by Maya Angelique B. Jajalla

photos by Cong B. Corrales 

QUEZON CITY—There were more election lapses reported by its 3,000 volunteers spread all over the country last Monday, compared to the 2010 Presidential Elections, the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), claimed in a press conference here Friday.

LENTE is a non-partisan nationwide network of lawyers, law students, paralegals and trained volunteers that has been monitoring the country’s polls since 2007.

“Nakakalungkot isipin na parang hindi po tayo natuto from past mistakes. Our problems are still the same—or even worse,” lawyer Kenjie Aman, President of LENTE’s National Secretariat, said.

Aman said “problems” like vote-buying, vote-selling, PCOS machine breakdowns, voters’ list discrepancies, the lack of ballots, the low-level training of the board of election inspectors (BEIs), oversized ballots and thermal paper, and the snail-paced transmission of votes marred last Monday’s midterm elections.

Worse, these recurring electoral lapses had disenfranchised many voters, the group said. The organization expected that the poll body would resolve them before the 2013 elections, since this was already the second time that the country is undergoing automated elections.

“Hindi naman masama na mag-expect tayo ng mataas… because they promised that (this year’s elections) would be okay,” Aman added. Comelec claimed that this year’s PCOS machine glitches (200 of 77,000) are lower compared to the 2010 presidential elections (400 of 70,000). To this, LENTE executive director Ona Carintos said: “It’s not about the issue of numbers. Basta may mga hindi nakakaboto, may problema ang ating eleksyon.”

“There was no genuine elections—not in accordance with international standards of inclusiveness, transparency, accountability and public confidence in elections,” Aman told reporters Friday.

Almost all of LENTE’s regional desk volunteers reported that persons with disabilities (PWDs) had a hard time casting their votes last Monday, since most of the polling centers in the country did not follow the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution 9485 on Accessible Polling Places for Persons With Disability (PWD), pregnant women, and detained voters. LENTE noted that most of the polling areas for PWDs, senior citizens and pregnant women were still located in the polling centers’ second and some still on the fourth floors.

LENTE’s Robee Ilagan, on the other hand, says that even though there were no reports of violence on Election Day in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the voting hour only started at 9 a.m. and closed as early as 4 p.m. The personnel claimed that they already have a 100% voter turnout. However, the transmission of votes only started at midnight. “What happened between 4 p.m. to 12 midnight, nobody knows,” said Ilagan. “It contradicts the principle of transparency,” she added.

In some regions of the country, voters found it hard to locate their precincts. Issues on the secrecy of their ballots were experienced, LENTE claimed. Citing what their volunteers witnessed in Regions V and VI, there were “more than 10 voters voting at the same time and ballot secrecy folders were not used.”

Since the electoral lapses are considered crimes against a person, Carintos explained that all they can do as an organization is offer their legal services to would-be complainants for free. “We need to have complainants to file the electoral cases. We will back you up and support you for free,”” said Carintos. From 2010 to 2013, LENTE only handled one election case. It is a case against Camiguin Governor Jurdin Jesus Romualdo. “Katatapos lang ng presentation ng prosecution. It’s now the time for the defense to present,” Carintos said adding that the slow pace of electoral case trials have also been instrumental for the complainant to lose interest in pursuing the complaints. Still, Carintos appealed to those who have witnessed electoral lapses to file their complaints.

Complaints, says Aman, should be viewed by the Comelec as constructive. “Hindi po ibig sabihin na yinuyurakan, sinisisi at gusto na naming mag-resign si Chairman (Sixto) Brillantes. Hindi po tao, kundi ang sistema po,” clarified Aman. LENTE lawyers admitted that they were disappointed with the incident reports and Comelec’s lack of contingency planning. But Aman added that the commissioners are not the only ones to be held accountable for the lapses in the election, but the election officers as well.

“They are the ones directly involved. So sila din dapat nating i-held [sic] accountable.”

LENTE officials also presented a list of recommendations to prevent the same problems in the 2016 elections. These include training of BEIs (Board of Election Inspectors), support staff and technical personnel and a specialized sensitivity training for vulnerable sectors. Second, there should be custody and security of the PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machines and all election paraphernalia. This is to address reports on pre-shaded and oversized ballots. Third, there should be a mandatory biometrics so that the Posted Computerized Voters’ List is in consonance with the Election Day Computerized Voters’ List. Fourth, there should be effective and timely remedies to safeguard electorates’ right to vote. Fifth, is for Comelec to reveal the areas where the PCOS failed to transmit. And lastly, there should be a timely release of the source code review.

THE 15th Congress will bow out soon, or by June 30, 2013 to be exact.

The newly elected senators, and district and party-list representatives, will convene in July as members of the 16th Congress.

Four re-electionist senators from the 15th, by the latest count of votes, are likely to keep their seats in the 16th. Twelve other senators will serve on until 2016. Just a handful of neophytes will likely be added to the roster of the senators of the 16th.

This early, it would do well for people to know and to fix the baseline data on the wealth of those who will serve in the Senate.

Both the neophytes and the re-elected senators, like all incoming elective officials of the land, are required by law to file their “entry into office” SALN or Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth by June 30.

To be sure, the Senate has always been a millionaires’ club.

Political party lines aside, the 23 senators of the 15th Congress are a lot alike in truth.

Financial comfort and steadily rising net worth are two blessings they share, according to the SALNs that they had filed over the years.

Some were born to old money, others had lucrative careers before politics beckoned, and a few own big business enterprises. To the last almost, wealth is the 23 senators’ common bliss.

Check out our latest report on The Wealth of the Senators of the 15th Congress in MoneyPolitics Online.

To know the wealth profiles of all 33 candidates for senator, read:

* THE RE-ELECTIONIST SENATORS:
SALNS bare some, mask other details
* Sidebar:
Wealth + donors + clans = power base

THE HOUSE’S WANNA-BE SENATORS:
* Propped by rich clans, big donors
* Sidebar:
Sons & daughters

* THE WANNA-BE SENATORS AGAIN:
No paupers despite break from politics

* The WANNA-BE SENATORS, TOO:
Family wealth, spouses’ assets boost a few newbies

THEY CAME IN DROVES, the young and the old, the healthy and the infirm, some with babies in tow, others heavy with child. We may not always like how they vote, we may agree or disagree with their choices in politics, yet theirs is a right to be heard, and a right that they defended on May 13 by braving the long lines and the stifling heat just so they could be part of this crazy thing we call democracy. Whether people choose well or not, the fact is that people chose on May 13. And generally, they were heard.

And that, at least, is one aspect of democracy in action.

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MARAGONDON, CAVITE — As early as 7 a.m., voter Diana Inguanzo, 55, had rushed to the public market and cooked lunch for her children because she knew that voting will take time. She queued up at 9 a.m. and finished voting three hours later, or past noon.

Jojo de Mesa, another voter, meanwhile, could not help but compare his experience in the 2010 elections when he was able to vote in less than an hour. Today, he observed that voters in his barangay who used to be assigned to separate rooms are now clustered in one room, hence the long wait to cast a ballot. Like Inguanzo, De Mesa ha to wait in line for hours before getting a chance to cast his vote.

Election officer and teacher Millet Diquit said that lines tend to stretch longer particularly in clustered precincts or barangays that have more voters. In her assigned precinct, over 400 voters are enrolled, while the precinct to which Inguanzo and De Mesa belong serves about 900 voters.

Long queues, the heat, and the intermittent rain are some of the difficulties that voters had to endure at the Maragondon Elementary School in Maragondon, a third-class municipality in the province of Cavite. Yet despite these minor hurdles and an alleged report of one problematic PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machine in another school, elections in this town known for a time in history for political violence unfolded fairly well.

Maragondon is the largest town in Cavite, the second vote-rich province in the Philippines with over 1.79 million voters. More than six decades ago, Maragondon had hosted an internecine feud between two Cavite political families — the Camerinos and Montanos.

According to Alfred W. McCoy’s An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines, then Senator Justiniano S. Montano Sr. and his candidate for governor, were campaigning with bodyguards and supporters in Maragondon in 1947 when they clashed with the town police led by Mayor Patrocinio Gulapa, an ally of the Camerinos. The incident left four dead and others wounded.

Two years later, in February 1949, Gulapa of Maragondon was shot at a cockpit in Noveleta, another town in Cavite. Several months later, Bailen (now General Emilio Aguinaldo town) mayor Hugo Beratio, another Camerino ally, fell to hostile gunfire at the town plaza.

In September 1952, Gulapa’s successor in Maragondon, Severino Rillo, was kidnapped and stabbed to death along with the town chief of police and his officers, who were all allied with Camerino. The incident, dubbed the “Maragondon Massacre”, led to a protracted court case in which Montano — along with several of his proteges and alleged hired gun Leonardo Manecio, also known as “Nardong Putik” — was accused of the killing, according to McCoy’s book.

In the May 2013 elections, a Rillo and a Gulapa are challenging the incumbent family in power, the Andamans. Incumbent mayor Mon Anthony ‘Mon-mon’ Andaman and vice mayor Irineo ‘Pinboy’ Angeles are running for re-election. Mon-mon’s father, Monte Andaman, had been Maragondon mayor from 2001 to 2010.

Candidate for mayor Reynaldo Rillo and vice mayor candidate Reagan Gulapa are allied with the Liberal Party whose candidates for district representative, governor and vice governor include Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino (brother of Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino), former Cavite governor Erineo ‘Ayong’ Maliksi, and Senator Panfilo Lacson’s son Ronald Jay Lacson, respectively.

Reagan is the grandson of former Maragondon mayor Patrocinio Gulapa who was killed in Noveleta in 1949.

Andaman and Angeles, meanwhile, are allied with candidates Gilbert Remulla for congressman, Jonvic Remulla for governor, and Ramon Jolo Revilla for vice governor. The Remullas are supported by the Nacionalista Party that is allied with President PNoy’s Liberal Party, as well as by the opposition United Nationalist Alliance of Vice President Jojo Binay.

Residents of Maragondon, like those in many towns of the country, seem to be torn between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ or even the ‘old-new’ political families still entrenched in local politics, and the familiar names running for national office.

But to student Kean Esguerra, 18, a first-time voter, today’s balloting is “our chance at change.”

“Usually, we say we want change but we’re not given the chance. Now, this is our opportunity to practice our right (to vote) — for our voices to be heard,” he says.

When asked what exactly he wants to change, Esguerra says change is relative, depending on the needs of a community. But in general, he says he wants less corruption and better opportunities for citizens.

Esguerra, who has yet to vote at the time of the interview, says he hopes to feel fulfilled because he would finally be able to “practice suffrage.” Aside from watching political advertisements, debates, and miting de avance gigs, Esguerra says that he did his own research on the background of candidates to see who fits his idea of good government.

Even to 57-year-old Bernardito Bernabe, election day represents change, too. “Para sa akin, para ito sa pagbabago ng ating bayan, ng ating kalagayan. Kasi bumoboto ako, walang namang nangyayari.”

But he says that he voted for candidates familiar to him. “Ang aking naman, basta ‘yung tumulong sa akin… Kung hindi ko kilala, hindi ko iboto,” he said.

In December 2012, Bernabe was involved in a vehicular accident, which left him crippled. As per election regulations, persons with disabilities like him, along with senior citizens and pregnant women, are supposed to be accorded priority in voting. Bernabe said he did not have to queue up and was able to cast his vote in a breeze.

SENIOR CITIZENS and persons with disabilities have had to climb two to four flights of stairs at the Quirino Almario Elemtnary School in Tondo, Manila, to cast their votes. This is despite a law that requires that they be given preferential treatment during elections.

We found a 61-year-old mother, with her daughter and a 10-month old grandchild in tow, complaining that they have been waiting for hours to cast their vote. The sextagenarian, who refused to giver her name, said nobody assisted her in climbing up the two flights of stairs.

However, Rogelio Masangga, a 41-year old ortho-impaired person counted himself luckier from the other PWDs. Masangga did not experience any problem casting his vote because somebody assisted and led him to a conference room beside the school principal’s office. The conference room — located on the first floor near the main entrance of the school — was the supposed designated precinct for senior citizens and PWDs.

The Commission on Elections earlier said that the first floor of the polling precincts have been set aside for the use PWDs and senior citizens so that they do not have to climb up stairs.

School principal Ruth Ricaforte said that they were providing assistance to PWDs and senior citizens, but “only those who sought help are accommodated.” Ricaforte added that it was up to the Board of Election Inspectors to decide how they would attend to the needs of voters.

The BEIs, for their part, have no list of senior citizens and PWDs so they could not monitor if their voters were elderly or have impediments which they were supposed to assist.

Ricaforte also said that, by this time, the voters should be aware that they can be accommodated in the first floor because it was the same as the last elections. But there were no visible signage indicating the conference room was indeed designated as the special precinct for senior citizens and PWDs.

“We provide them a room so that they will be comfortable, they just have to request,” says Ricaforte.

IT IS SAID that children are made to pay for the sins of their parents.

But in Philippine elections, fathers sometimes make the children commit sin, or violations of election laws, in their stead.

At the Quirino Almario Elementary School in Tondo, one of the schools with the biggest number of voters in the National Capital Region, we found children distributing different types of campaign paraphernalia to voters rushing inside the voting precincts.

The campaign paraphernalia include sample ballots, paper and plastic fans, and flyers with the faces and names of candidates and party-list groups.

These materials were also scattered from the road outside the school, all the way up to the hallways of the school.

The Commission on Elections had made it clear that any form of campaigning was already banned beginning Sunday, May 12.

Some children were also distributing flyers bearing the faces of the candidates. When we tried to take their photographs and interview them, they threw down the campaign paraphernalia.

ELECTIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES are one big fiesta, with all the color, food, buntings, and the trappings of a Philippine feast; unfortunately, in Philippine elections, voters are far from sated. By the time they leave the polling precincts, many are angry, bewildered, and hungry for the chance to let their votes be heard and counted.

At the Quirino Almario Elementary School in Manila, what was supposed to be a polling area seemed like a picture of a barrio fiesta, with campaign posters for banderitas waving from above your head, sample ballots scattered on the streets, and a flock of voters walking in between.

Election rules, it seemed, were meant to be broken in this place, as massive amounts of campaign materials are still seen in the perimeter of the voting area.The school grounds looked like a playground with the presence of playing children who were left outside by their parents.

Fifty one-year old Jose Bernardo Braza said that casting his vote took a long time since there were too many people in the school. Braza added that one of the factors why the pace of voting is slow is due to the frequent number of breaktimes that the polling personnel are having. “Palaging may breaktime. Nung alas dose, breaktime… one-thirty, breaktime uli! Pero at least, naka-boto na ako.” (The personnel had so many breaks. At 12 noon, they had a breaktime. At 1:30 p.m., they had a breaktime again! But at least, I already cast my vote.)

Some people, however, are not as lucky as Braza. Sitting on the stairs outside the school with a child on her arms, Angely Sarmiento could not find her name in her own precinct. She said that it’s impossible for her to be deleted in the voters list since she did vote during the May 10, 2010 elections. Adding to the number of citizens who did not exercise their right to vote, Sarmiento said: “Uuwi na lang ako,” (I will just go home instead.)

And that was one more voter who did not enjoy the fiesta.