PH democracy in action

MATCHING TAGS. An election employee in Vigan City sorts out plastic tags according to serial number, which would accompany every ballot box for the barangay (village) elections on Monday. RICHARD BALONGLONG/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

“Go out and vote in today’s (Monday) barangay elections. It’s your civic duty.”

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) sent that message on Sunday to more than 54 million voters in 42,000 villages across the country.

“Vote wisely by choosing the most competent and responsible candidates, not the SLSBs,” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said, using the shorthand for salbahe, lasenggo, sugarol and babaero (rogue, drunkard, gambler and womanizer).

“Don’t be fooled or misled by the candidates’ propaganda or campaign promises. Support only those who you think would do good in your barangay (village),” he said.

Brillantes, a registered voter at BF Homes, Parañaque City, also advised voters to “come early and come prepared with your list of candidates.”

He said the votes would be counted by hand, making the count longer than in the automated midterm election in May.

“We need to close the voting at 3 p.m. because of the manual counting and then we will go to the canvassing,” he said.

“Voters should not only cast their votes,” Election Commissioner Al Parreño said. “We would highly appreciate it if they would also report election-related irregularities like vote-buying.”

Voting and reporting election irregularities are equally important, Parreño said.

Election Commissioner Grace Padaca observed similarities between the barangay elections, which are supposed to be nonpartisan, and regular elections, which are dominated by politicians.

“It’s still a world of incumbents and political families from one generation to another,” Padaca said.

“But I strongly believe that in the barangay, the smallest local government unit, there are plenty of potential leaders, those who are honest and capable of doing outstanding public service,” she said.

“If the barangay captain or any of the barangay council members is bad, a drunkard, gambler and womanizer, would you still vote for them?” said Padaca, a former governor of Isabela province.

Importance of elections

Election Commissioner Luie Tito Guia appealed to voters to “give importance to barangay elections.”

“The barangay is where you can feel your government directly and how government affects your life,” Guia said.

“We have only ourselves to blame if we have bad barangay officials,” he said. “But if we choose good barangay officials, that’s for our own benefit. You can feel the impact and value of democracy by making a wise choice in the barangay elections.”

Guia said the elections were relevant “because you will be electing leaders who are expected to bring government closer to the people. The barangay is a government unit with direct relations to the people.”

Brillantes said a higher voter turnout was expected on Monday.

“It was very high in the May 2013 national elections, 76 to 77 percent. This time, we expect the turnout would even be a little higher,” he said.

Going by the special voter registration in July, during which more than 1 million people signed up to vote, Guia said “there would be more voters this time.”

Cleansing voter rolls

James Jimenez, spokesman for the Comelec, said the estimated number of candidates was “something like 666,000.”

“You’re looking at more than 42,000 barangays. Each barangay has eight elective positions. That’s one chair and eight [council members]. And for each position, even assuming just eight candidates per barangay, you will get about 700,000. That’s how big the elections will be,” Jimenez said.

He said the Comelec was “pretty confident” that the elections would be foolproof.

“Actually, it’s hard to say [until it’s been tested]. But we’re confident that we have already delisted those with multiple names and [eliminated] duplications [in the voter lists]. We’re talking about less than 1 million names. We’ve been cleansing [the voter rolls] for quite some time,” he said.

But Jimenez said the names of deceased voters could still be found on the voter lists, though he did not say how many.

“We finished the voter registration in July and then we closed the book in August. So everyone who died after that is still on the list. They’re not delisted yet. There’s always a point in the preparation of the list of voters when you stop touching the list. Anything that happened after that we will see on election day, especially if you have a loved one who has died,” he said.

“[We] hope [people] won’t blame us for that because, like I said, after we have sealed the book of voters, there’s really nothing more we can do about the book,” he added.

But Jimenez stressed that the cleansing of the voter rolls was a “work in progress.”

“It’s never finished,” he said.

The Comelec is “also on the lookout for vote-buying,” Jimenez said.

“That’s a very big deal for us. We’ve already disqualified two mayors for that,” he said.

The Comelec is also watching out for “flying voters,” or people who are registered and vote in one place but are also registered under different names and vote in another place.

“We expect our cleansed voter list to be a barrier to flying voters in the sense that if you already voted in one place, your name will only show in that place and it won’t [appear] anywhere else. That’s what flying voters are, they’re registered here and they’re also registered in another place under different names. We don’t foresee that happening. But the problem is definitely something we’re looking at,” he said.

Fraud and violence

Guia said “there is no election anywhere in the world that’s perfect or foolproof, even from the perspective of managing elections.”

“That is why there’s a mechanism for election disputes that is supposed to correct errors or fraud that happen during the election. What the Comelec can do is reduce opportunities for fraud, balance your resources and reach your objective of having less vulnerable elections,” he said.

Padaca recalled that during a recent Comelec briefing on the Zamboanga City siege, officials “saw that the threat to the Oct. 28 polls did not come only from the Moro National Liberation Front and the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, but also from the communist New People’s Army.”

“[The NPA] still operates in Masbate and Quezon, among [other provinces]. Communist insurgents also want to support some candidates. Add to that intense political rivalries,” she said.

According to Guia, the Comelec “can’t anticipate how heated the rivalries will be.”

“We don’t know up to what extent people will bring the passion of elections against each other,” he said.

“It’s good that the Philippine National Police has prepared and identified areas of concern. They’re our deputies on poll matters. We have coordination from the top to the field levels,” he said.

Parreño gave assurance that election paraphernalia would be delivered during the weekend to all polling places, including those in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) where he was assigned to monitor the balloting.

The ARMM—grouping the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi—is said to be ground zero for electoral fraud in the 2004 and 2007 elections.

In December, the Comelec reported that it had trimmed by more than 30 percent the number of names on the voter list for the region.

Through the new registration of voters, the Comelec weeded out the names of hundreds of thousands of voters who had long been dead, those who were not yet 18 years old and those who were registered in two or more precincts.

Voting in malls

On Monday, the Comelec will launch its “Voting in the Malls” project, which aims to make polling places more accessible to voters with disabilities and senior citizens.

Earlier this year, President Aquino signed Republic Act No. 10366, which authorized the Comelec to set up special polling places for voters with disabilities and elderly citizens.

“For a start, we’ll be conducting barangay elections in four SM malls—in Manila, Lipa City, Cebu City and General Santos City,” Padaca said.

Polling centers there will be only for voters with disabilities and elderly citizens who live where the malls are located, she said.

She said the Comelec hoped to expand the project in 2016.

Guia said 30,000 prisoners all over the country would also be allowed to vote in the elections.

“[Among them are prisoners] with pending cases, as well as [convicts with pending appeals]. They would be allowed to vote in barangays [where their prisons are located],” he said.

Padaca said the Comelec had solved the elections’ funding problem. Actual expenses were estimated at P3.4 billion, but the Comelec was allocated only P1.7 billion by the Department of Budget and Management.

“We had no recourse but tap our savings, a portion of which was intended for the construction of the new Comelec building (near Mall of Asia complex in Parañaque). We’re forced to seek the help of local government units to cover the barangay polls-related expenses,” Padaca said.

“There’s no problem,” she added.

Liquor ban

The Comelec reminded the public that the liquor ban, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, will remain in force until midnight Monday.

The ban is being enforced throughout the country, except in Bohol and in Zamboanga City where the elections will be held on Nov. 25.

Bohol suffered great damage from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Central Visayas on Oct. 15. Zamboanga City is still recovering from trauma inflicted on the residents by three weeks of fighting between government forces and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels last month.

Violation of the liquor ban is an election offense punishable by imprisonment of up to six years, removal of the right to vote, and disqualification from holding public office.