated last April 2, 2007, NAMFREL was tasked to recruit and train volunteers who will serve as Retrievers and Couriers of the sixth (6th) copy of all Election Returns in Bay and as Vote Tabulators and Encoders, all of which fall under the responsibility of conducting an Operation Quick Count.

NAMFREL is in need of human, logistical, material, and financial support. There are 141 precints in Bay, Laguna. We need two volunters each precints.

For those interested to volunteer and donate please visit or call its headquarters at the SAPNO, Tanalega St. Bay, Laguna, Philippines or call 049-536-0275

About Namfrel

Filipinos from all walks of life have decided to take positive action to preserve democracy in the country by making elections work. Elections are the basis of achieving peaceful change.

The National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) is a non-partisan, nationwide organization of individuals and civic, religious, professional, business, labor, educational, youth and non-government groups voluntarily working for the cause of free, orderly and honest elections.

The group was organized in October 1983 but its roots can be traced to as far back as the 1960’s with the formation of the New Voters Registration Committee, the Citizens National Electoral Assembly (CNEA), the National Citizens Constitutional Convention Movement (NCCM), and the Citizens National Committee for Referenda, Plebiscites and Elections (CINACORPE). Today, NAMFREL continues its tradition of harnessing citizen’s and organizations’ collective strength in working for electoral and political reforms.

Currently, there are more than 250,000 individual members and over 1,500 volunteer regional, provincial, city, municipal, and district chairpersons and coordinators nationwide. Likewise, Namfrel is supported by 125 organizations, 145 donors and benefactors. It is governed by the National Council, consisting of heads of major national organizations participating in Namfrel. The National Secretariat is composed of a number of staff headed by the Executive Director. At the local level, Namfrel is organized into 87 provincial chapters and 17 city and municipal chapters in the National Capital Region.

Since the Batasang Pambansa Elections in 1984, Namfrel has participated in 20 national and local elections. In all electoral exercises, Namfrel has been accredited by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as its citizens’ arm to undertake voter education and poll watching functions and the conduct if an unofficial parallel count. Namfrel volunteers have also worked as trainors, election observers, election administrators and resource persons in 27 countries since 1986

This election of 2007, the organization received a lot of negative feedbacks due to result of National Election of 2004. One of the negative feedback is its failed deliverance of the 80% quick count of the last national election. However, Nassa, the National Secretariat of Social Action – Peace and Justice, one of the commissions of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines acts as the coordinating Body between Namfrel and PPCRV to resolve the issue.

Pool Watchdogs, Make Up and Team Up

Posted April 24, 2007 06:21:00(Mla Time)

Nikko Dizon
MANILA, Philippines — The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections and the social arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines have resolved their differences over Namfrel’s accreditation by the Commission on Elections to conduct a quick count of the May 14 polls.

Namfrel and the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (Nassa) formally signed an agreement last Wednesday agreeing “to work together to conduct the vote count for the May 14 elections using the Namfrel accreditation by the Comelec.”

The agreement was signed by Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez, Nassa national director, and Edward Go, Namfrel’s new national chair, paving the way for volunteers from the two groups to jointly monitor the conduct of the elections.

“We want to use the best of both organizations. There are regions in the country where [one of us] has a better presence. There are areas that we’ll jointly manage to make sure we fill the gaps,” Go said Monday at the CBCP.

He added that it was all systems go for Namfrel even if the watchdog was already “hard pressed for time.”

“It’s a bit late but we will work double-time and we’ll be okay,” he said.

Go, an honorary diplomat of Senegal, replaced Jose Concepcion Jr., whose resignation as Namfrel chair was a condition set by the Comelec in accrediting Namfrel.

Concepcion is a village captain of Forbes Park in Makati City. If he continued to head Namfrel, this would be a violation of the watchdog’s non-partisan duties, the Comelec said.

Nassa, which provides manpower to Namfrel, had wanted to serve as the new quick-count body for the May elections.

Namfrel, which has conducted the country’s election quick-count since 1986, supposedly failed to provide 80 percent of its quick-count report to the Comelec in the 2004 presidential election.

Namfrel and Nassa separately petitioned the Comelec for quick count accreditation, but both agreed in principle that they would join forces. However, the Comelec accredited only Namfrel, and Nassa felt left out in the cold.

With the rift mended, Namfrel and Nassa will muster as many volunteers as they can to cover all 308,000 election precincts nationwide.

Namfrel volunteers will be provided the sixth copy of the election returns or the summary of votes per election precinct which they will transmit via fax or e-mail to the Namfrel tabulating center at La Salle Greenhills in Mandaluyong City.

Eric Alvia, Namfrel secretary general, said the quick-count body aims to tabulate 100 percent of the election returns but he admitted that the group would be hard put to do that in some areas.

Pork Barrel Dangled By Coop Party List

Posted April 24, 2007 05:10:00(Mla Time)

Vincent Cabreza
BAGUIO CITY—What seemed to be evidence that a party-list group was engaged in vote-buying was uploaded last week in the Internet, and this got the attention of the Commission on Elections.

A nominee of the Cooperative Natco Network Party, the party-list group of the National Confederation of Cooperatives, could be seen in a 10-minute video clip at http://www.youtube.com promising Baguio-based cooperatives here shares from the Natco congressional development fund in exchange for their money and support.

Jose Ping-ay, the nominee, belongs to the Sta Cruz Development Cooperative based in Ilocos Sur. He met several representatives of cooperatives here on April 3, after they attended a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas workshop on counterfeit money.

Referring to an Ilocos Sur cooperative, Ping-ay said: “In 2004, they contributed P100,000 to the party fund… for every P100,000 contribution the cooperative will be entitled to P1 million allocation from the congressional funds.”

Coop-Natco won a congressional seat in the 2001 and 2004 elections. Guillermo Cua represents Coop-Natco at the House of Representatives.

Gauging by the clip alone, lawyer Maribelle Uminga, Baguio election supervisor, said Coop-Natco may have violated election laws regulating campaign contributions.

She said Comelec Resolution 7794 prohibits candidates from soliciting campaign donations from public or private financial institutions because these can be used to secure public government commitments.

Many of the cooperatives approached by Coop-Natco are lending facilities.

Promising pork barrel allocations already violates that rule because CDF funds are public funds, Uminga said.

But the same rule allows candidates to secure loans from private or public facilities and members of the party-list group are using this to justify the video clip.

Recto Inso, one of the party-list coordinators in the city, said they solicit investments from local cooperatives to augment their campaign funds, and the CDF is only a guarantee that they get back their capital.

Inso attended the meeting featured in the YouTube clip. He said most candidates and party-list groups have “their own strategies” in securing campaign funds, and Coop-Natco’s approach is the most “transparent.”

He said Coop-Natco had always solicited campaign funds this way ever since they won a seat in Congress. “We see nothing wrong with it because no money changed hands. This is not vote-buying at all. We print out the names of donors in our newsletters, and we tell cooperatives what they get in return,” he said.

Inso, a manager of a market cooperative, said his group received a computer laptop from Coop-Natco because they were credited for raising 1,000 votes in 2004.

Other cooperatives received projects worth P1 million.

The party-list group financed two buildings worth P2 million for a cooperative in the Ilocos region, which donated to the 2004 campaign, he said.
BAGUIO CITY—What seemed to be evidence that a party-list group was engaged in vote-buying was uploaded last week in the Internet, and this got the attention of the Commission on Elections.

A nominee of the Cooperative Natco Network Party, the party-list group of the National Confederation of Cooperatives, could be seen in a 10-minute video clip at http://www.youtube.com promising Baguio-based cooperatives here shares from the Natco congressional development fund in exchange for their money and support.

Jose Ping-ay, the nominee, belongs to the Sta Cruz Development Cooperative based in Ilocos Sur. He met several representatives of cooperatives here on April 3, after they attended a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas workshop on counterfeit money.

Referring to an Ilocos Sur cooperative, Ping-ay said: “In 2004, they contributed P100,000 to the party fund… for every P100,000 contribution the cooperative will be entitled to P1 million allocation from the congressional funds.”

Coop-Natco won a congressional seat in the 2001 and 2004 elections. Guillermo Cua represents Coop-Natco at the House of Representatives.

Gauging by the clip alone, lawyer Maribelle Uminga, Baguio election supervisor, said Coop-Natco may have violated election laws regulating campaign contributions.

She said Comelec Resolution 7794 prohibits candidates from soliciting campaign donations from public or private financial institutions because these can be used to secure public government commitments.

Many of the cooperatives approached by Coop-Natco are lending facilities.

Promising pork barrel allocations already violates that rule because CDF funds are public funds, Uminga said.

But the same rule allows candidates to secure loans from private or public facilities and members of the party-list group are using this to justify the video clip.

Recto Inso, one of the party-list coordinators in the city, said they solicit investments from local cooperatives to augment their campaign funds, and the CDF is only a guarantee that they get back their capital.

Inso attended the meeting featured in the YouTube clip. He said most candidates and party-list groups have “their own strategies” in securing campaign funds, and Coop-Natco’s approach is the most “transparent.”

He said Coop-Natco had always solicited campaign funds this way ever since they won a seat in Congress. “We see nothing wrong with it because no money changed hands. This is not vote-buying at all. We print out the names of donors in our newsletters, and we tell cooperatives what they get in return,” he said.

Inso, a manager of a market cooperative, said his group received a computer laptop from Coop-Natco because they were credited for raising 1,000 votes in 2004.

Other cooperatives received projects worth P1 million.

The party-list group financed two buildings worth P2 million for a cooperative in the Ilocos region, which donated to the 2004 campaign, he said.

Camarines Sur Governor Request the Transfer Of PNP Provincial Director

Posted April 24, 2007 05:20:00(Mla Time)

Juan Escandor Jr.
NAGA CITY—Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymund “Lray” Villafuerte has urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to immediately approve a request of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to replace Senior Supt. Romeo Mapalo by Senior Supt. Romeo Tambungi as the province’s police director.

Villafuerte said the PNP’s request for the reassignment of Mapalo to the Police Regional Office 5 (PRO5) and the designation of Tambungi as acting Camarines provincial police director was officially transmitted to Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. in a memorandum dated April 10, 2007.

The memo was signed by the Director General Oscar Calderon, PNP chief.

“I am strongly urging the Comelec to give due course and immediately approve this request,” said Villafuerte, who also pointed out that the PNP already ordered Mapalo’s replacement by Tambungi last Jan. 9, but the order has yet to be implemented.

But Mapalo said he would not hesitate leaving his post here once he receives the order for his relief from his assignment.

“As a good soldier, I will always follow orders from my superiors. I am always ready to go if the higher headquarters finally send my walking papers,” the police director said.

Since it is election period, Comelec clearance is required for the transfer of assignments of police personnel pursuant to Comelec Resolution 7707 and 7788, which were promulgated on Aug. 30, 2006 and Dec. 20, 2006.

It can be recalled that last Oct. 30, 2006, Villafuerte wrote a letter to the PNP choosing Tambungi from a list of three nominees as Mapalo’s replacement.

He has repeatedly pointed out that Napolcom Memorandum Circular No. 2001-005 gave him the right to choose the provincial police director within 10 working days from receipt of the list of three nominees from the office of the director of the regional police office.

The governor also cited a statement issued recently by the PRO5, through Supt. Eliciar Bron, that Mapalo had been ordered relieved by “higher headquarters” for his continued failure to stop the operation of jueteng, an illegal numbers game, in Camarines Sur, which is being run by a certain Bogart.

Bron said the relief of Mapalo is pursuant to the “1-3-2 strike” policy issued by the PNP Chief on May 8, 2006.

2 Nueva Ecija Official Killed in an Ambush

Posted April 24, 2007 11:09:00(Mla Time)

Anselmo Roque
CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines — Two village officials, one of them a barangay (village) captain, were killed when they were ambushed by a group of armed men in Talugtog, Nueva Ecija province, on Tuesday morning, police said.

Police said Liberato Ramos, village chief of Barangay Saberona, and Eusebio Jimenez, the village’s treasurer, came from a meeting with political leaders of reelectionist Talugtog Mayor Pacifico Monta and were on their way home at 2 a.m. when they were attacked.

Their two companions, who were not identified in initial police report, were wounded.

Talugtog is about 45 kilometers from this city

Rise of Unity Bets in Poll Ranks Elated Palace

Lira Dalangin-Fernandez ldalangin@inq7.net
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang is elated by what it called the “dramatic rise” in the ratings of TEAM Unity candidates and said that the signs were “increasingly bright” for a victory of its candidates in the May 14 mid-term elections.

Presidential Political Adviser Gabriel Claudio said the improved ranking of the administration candidates were manifestations that the support of the local officials were beginning to set in.

“We believe [that] a snowball for TU will happen in the remaining weeks of the campaign. The signs are increasingly bright for a TU victory next month,” Claudio said in text message.

The support of local candidates, the TU’s campaign platform for progress and harmony and its teamwork as against the Genuine Opposition’s fragmented campaigning are giving the administration candidates the push in the survey, Claudio said.

“The trend shows more TU bets entering the magic 12 or 15. This will encourage the administration’s nationwide local machinery to work hard for a 12-0 win for TU in many localities,” he said.

“If you add the 10-20% local machinery factor, it’s really possible for the opposition to be inundated by pro-administration votes,” he said.

Six candidates — three from the Genuine Opposition, two from Team Unity and one independent — are vying for the last three slots in the senatorial race, according to the latest survey.

The top nine are occupied by five GO candidates, three TU, and an independent, the survey said.

TU candidates Ralph Recto, Edgardo Angara, and Joker Arroyo — now ranked sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively — have improved their showing from their previous ranks of seventh, eighth, and 10th in the March survey.

Since the start of the campaign in February TU candidates Miguel Zubiri, Prospero Pichay Jr., Cesar Montano, and Vicente Magsaysay have also gained points, while three GO candidates — Alan Peter Cayetano, John Osmeña, and Manuel Villar had — lost points.

In contention for the last three seats are former Senator Vicente Sotto III (TU), Gregorio Honasan (Indepenent), Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel Jr. (GO), Tarlac Representative Benigno Aquino III (GO), Zubiri, and Sonia Roco (GO).

Gabriela:Probe Palace Party List Memo

Posted April 24, 2007 13:08:00(Mla Time)

Erwin Oliva
MANILA, Philippines — The left-wing Gabriela Women’s party-list group urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to investigate an alleged memo purportedly from the Office of External Affairs (OAE) asking Malacañang to support certain party-list groups in the May elections.

“We find it highly irregular that the OAE should form a special concerns group specifically to support the aforementioned party-list groups against Gabriela Women’s Party, Bayan Muna [People First], Anakpawis [Toiling Masses], Kabataan [Youth] Party List and Suara Bangsamoro [Voice of the Moro People],” the Gabriela secretary general Cristina Palabay said in a letter to Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos Tuesday.

Gabriela last week exposed the alleged October 16, 2006 confidential memo, supposedly from Assistant Secretary Marcelo Fariñas of the OEA to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo through lawyer Erlyn De Leon, a reported personal assistant of Arroyo.

Fariñas is allegedly one of the nominees of Agbiag Timpuyog Ilocano, which was among the party-list groups cited in the memo that the OEA supports. Fariñas has denied sending the alleged memorandum.

Gabriela said that the other party-list groups the alleged memo asked Arroyo to help are Babae Para sa Kaunlaran (Women for Development), League of Youth for Peace and Development, and Kalahi Advocates for Overseas Filipinos.

It said the alleged memo is evidence that the OEA is engaged in partisan election activities.

“The Office of the President should not be using government funds for ‘preferred’ party lists. We deem that this action of the OEA and the Office of the President is a violation of the Party List law and an affront to the essence of the said law,” the letter said.

Some 50 members of Gabriela and Kabataan trooped to the Comelec office to demand the start the probe.