Pinoy Election 2010

“Namfrel with its experience in holding quick count in manual polls would help Comelec in ensuring the transparency and accuracy of the results of the May 10 automated polls,” said Ramon Caspile, chairman of Bantay Eleksyon 2010.

Casiple said they were “monitoring negotiations” between Namfrel and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) for the sharing of the fourth copy of the election returns (ERs) “so that Namfrel can make [a] parallel count.”

But Casiple said that even if there would be no agreement, “Namfrel would still have the financial resources to do it [parallel count].”

“The parallel count will provide an independent count because right now, the law provides for a random manual audit that would direct the comparison of the votes in a ballot of selected poling precincts against the PCOS count, it would be done so that there is assurance that what is being reported and transmitted to the canvassing centers is actually the contents of the ballots,” he said.

Under Section 24 of Republic Act 9369 or the poll automation law, “there shall be a random manual audit in one precinct per congressional district randomly chosen by Comelec in each province and city. Any difference between the automated and manual count will result in the determination of root cause and initiate a manual count for those precincts affected by the computer or procedural error.”

Casiple added that an additional 2,000 precincts to be selected by PPCRV and Comelec would be included in the manual count after proclamation of results.

He said that with less than a month before election day, the Comelec has not yet released the guidelines for the random manual audit.

Casiple also criticized the Comelec for denying their proposal to put up large projectors in canvassing centers in all municipalities and provinces to allow the public to view the process, which was being done during manual polls.

“At the end of the day, it will all boil down to credibility issue and to the transparency of the results of this coming election,” said Casiple.

Source:Philippine Daily Inquirer

“I urge [Comelec] Chairman and Justice (Jose) Melo and Justice (Lucenito) Tagle to have a second look at our application to exempt judges from the gun ban,” Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said. Melo is a retired Supreme Court Justice while Tagle is a former Court of Appeals Justice.

Marquez heads the Supreme Court’s Office of the Court Administrator tasked with the supervision and administration of the lower courts and their personnel.

The office reports and recommends to the Supreme Court all actions that affect lower court management, personal and financial administration and administrative discipline. Complaints against judges and court personnel are also filed in this office.

Two regional trial court judges were attacked over the last two days.

On Tuesday night, the front of the house of Judge Leo Principe of Branch 1 of the Basilan regional trial court was bombed.

Principe had ordered the arrest of some 130 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf in 2007 for the killing of 14 Marines, 10 of whom were beheaded.

This Wednesday morning, an explosion destroyed the vehicle of Judge Silvino Pampilo Jr. of Branch 26 of the Manila regional trial court.

Pampilo previously ordered the abolition of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) and the opening of books of the “Big 3” oil companies. He also denied the plea of workers to stop the modernization of the North Harbor and handled the case of Silver Flores, accused of killing an activist upon orders of the military.

Marquez said early this year, he sent a request to the Commission on Elections asking for a gun ban exemption for judges.

“Initially, I submitted a list of 20 to 30 judges with confirmed threats,” Marquez said, adding that if not all the judges could be given exemption, at least exempt those with confirmed threats.

“Pero unang lista pa lang hindi na tayo napagbigyan [But we were denied on the first list],” Marquez said.

Marquez said he would send another letter to Melo and Tagle and reiterate their request for gun ban exemption.

“It is important that our judges be given exemption for their protection. It is not physically possible to provide protection, our judges have to have some protection,” Marquez said, especially with the upcoming elections.

The Municipal, Metropolitan and regional trial courts handles election protests of municipal and barangay (village) officials, as well as inclusion and exclusion of voters.

The RTC, on the other hand, has exclusive original jurisdiction to try and decide any criminal action or proceedings for violation of the Omnibus election Code, except those relating to the offense of failure to register or failure to vote which shall be under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan or municipal trial courts.

Source:Philippine Daily Inquirer

Aside from the hint, the Bagumbayan party’s standard-bearer refused to reveal any more details about the emissary supposedly sent to see him by one of his rivals, Nacionalista Party presidential candidate Sen. Manny Villar.

“Why should we believe you?” commentator Winnie Monsod asked Gordon during a live interview on Unang Hirit, the morning television program of GMA-7.

“Because I have a track record that does not include lying (while) Villar has a record of being a denial king,” Gordon replied.

“I can prove (that Villar made me an offer). In fact, I already told somebody in media (the emissary’s identity) in case something happens to me,” Gordon said.

“I’ll tell you this—the person is a high-ranking official, a former Cabinet secretary.”

Gordon said his withdrawal from the presidential race was really not the main concern of the emissary. The emissary was more interested in Gordon’s withdrawal of support from Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

That was the reason, Gordon said, the emissary asked him not to reveal his name to Enrile.

“That I was being offered a Cabinet post and reimbursement was secondary. Kabit na lang po iyon (That was just an add-on). The primary goal was to oust Senator Enrile so that he would not go on with the C-5 committee report,” Gordon said.

Gordon would have been the swing vote in the ouster of Enrile after the latter decided to release the report calling for Villar’s censure for “conflict of interest” in the C-5 affair.

The call stemmed from Villar’s alleged failure to disclose his involvement in the housing developments that benefited from the rerouting of the C-5 extension road in Parañaque and Las Piñas cities.

Source:Philippine Daily Inquirer

BACOLOD CITY—The youngest daughter of business tycoon and political kingmaker Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. is supporting the presidential candidacy of her cousin Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and the vice presidential bid of his running mate Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.

Lisa Cojuangco-Cruz said she would not only support the “Noy-Mar ticket” as a personal decision but would also openly campaign for the Liberal Party tandem.

“I am not a politician,” she said. “But as a Filipino I am making a choice and the choice for May 10 is Noy-Mar,” she told the Inquirer in an e-mail on Monday.

Cojuangco-Cruz said she believed that the Aquino-Roxas tandem “is our best hope for a better Philippines.”

‘Honest government’

“I am not one to give you a complicated analysis of things. All we need is an honest, decent government and our hope for that rests on Noynoy and Mar,” Cruz said.

She said she is campaigning in Negros Occidental, where her family owns farms and where she has spent many vacations, and in Iloilo, where she has also lived.

She said she is hitting the campaign trail on Thursday in Iloilo where she will be joining Kris, Aquino’s celebrity sister.

Lupus patient

Cruz, a lupus erythematosus patient, is known for her advocacy of raising awareness of the disease.

Diagnosed with the disease more than a decade ago, she currently spearheads The LUiSA Project of the Philippine Rheumatology Educational Trust Foundation. LUiSA stands for Lupus Inspired Advocacy.

Now based in Manila, Cojuangco-Cruz described Noynoy as more than just a cousin: They share the same birthday and were born just seven hours apart on Feb. 8, 1960.

Noynoy’s father, the martyred Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., was also her godfather, she said.

Lisa is married to Dr. Nick Cruz, one of the country’s top cardiologists who is the director of the Heart Institute of St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City.

Mum on ‘Gibo’

Cojuangco-Cruz, however, was tightlipped on what she thought of her other cousin, Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr., the standard-bearer of the administration party Lakas-Kampi-CMD.

Teodoro, the son of Danding’s younger sister Merceditas, had a falling out with Danding after the former bolted the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), the party founded by Danding, in favor of Lakas-Kampi.

Danding has yet to announce whom he will support in the May presidential election. His wife Gretchen Oppen-Cojuangco, however, earlier said she would support “anybody but Gibo.”

Gretchen has been very vocal against Teodoro and about how Gibo had purportedly “betrayed” his uncle by leaving the NPC without first talking to Danding about it.

She also claimed that Danding had great plans for Teodoro but that the latter “left without even a word of goodbye.”

Source:Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The current design of election ballots is unfair to Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III and the Commission on Elections should do something about it, his campaign manager said Monday.

LP campaign manager Florencio “Butch” Abad said the Comelec should already remove the name of Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) presidential candidate Vetellano Acosta—who had already been disqualified—to correct the supposedly unfair ballot design.

"As it is now, left unchanged, the present design of the ballot is disadvantageous to Noynoy Aquino," Abad said in a statement.

"Unlike the original design where the candidates' names are presented in a clear, easily readable vertical order, now the names are bunched tightly together three names to a box in a horizontal order," he said.

Aquino said that, in the ballots that the National Printing Office (NPO) produced, the first box for the presidential candidates still had Acosta first in the list with Aquino and Ang Kapatiran presidential bet JC delos Reyes "tightly bunched with him."

"On the other hand, curiously, at the extreme end of the space for the names of presidential candidates, (Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Manuel) Villar's name is by its lonesome self," Abad said.

"It is easy to make a mistake in shading other spaces, but not in the case of Villar. We just hope that this is not deliberate and the reluctance of the Comelec to remove Acosta's name has nothing to do with this," he added.

Abad said the reluctance of Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal to remove Acosta's name was "puzzling and worrying to the LP."

"After (Comelec) chair Jose Melo called him unfit to run for president, after KBL heir-apparent (Ferdinand Jr.) Bongbong Marcos disowned him and after Larrazabal himself threatened to sue him for perjury, falsification and other charges, the Comelec, on its own, should have ordered the instant removal of Acosta from the ballot," Abad said.

He said that even though the NPO had already printed at least 9 million ballots, the LP will still petition Comelec to remove Acosta's name from the ballot.

Source:Philippine Daily Inquirer