With early 8-2-2 count, massive cheating feared
by Dennis Gadil
Malaya
The Genuine Opposition Opposition, despite an early 8-2-2 lead in the senatorial race, last night shifted its focus to Visayas and Mindanao on reports that administration cheating operators were set to unload at least five million filled-up ballots during municipal, district and provincial canvassing.
Sen. Serge Osme?a III, GO campaign manager, said the opposition had been prepared to concede 600,000 to 1 million “dagdag bawas” votes, primarily in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, but was not expecting cheating on the reported massive scale.
“It’s hard to counter the cheating there. It’s a given,” Osme?a said in a press briefing at the GO Makati headquarters.
The cheating would be in the form of vote buying or “dagdag-bawas (vote padding and vote shaving),” he said.
Mindanao has a voting population of 11 million voters, with 1.5 million in ARMM alone.
Osme?a declined to give details of the planned cheating in Visayas and Mindanao that was uncovered by opposition intelligence, expressing confidence it could still be thwarted by a vigilant citizenry.
Other sources said the other provinces to watch are the Zamboanga peninsula, Bukidnon, the Lanao provinces, the Davao provinces, Cotabato, and Maguindanao.
They said even the Misamis provinces, which are not usually considered cheating areas, have experienced a suspicious surge of 83 percent in the number of registered voters.
They said Cebu province registered a 56 percent jump in registered voters.
Osme?a said GO has a sufficient number of poll watchers to counter the cheating attempts.
Osme?a said they were taking it easy on the first day of the elections because, he said, cheating takes place two or three days after the polls.
“The cheating will start tomorrow (Tuesday). We just have to wait and watch. Retail pa ang cheating,” he said.
Osme?a also said even if a million votes go to TU candidates due to cheating, GO team will still have seven winning candidates based on pre-election surveys.
“You know, the surveys already reflect one-half of the dayaan,” Osme?a said.
He said at least three more GO candidates could be considered “dark horses,” including detained Magdalo leader Antonio Trillanes IV. “Trillanes is improving 10 points a week. He’s rising very fast,”,marc jacobs handbags; he said.
Osme?a declined to name the other two.
He said the TU will have a maximum of six winners factoring in the cheating.
“Pag sumobra pa diyan, garapalan na yun. But you know, nothing will stop them,” he said.
Sources said that in the Zamboanga peninsula, Bukidnon, Lanao provinces, Davao, Cotabato, ARMM, and Maguindanao, a total of 5 million votes have already been readied.
The sources said these were placed in closed ballot boxes since Sunday.
Osme?a said it would be the TU candidates who are in the ninth to 14th slots who will slug it out in the final tally.
“Sila-sila din ang magdadayaan,” he said.
Osme?a said fake Liberal Party (LP) volunteers have also taken the sixth copy of election returns (ERs) from polling precincts in Batangas, Zamboanga del Sur and Lanao del Norte. The LP as the dominant minority party is entitled to the sixth copy of the election returns.
Osme?a said the bogus volunteers are from the campaign teams of Lakas-Kampi, who showed fake LP identification cards and fake authorization from the LP main office.
“These are the dirty tricks that they’re doing. Pero medyo retail pa ang dayaan,” he said.
Missing names
Trillanes and fellow GO candidate Alan Peter Cayetano have started to lose votes as precincts closed.
Trillanes’ name “disappeared” from the official roster of candidates in some precincts.
Election inspectors declared as stray ballots containing only the last name of Rep. Alan Cayetano.
Lawyer Reynaldo Robles of the Trillanes for Senator Movement said his client’s name was missing in Precinct 2-B in Siniloan town in Laguna, Precinct 38-G in Rizal, and a polling precinct in Barangay San Felipe in Padre Garcia town, Batangas.
He said the name of Trillanes was also not included in the list of candidates in some polling precincts in Pasay City and in Precinct 1 in Barangay Pulang Lupa, Las Pi?as City.
Election watchdog Halalang Marangal of former senator Wigberto Ta?ada and retired Marine Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani reported similar incidents.
Sabotage
Party list groups decried what they said were “massive coordinated efforts” of the government to sabotage their victory.
The efforts range from forwarded text messages calling them “terrorists” to their non-inclusion in the list of candidates in the polling precincts.
Through a nerve center set up at the office of the umbrella organization Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in Quezon City, allied party list groups Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Kabataan and Suara Bangsamoro received reports on how government allegedly tried to disenfranchise and employ black propaganda against them on election day.
Wilfredo Marbella, Anakpawis party list nominee and internal deputy secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, said a black propaganda text message has been circulating since Sunday in Southern Tagalog,Replica Burberry, specifically in the provinces of Laguna, Mindoro Quezon and Rizal.
The text message said: “Paalala sa sambayanan: Bayan Muna, Gabriela at Anakpawis ay party list ng teroristang CPP-NPA. Please pass. From Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr., AFP.”
Palparan, who retired in September last year, has been waging a war against what he said were party list groups fronting for the communist movement.
He is first nominee of the party list group Bantay which is seeking a congressional seat in this election.
In Metro Manila, local leaders of Bayan Muna who had been vocal against the deployment of soldiers in urban poor communities were not included in the voters’ list.
They were identified as Luz Solayao of Tondo and Romeo Luneta of Barangay Concepcion in Quezon City, both described as residents and registered voters in these areas for a long time.
Campaigning Soldiers
Marbella said that since last Saturday they have been receiving reports of troop buildup in militant bailiwicks and that “soldiers were actively campaigning against us,”.
Marbella pointed to the 28th, 67th and 72 Infantry Battalions in Davao as the units “involved in black propaganda and terrorizing the people not to vote for Anakpawis, Bayan Muna and Suara Bangsamoro.”
Marbella said there also soldiers threatening farmers against voting for Anakpawis in Eastern Visayas.
Poll Irregularities
Halalang Marangal and another poll watchdog, Kontra Daya, said they received reports of election irregularities, particularly disenfranchisement and vote buying.
Among the reports are:
· The name of Romeo Luneta, a member of human rights group Karapatan, was missing from the list of registered voters in his precinct at the Immaculate Concepcion Parish School, Barangay Concepcion, District IV, Quezon City.
· The names of leaders of Bayan Muna were missing in the voters’ list in Barangay 20 in Tondo, Manila. Reports said even the official list of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) does not include Barangay 20. This barangay covers Isla Puting Bato, where there is large concentration of voters.
· Mayoralty candidates in Valenzuela, Zamboanga City and Sapang Dalaga in Misamis Occidental were giving away groceries, five liters of gasoline and P500 to P700 per person in exchange for votes.
· Supporters of a mayoralty candidate in Manila were giving stickers and P20, and as much as P1,000 in barangay 649, Tondo, Manila.
· In Pasay City, a barangay captain supporting a mayoralty candidate was reported giving P200 per person.
· Pagcor chairman Ephraim Genuino was seen going in and out of precincts in Pembo Elementary School, accompanied by armed bodyguards at around 5 p.m. Genuino’s son, Erwin, is running for a congressional seat in the second district of Makati.
Blatant Violations
Despite stern warnings from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), last-minute campaigning and sample ballot distribution were rampant in Manila and Pasay cities on election day.
Several men were seen posting campaign materials at the walls of the Del Pilar Elementary School and Jose Rizal Elementary School in Tondo.
The men, aboard a mini-van of a city councilor bet, evaded arresting authorities.
In Pasay, minutes before polling precincts opened at 7 a.m., election materials were seen being posted along the streets of barangay 66/
Poll Watchers Caught
Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay arrested seven poll watchers of the administration party Kampi at the San Antonio National High School at Mayapis Kamagong sts. in barangay San Antonio.
Binay said the watchers, who were inside polling precincts, were violating the Omnibus Election Code by wearing shirts with the word “Kampi.”
Police identified the watchers as Shaumi Juanillio, Janel Sotto, Myraquel Domingo, Alicia Santiago, Jean Paul Sologuasta, Rudy Avenido and Gino Domingo. They said they were unaware of the election rules prohibiting the wearing of such shirts.
Juanillo and Domingo said they were watchers of Anthony Genuino who is running as councilor in the city’s first district.
Marvin Masangkay, who said he was a lawyer representing the seven arrested, said no rule was violated because “there were no words to the effect saying vote for Kampi.”
Binay said he is filing charges against the Lakas-Kampi candidates.
In the city’s second district, Binay said they have photographs and video showing poll watchers wearing red shirts with “Lakas” and “Lakas Media” printed on them.
Red is the campaign color of Erwin Genuino, who is the Lakas candidate for Congress.
Binay’s opponent, Sen. Lito Lapid, said if he does not win, he will run again in 2010 when Binay’s last term ends.
More Incidents
In Quezon City, Gloria Licad Lanot, 89, who is physically handicapped and wheelchair-bound, was unable to completely fill out her ballot because her daughter was not permitted to assist her, in violation of a provision of the Omnibus Election Code that an “assistor” may fill out the ballot of an illiterate or a physically challenged person if his or her condition is readily obvious.
This happened in precinct 4564-A for Barangay South Triangle at the Kamuning Elementary School.
In Para?aque, mayoralty candidate Pablo Olivarez was accused of vote-buying when some 4,000 voters at the Kuliglig Compound were allegedly asked to vote for Olivarez in exchange for rice and canned goods.
Olivarez is running against Mayor Florencio Bernabe.
Free rides
In Barangay CAA, which has the biggest voting population with 43,909 voters, several PU jeepneys were seen ferrying voters to the CAA Elementary School for free as early as 6 a.m.
The voters said they did not know who sponsored their ride.
Barangay officials detailed at the public school said they had “orders” to allow provide transportation to make it easier for voters to make it to their precincts. They declined to say who gave the order.
In Caloocan, two supporters of congressional candidate Edgar Erice were arrested for distributing rice along Macabalo street on the eve of elections.
The supporters, identified as Ana Urbano and Fe Esperet, said the rice was for Erice’s poll watchers.
Election materials, like sample ballots with the names of local and senatorial candidates, were being distributed to voters at the Caloocan High School on election day.
Failure of Elections
Comelec declared failure of elections in 10 towns in Lanao del Sur after members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) refused to serve in their assigned polling precincts.
Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, commissioner in charge for ARMM, said the BEI members feared for their lives after shooting incidents yesterday between rival political camps.
“It is for this reason that we are declaring failure of elections,” he said.
Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos said special election will be held in 30 days in the towns of Bayang, Lumbatan, Madalum, Binidayan, Puales, Sultan Dumalondong, Lumba-Bayabao, Masiu, Kapai and Lumbayanague.
“Around 60-70,000 voters are involved here. The result of the special elections that will be held within 30 days might become a factor in case of a close race for the Senate,”,Burberry Handbags; he said.
The Comelec also decided to postpone elections in Pantar town, Lanao del Norte after discovering that around 2,000 registrants have not been approved by the poll body.
The poll exercise will be held in the next 30 days.
Polls Postponed
Elections were also postponed in Barangays Litawan and Basak in Zamboanga del Norte after members of the military secured all polling precincts due to reported presence of the Abu Sayyaf terror group.
In Pantao Ragat town in Lanao del Norte, around 3,702 official ballots were missing after these were received by the municipal treasurer.
The town, which has about 10,000 voters, pushed through with the elections after replacement ballots were sent by the Comelec.
The Comelec has invalidated the serial numbers of the missing ballots.
Abalos said there was a report of a ballot snatching incident in Abra while a barangay captain was shot dead by members of private armed groups in Bucay, also in Abra.
Everybody Confused
Abalos said yesterday’s exercise was marred by confusion with voters having a hard time finding their precincts.
Asked if the commission has met the projected 80-90 percent voter turn-out, Abalos said they are looking at an initial report of at least 75 percent voter turnout.
In the 2004 presidential elections, 77 percent of the 43 million registered voters exercised their right to vote.
In Pampanga, there were reports of power outages and vote buying.
Gubernatorial candidate Fr. Ed Panlilio brushed off a last-ditch effort of some quarters to destroy his reputation.
Black Prop
Copies were circulated of a supposed one-page, May 12 issue of a newspaper bearing the masthead of the local daily Sun.Star-Pampanga. The newspaper contained malicious articles about the priest-candidate.
The banner story, written in Filipino, featured Panlilio’s supposed admission about having wives and children while another story featured the alleged withdrawal of support of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the priest’s candidacy.
The stories were attributed to Sun.star-Pampanga reporters Raymond B. Garcia and Albert B. Lacanlale.
The paper also featured a huge photo of Panlilio with a caption saying that his vitiligo, a chronic skin condition that causes loss of pigment resulting in irregular pale patches of skin, as “an indication of HIV-AIDS virus infection.”
Sun.Star-Pampanga editor-in-chief Ria de Fiesta disowned the publication, saying the paper does not publish in Tagalog.
Garcia denied writing the report. – With JP Lopez, Ashzel Hachero, Reinir Padua, Gerard Naval, Evangeline de Vera, Czeriza Valencia and Jojo Due
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