Foreign observers report incidents of vote-buying, violence

The Compact for Peaceful and Democratic Elections—International Observers Mission (Compact-IOM), during a press conference in Manila, detailed the experience of 15 foreign delegates who were deployed to monitor 91 precincts in Cotabato, Maguindanao, Bohol, Dinagat Islands and Santiago in Isabela. KRISTINE ANGELI SABILLO/INQUIRER.net

Besides several reports of vote-buying and violence in polling precincts, a group of foreign observers on Thursday concluded that the 2016 Philippine election was “generally orderly and peaceful.”

The Compact for Peaceful and Democratic Elections—International Observers Mission (Compact-IOM) detailed during a press conference in Manila the experience of 15 foreign delegates who were deployed to monitor 91 precincts in Cotabato, Maguindanao, Bohol, Dinagat Islands and Santiago in Isabela.

Coordinator Arnold Tarrobago said Compact-IOM has been organizing observation missions since 2004 to bring “positive influences on the election process.”

Citing people on the ground, he said, “The presence of election observers in their area prevented or helped prevent incidences of fraud and violence that they were expecting to happen.”

Despite this, the delegates observed crowded precincts where other people could easily see the ballots of people voting.

Unauthorized assistance

Edwin Batongbacal, who is based in the US and was assigned to Mindanao, said they observed people helping voters fill out their ballots. Some were party poll watchers while others were not authorized to be inside the precincts.

“Sometimes they would complete the ballots and the voter wouldn’t be even beside them,” he said.

In Isabela, Anuschka Ruge of Germany said they also witnessed people from political parties approaching elderly people who needed assistance.

She said in some cases the voters weren’t asked and the assistants just shaded their ballots. There were also assistants who inserted the ballots inside the vote-counting machine.

Threats

The group in Cotabato also received reports from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) that their poll watchers were pulled out from six precincts after  “threatening men came into the voting rooms, instructed them to take off their PPCRV identifying t-shirts then proceeded to order them out of the room.”

Batongbacal quoted the local PPCRV as saying that the men “took over the voting rooms and vote counting machine (VCM) machines. And they started shading and feeding ballots into the machine.”

They also visited a city hall and an elementary school in Maguindanao that were bombed before the elections.

In Bohol, German national Dominik Hammann said that most precincts were well-organized. It was mostly peaceful, he said, although there were claims of vote-buying, including threats to cut off  the beneficiaries’ access to the government’s conditional cash transfer program.

“We also experienced claims of harassment of voters. For example, the threat of cutting off voters from 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) program access,” he said, without elaborating.

Of the 52 clustered precincts nationwide where failure of elections was declared, security concerns were cited in 47, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Vote-buying

Batongbacal said they also interviewed voters claiming they received money.

“We didn’t see money passing hands but in the precincts (there were) small brown envelopes with the candidates’ names,” he added.

Nene Ojeda, who is also based in the US, described Dinagat Islands—where she was deployed—as under a so-called “benevolent rule of just one family for the last 50 years.”

“But when this political dynasty was challenged 3 years ago, the dynamic changed,” she said.

She pointed out that authorities described the country’s newest province as “peaceful, insurgent free and quiet.”

READ: Ecleo poll feud taking shape in Dinagat Islands

The Ecleo family has long reigned over Dinagat Islands after the late Ruben Ecleo Sr. founded the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association Inc. In recent years, however, members of the family have gone against each other for elective positions.

Ojeda said the Dinagat Islands is not immune from feuds of political clans, vote-buying and intimidation.

“We heard reports that countered the official story of Dinagat,” she said.

“Those who look like they are old enough to vote were approached and offered voter registration cards along with P200-bills,” Ojeda said, citing reports.

She said they also received a report of a village captain who was taken by unknown men, threatened to be whisked away again “if he fails to deliver vote[s] to the incumbent family candidate.”

“An Ecleo candidate was also seen brazenly handing out bills just outside polling precincts,” Ojeda added.

However, she admitted that they were not able to immediately follow up on the reports since they had difficulty going around the islands because of unpaved roads, what she called a “legacy of Ecleos’ decades of rule.”

In Santiago, Isabela, the foreign observers saw food given out to voters by people wearing campaign shirts. Sample ballots were also handed to people near the polling precincts.

Machine problems

“In one precinct, the VCM machine was placed in front of the window so everyone can see the votes. In (another) precinct, the machine was not functioning for 8 hours (because of overheating),” Ruge said.

Ojeda said the situation in polling precincts in Dinagat Islands varied, with members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) having to be “creative” to help speed up the process of voting.

She observed that two-door classrooms worked better to facilitate the movement of voters.

“Some BEIs seem more adept than others, more confident in the rules. Other precincts require active participation of poll watchers,” she said.

Ojeda also shared that they observed problems in the transmission of votes because of lack of signal and the overheating of vote-counting machines.

“These observations can seem minor… but they do affect voters’ confidence on elections,” she said.

Recommendations

Tarrobago said all of their notes and the final report, which will be completed within the month, will be submitted to the Comelec.

He said that what they mostly saw was the “lack of control of (voting) rooms,” which was seen in 50 percent of the precincts they visited.

“We’d like to say and celebrate with the Filipino people that in the majority of precincts we visited, peaceful, orderly elections indeed did take place,” Batongbacal said.

However, he explained that the police and military “must strictly secure the voting rooms.”

“Before we even solved the problem of vote-buying, corruption in public office, problem of political dynasties…we can do something with the voting room,” he said.

He said more BEI officials should be deployed while rooms should have two doors to help control the crowd.

“Only authorized people in the voting room should be there,” he added.

One of the group’s recommendations includes the passage of the anti-dynasty law to address election violence and vote-buying.

READ: Poll observers rail vs dynasties

Ruge also questioned the quick overheating of the VCMs, which should have been made more resistant to heat since the Philippines is a tropical country.

The group asked that new machines be purchased, ones that are able to “withstand atrocious weather.”

Ruge said the transmission process should also be fixed. “Because if the transmission process is corrupted. the credibility of elections can be questioned,” she added.

Earlier reports said local canvassing  initially bogged down because of connectivity problems, resulting in the failure to electronically transmit election returns.

Ruge also called on media to be cautious when reporting rumors since it gives the voters an “insecure feeling,” in addition to “questioning the credibility of the vote.”

Positive outlook

In the end, the group said they wanted to highlight the “faceless, nameless heroes” who made the election possible.

“We also praise the dedication of the Filipino teachers who, despite being overworked and underpaid put their lives on the line to protect the public’s right to suffrage,” Batongbacal said.

He said the BEIs worked hard for long hours, under the heat and despite intense crowds of voters.

Ruge said the 81 percent turnout of voters is “astonishing” and should be considered “a testament to the Filipino people’s strong commitment to electoral democracy.”

Overall, Ojeda said it proved that “Filipino voters were willing to go out and vote no matter what the condition.”

She recounted one instance when she saw an old woman dancing after she cast her vote.

“I’ve never seen such delight and satisfaction in a polling place,” she said.

“High voter turnout of the Philippines [shows] that the Filipino people take seriously their [duty to] vote,” Batongbacal said. RAM