Tubo Mayor Wilma Gattud and SVD Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian lead the performance of Palook (community dance), an indigenous Tubo tradition during a fiesta celebration. Taken in front of Tubo municipal hall, which also serves as Dap-ay center. (Photo from tingguian.com)

WHILE thousands of barangays all over the country still await the final results of the Oct. 25 polls, eight of 10 barangays in Tubo town in Abra already knew their new set of officials about a month before election day.

This was made possible through the centuries-old dap-ay indigenous practice where community elders in Tubo, called the panglakayen, chose the winners in the race for village chiefs andcouncilors in  barangays Alangtin, Dilong, Kili, Poblacion, Supo, Tiempo, Tubtuba and Tabacda as early as September.

Tubo, the second biggest land area among the 27 towns of Abra, is among the upland towns. It has two indigenous groups–the Maengs and the Belwangs.

“The dap-ay is a form of governance implemented by the father of our forefathers since the 16th century,” Tubo Mayor Wilma Gattud said.

The dap-ay practice in Tubo originated in nearby Mountain Province where its residents came from, according to Abra Provincial Planning and Development Officer Philip Tingonong.

Based on this practice, Gattud said the community elders called for a general assembly before the Oct.25 elections and asked attendees who among them were planning to run as barangay officials.

She said the elders selected only one barangay captain and the required number of councilors, using their own set of qualifications. Among the qualifications are regular attendance in community meetings and community service rendered.

Gattud said only the candidates selected by the elders filed their certificates of candidacy so  they ran unopposed and became sure winners.

She said dap-ay was also used to determine their  candidates in this year’s May presidential elections.

The elders make use of the dap-ay system to ensure peaceful elections because it discourages vote-buying, among other things, Gattud said. Dap-ay yields not only zero campaign-related expenses but also prevents violence, she added.

Abra, located some 400 kilometers north of Manila, is known to be a province whose leaders resort to terrorism and vote-buying to win elections. The province was among the “areas of concerns” declared by the Commission of Elections in the 2010 barangay elections.

Vote-buying in the capital town Bangued is said have gone not less than a million pesos per barangay, or P3,000 to P4,000 per person. Although several checkpoints were installed and police were very visible to ensure the orderly conduct of elections, incidents of shooting and squabbles among politicians in voting precincts were still reported.

Bangued was also placed under COMELEC control because of the reported presence of private armed groups and loose firearms that had fuelled tension among political candidates and their followers.

While incidents of shooting and political harassment through intimidation have been reported in other Abra towns, no similar reports appear in recent police records in Tubo.

In 2001, however, then incumbent Mayor Jose Segundo was killed. He is one of the three mayors killed since then. The other two were Tineg Mayor Clarence Benwaren in 2002 and La Paz Mayor Marc Ysrael Bernos in  2006.

Dap-ay may have been known for its political impact in Tubo because of its role in selecting candidates before the elections. But that  is not its only role.

The Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development Protection Plan 2004-2014 of Tubo also lists policy and development planning as among the dap-ay’s roles and functions.

The 10-year plan defines dap-ay as a “system of governance by the Maeng Tribe, which manage(s) and direct(s) socioeconomic, cultural and spiritual life of the people in an ili (community).”

It further states,  “The collective leadership of the elders is the master of all decisionmaking and the people exercise check and balance during tipon (assembly).”

According to the plan, “every ili has its own dap-ay (autonomous government) operating independently responsible for the management and development of the community concern.”

Abra is inhabited by Ilocanos and Tingguians–or people of the mountains, which Tingonong said is the “generic term Spaniards used in the late 1500s to refer to the different indigenous groups of Abra.”

He said the word is from the Malay term tinggi that means “mountain.” Although Abrenians are predominantly Ilocanos, there are 10 major Tingguian indigenous peoples  in the province.

Abra is one of the six provinces of the Cordillera Administrative Region with a population of 230,953. Of this number, the Provincial Planning and Development Office estimates 34 to 35 percent to be Tingguian.

The province has 303 of the 41,995 barangays nationwide based on the 2006 tally of the National Statistics and Coordination Board tally.

By CHIT ESTELLA

THE May 10 election was characterized by a “high incidence and widespread occurrence of technical and management problems” that tainted the integrity, credibility and accuracy of the automated election system.

This was the conclusion drawn by the nongovernmental  Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) in its study of the last national and local elections which was presented on Tuesday at Club Filipino.

The report attributed the high incidence of “technical hitches, blunders, voting procedural errors and other operational failures” to “the lack of safeguards, security measures as well as timely and effective contingency measures.”

The absence of these measures “proved damaging to the accuracy, security and reliability of election returns,” it said.

The report was titled “Project 3030” in reference to what the NGO described as the 30 vulnerabilities in the automated election system and the 30 solutions it had proposed to the government. Funded by the European Union, the project involved the monitoring of election incidents from May 2 to 31 and extensive case studies conducted in nine provincial areas. The study made use of research coordinators in 12 regions and thousands of trained poll watch volunteers in at least 50 provinces.

The report pointed to “disturbing findings” that occurred nationwide, such as:

• mismatched time and date stamps on all precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines
• transmission failures
• erroneous certificates of canvass in at least 57 provinces and cities
• ballots and compact flash (CF) cards delivered manually for canvassing
• discovery of the console port in all the machines, making the PCOS vulnerable to tampering
• erroneous entries of total number of voters and votes cast in the national canvassing center and Congress
• near anarchy in the clustered precincts

The report said that on election day, precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines in many precincts broke down or were malfunctioning. This delayed the opening of voting, counting and the whole election process itself.

Delays in the delivery of reconfigured CF cards, which were discovered to have been defective even before election day, led to delayed final testing and sealing and of voting itself, the report added. Allegations of CF card manipulation also resulted in electoral protests.

The report also said  verifying the authenticity of ballots was not fully implemented because a significant number of Boards of Election Inspectors (BEI) at the precinct level did not use UV scanners.

Citing a survey made by the Social Weather Stations, CenPEG said only half of BEIs used the ballot scanner. Some precincts did not receive any scanner at all; some of those that did had either left the scanners untouched or widely mistook them for emergency flashlights, the study said.

Precinct clustering led to long queues of voters which made the exercise of suffrage inconvenient and difficult. The Comelec had failed to put in place an effective voting system in anticipation of the long lines of voters which CenPEG had warned the poll body about.

Disputing the Comelec’s claim that the automated system yielded fast results, CenPEG said actual voting in the May 10 elections took several hours longer than in previous poll exercises. Like most voters who waited for three to nine hours in order to cast their votes, then presidential candidate Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III had to wait in line for about five hours.

It also noted that Aquino was proclaimed president on June 9 or 30 days after election day. In contrast, Joseph Estrada was proclaimed only 19 days after the presidential election of 1998.

Although the results of the national elections appeared to have been accepted by the public and by the candidates, local elections in many places continue to be contested. At least 100 election protests from 41 provinces and cities have been filed, CenPEG said.

Convenors of the Automated Elections System (AES) Watch also accused the Comelec of violating the law and the Constitution in the implementation of poll automation.

Pablo Manalastas, a mathematician and a convenor, said the poll body’s mandate as laid down by Republic Act 9369 was to guard the secrecy and sanctity of the ballot, to make the elections fast, accurate and reflective of the people’s will, and to use the most suitable technology of demonstrated capability.

He said  Comelec failed to do these. Lack of education and training in the new system made many voters vulnerable to manipulation by politicians or their leaders. A culture of “expertism” was promoted by the poll body, along with the idea of corporate profiting from the elections.

Manalastas also criticized the Comelec for harnessing a foreign company, Smartmatic, even though Filipino experts in information technology are known to be tapped by other countries because of their reputed knowledge.

In tapping the Venezuelan IT company, Manalastas  said the Comelec “practically abdicated its role as election manager.”  In addition, Smartmatic would now be using the Philippines in its advertising initiatives to enhance its prestige, he said.

Allan Borra, of the De La Salle University’s College of Computer Studies, said his father, former Comelec Commissioner Resurreccion Borra, said that by availing itself of the services of Smartmatic, “the Comelec virtually outsourced our sovereignty.”

Lawyer Harry Roque, of the Concerned Citizens Movement, said the Comelec,  in hiring the Venezuelan firm, violated  Section 2 of the constitutional provision on the Comelec which states that the poll body shall “exercise exclusive original jurisdiction over all contests relating to the elections.”

The contract with Smartmatic, however, provides that the company shall be in charge of the “technical aspects” of the elections, a role which is pivotal in automated polling.

Roque also pointed out that Smartmatic’s promise to hire 80,000 IT workers could not even be verified because there is no record that the company actually did this.

In addition, Roque said the constitutional requirement of a 60-40 partnership between Filipinos and foreigners may have been violated in the Comelec’s dealings with Smartmatic.

He noted that the joint venture agreement with the company provided for a mandatory appointment of one director from Smartmatic whose presence shall constitute a quorum in a meeting of directors. Smartmatic also got to nominate the important officers such as the chair and the corporate secretary.

CenPEG released the AES Watch study more than a week after scoring a victory at the Supreme Court which ordered the Comelec to make available the source code of the automated election system to all interested parties. The “source code” is the human-readable representation of the instructions that control the operation of a computer.

The NGO also said it was still demanding the release of 21 legal documents from the Comelec that would help it review the election process more thoroughly and gain access to substantive data on the conduct of the electoral exercise.

HEARINGS on the Maguindanao massacre resumed Wednesday, the first under the Aquino government, with former Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. and 16 other suspects pleading not guilty to the murder of the 57^th victim, UNTV journalist Victor Nunez.

Ampatuan, the alleged mastermind, and the other suspects, mostly police officers, were each asked in Filipino and entered their pleas separately.

Arraigned were Inspector Sukarno Dicay, PO3 Rasid Anton, Takpan Dilon, Esmael Canapia, PO2 Hernanie Decipulo Jr., PO2 Saudiar Ulah, PO2 Saudi Pasutan, PO1 Herich Amaba, PO1 Esprielito Lejarso, PO1 Rainer Ebus, Inspector Rex Ariel Diongon, Michael Joy Macaraeg, PO1 Pia Kamidon, Muhamad Sangki, Maot Dumla and Thong Guimano.

Arraignment of four other accused police officers—Supt. Abdulwahid Pedtucasan, Inspector Abdulgapor Abad, PO1 Michael Macarongon, PO1 Mohammad Balading–has been deferred.

In a faded yellow shirt, Ampatuan rose from his seat from the far right of the courtroom when his name was called. He proceeded to the middle aisle, ushered by his lawyer and security escort.

When the clerk of court finished reading the information, Ampatuan was the first to be asked what plea he would enter. He replied in a resounding but emotionless voice, “Not guilty.”

The relatives of the victims seated to the far left to where he was standing stared at him intently. Others looked away. One of them shook his head while another looked down.

The arraignment marked the start of what may be a long and arduous trial in seeking justice to those who were summarily executed, mostly journalists, on Nov. 23 in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.

But Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, who lost the most family members among the victims, said he hopes that justice would be swift under the new government.

A pre-trial conference to pre-mark evidence and evaluate witnesses will begin on the afternoon of Aug. 4.

The arraignment of the Ampatuan patriarch Andal Sr., four members of his family and six policemen was postponed pending resolution of the various motions they had filed in court.

Andal Jr. has petitioned for the inhibition of Judge Solis-Reyes from the case, a petition rejoined by another defense lawyer for the other accused. Reyes said she would take up the motion, the sixth to be filed by the accused, in the next court hearing.

A total of 196 stand accused in the case, including 15 policemen, three soldiers and 21 members of the Ampatuan clan. All have been issued warrants of arrest, but 135 remain at large. This is the biggest criminal prosecution in terms of number of respondents that the country has seen since World War II.

Earlier, the court dismissed the murder case against one policeman, PO1 Johann Draper, for lack of probable cause.

The respondents faced the court in a police camp in Bicutan, with one group in yellow T-shirts and the other in orange. Ampatuan’s lawyer questioned the apparent distinction of two groups, and the judged asked the prosecution to explain.

It was learned that those clad in orange belong to the group whom the government has petitioned to be transferred from Camp Bagong Diwa to the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame in Quezon City. Prosecutors sought the transfer after a reported “clash” between Ampatuan supporters and some of the accused who earlier announced their intention to turn state witness.

Ampatuan’s counsel said the apparent distinction was unnecessary while the petition for transfer was still pending before the court. But Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Fadullon said while awaiting for the court’s ruling, one group has been moved to another cell for security reasons, hence the difference in the color of the shirt they were wearing.

At the close of the hearing, a statement in a yellow pad paper was tossed to the media from the prison cells, in which the accused police officers who appeared in “yellow” belied the alleged confrontation inside their cell.

Claiming loyalty only to the republic and the PNP organization, the accused policemen said, “There’s no such thing as Ampatuan loyalists inside as reported in a rumored rumble inside our cell. Please consider also our welfare because we have also dedicated our lives to our country.”

The handwritten statement further read: “We are loyalists of the PNP organization and not to anybody. We cry for justice.”

Nuraldin Yusoph with Jesus Dureza of the Mindanao Development Council, and ARMM DENR Secretary Usman Sarangani Sr. upon his release by kidnappers. Photo by Froilan Gallardo.

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY.— It was all about the huge amount of bribe money that corrupted election officials who issued orders to cluster polling precincts to favored politicians during the last elections in May, military officers and poll watchdog groups said.

The officers and NGO leaders said  this was the reason  Nuraldin Yusoph, the 22-year-old son of Poll Commissioner Elias Yusoph, was kidnapped in Marawi City.

“Politicians who lost a lot of money want to recoup their losses. That is the reason why Nuraldin was kidnapped,” said Brig. Gen. Ray Ardo, chief of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade. “They want to be refunded.”

At the center of the controversy that hounded Yusoph’s  kidnapping is his father Elias, the only Muslim commissioner in the Commission on Elections.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in its luwaran.com website, said  “the kidnapping was a collective effort” of all losers in the election “to force him (Commissioner Yusoph) to refund the bribes given him during the elections” as it accused the election official of “(taking) money from all sides.”

There was no immediate comment from the elder Yusoph and his family about the accusation.

Sources provided Mindanews a copy of a Comelec order dated  May 9, 2010 ordering the clustering of polling precincts from 19 to 55 in Marawi City.

The order was signed by Comelec Chair Jose Melo who annotated that “his signature was made upon recommendation of Commissioner Yusoph.”

Commissioner Rene Sarmiento signed with “reservation” while Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer did not sign at all. Commissioners Yusoph, Armando Velasco, Gregorio Larazabal, and Lucenito Tagle also signed.

Ardo said the order benefited Marawi City Mayor Sultan Fre Fahad who went on to win the mayoralty election over former Mayor Abbas Basman.

“Did you notice that Commissioner Yusoph did not come to Marawi during the entire 29 days when Nuraldin was in the kidnappers’ custody? He was scared that all the losing politicians will gang up on him and demand a refund,” Ardo said.

Ardo himself is no stranger to election cheating. In 2004, he was among the military officers who were accused of rigging the elections for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

In  February 2009, Yusoph, a provincial prosecutor in Marawi City, was appointed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the Comelec to replace Commissioner Romeo Brawner who died.

“Remember I did not give you a clear answer when you asked me about Yusoph after he was appointed. It is because I do not trust him at all,” said Hadji Abdullah Dalidig, head of the Islamic Movement for Electoral Reforms and Good Governance (IMERGG).

He confirmed that bribes were paid to  election officials in the May 10 elections.

Dalidig, who chaired the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) in Lanao del Sur, was the 2004 whistleblower who uncovered the dagdag-bawas (vote padding and shaving) electoral cheating that allegedly benefited former Arroyo.

The young Yusoph was moved from one hideout to another before he was released in Cagayan de Oro City late Monday afternoon, more than a hundred kilometers from where he was abducted in Marawi City on June 20.

This was the surprise ending of the 29-day hostage ordeal of the young Yusoph who was snatched in in front of the Bato Ali Mosque in Marawi City.

Wearing a dark blue jacket and white tshirt, the victim appeared to be dazed and at times covered his face from the glare of photographers’ flashes and TV camera lights.

“I was constantly threatened and blindfolded. I was always moved around from one place to another,” the young Yusoph told reporters before he was whisked to Manila this morning. He said he was threatened to be killed at least nine times while in captivity.

Yusoph said he could not recall the places where his abductors had taken him during the 29-day captivity.

“I only remembered the threats. I could not see anything,” he said.

Yusoph said his kidnappers at first fed him only once a day. But his food intake was increased as the days went by.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong said the kidnappers released Yusoph at Junction Ilaya, Macanhan and Masterson road in Barangay Carmen, this city at  5:10 p.m. Monday.

Adiong said Yusoph’s family did not pay any ransom for the safe release. He was whisked to Manila the following day to be reunited with his father.

The nongovernment organization Consortium for Electoral Reform, which spearheaded the Vote Peace project, gave out the awards as it ended a conference assessing the conduct of the May 10 automated elections.

The Consortium recognized church and civil society groups, and police officials who worked to get various sectors to cooperate in bringing about peaceful elections in areas long considered hotspots.

Commissioner Rene Sarmiento of the Commission on Elections, Asia Foundation country representative Steve Rood, Police Superintendent Josefino Cataluna and CER chair Ramon Casiple handed out the plaques of recognition to the “peacemakers.”

The other awardees included Aksyon Mindanao, the Ateneo Peace and Culture Institute, Masbate Advocates for peace, the Abra Multisectoral Group, and the Dioceses of Masbate, Bangued and Legazpi.

Police superintendents Eddie Benigay and Victor Deona were recognized for their work in helping keep the peace in Masbate, while Lt Gen Ben Dolorfino was also  cited for his work in Western Mindanao.

Mangudadatu, who was commended for getting politicians inside and outside Maguindanao to commit to a peace covenant, dedicated his award to his wife Genalyn, his two sisters and the victims who were killed in November 23 Maguindanao massacre.

AN improvised bomb exploded at the Bangued Municipal Hall at dawn today, the inauguration day of newly elected provincial officials.

The explosion, which damaged P50,000 worth of property, happened at about 2 a.m., according to Abra Police Provincial Director Senior Superintendent Joseph Adnol.

The police report said an “improvised bomb was left by unidentified person in front of the municipal hall” and partially damaged “the frontage ceiling of the building.”

“No person was hurt” and the motive was to “disrupt peace in the area,”  the police report read.

During the campaign period, the situation in Bangued was tense as Ryan Luna sought to unseat incumbent Dominic Valera.  Although Luna succeeded in his mayoral bid, his mother Cecilia Seares-Luna lost to Valera’s daughter, Ma. Jocelyn Bernos, as representative of the lone district of Abra.

As police conduct further investigation, Luna told VERA Files that the bombing could have been done by someone who was bitter about the election results.

“If you were given a house, would you destroy it knowing that you will be living in that house?” he asked. Luna said his inauguration will push through at his residence in Barangay Dangdangla, Bangued.

Valera for his part said he had just found out about the explosion when asked to give his side.

“The last time I was there (municipal hall) was last June 28. We were not allowed to enter by Luna’s people then,” Valera said.

He added that because of this, municipal employees did not receive their salary and that the police could not do anything about the presence of Luna’s men in the municipal hall.

In response, Adnol said, “Wala namang gulo, andun lang sila, wala kaming karapatan paalisin ang isang tao na wala namang masamang ginagawa (There was no trouble. They were just there. We could not just drive away people who weren’t doing anything wrong).”

Luna admitted that they had been keeping close watch at the town hall because Valera planned to withdraw the remaining 25 million budget of Bangued, an issue which Valera denied.

Valera was earlier held under hospital arrest for the alleged murder of Mario Acena, a Luna supporter but the Department of Justice recently cleared him of the charges.

ILIGAN CITY.–Civil society leaders in Lanao have appealed to the kidnappers of Noraldin Yusoph, son of Elections Commissioner Elias Yusoph, to “immediately release” the victim.

Yusoph, 22 (not 24 as earlier reported), was abducted by still unidentified armed men while praying inside a mosque in Barangay Sabala Amanao, Marawi City.

Read More…

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao.—In the province where the worst pre-election violence in Philippine history happened on Nov. 23, there was reason to celebrate when the worst-case scenarios on election day did not happen.

Soldiers and policemen were already tearing down the posters of candidates and other election paraphernalia a day after the elections. At the provincial capitol grounds, soldiers sought refuge from the searing heat under trees like it were an ordinary day.

Two days after the elections, the 6^th Infantry Division hosted a breakfast meeting at Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town to celebrate the success of the country’s first automated elections, particularly Maguindanao’s “generally peaceful” polls.

In the past, no celebration, cleaning up of election paraphernalia or relaxing under the shade of trees was possible in the first week after election day because soldiers would still be busy patrolling the areas or securing venues of electoral canvassing.

To be sure, a number of violent incidents were recorded on the day of the election in Maguindanao: There was mortar firing and a firefight at 1:15 a.m. in Ampatuan town. Two grenade launchers exploded at 10 a.m. in Datu Piang. A grenade was lobbed but did not explode in Paglat poblacion. The Army fired two rounds of 81mm mortar toward 100 “armed lawless group” in Datu Salibo, temporarily stopping the voting. A firefight broke out between armed supporters of vice mayoralty candidates Bhernie Amolintao Bagundang and Muslimin Guiama Baliwang at the voting precinct in Barangay Kapinpilan, North Kabuntalan, Maguindanao.

Two civilians were reported killed, one of them a certain Lano, former chair of Barangay Kapimpilan, North Kabuntalan and a supporter of mayoralty candidate Abutazil Zainudin.

Still, Brig. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, assistant chief of the 6^th Infantry Division and head of Task Force HOPE (Honest, Orderly, Peaceful Elections), said voting in Maguindanao was “generally peaceful with isolated and confined violent incidents at a few expected traditional contested areas.”

The worst-case scenarios did not happen even as a month before the elections, the Eastern Mindanao Command (EastMinCom) had identified several threat groups: the “Southern Philippines Secessionist Group,” or what is more commonly known as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front; “armed terrorist groups”; “local/foreign terrorist organizations”; and “partisan armed groups,” commonly referred to as private armies.

“Maguindanao remains to be a volatile area due to the presence of MILF forces and the partisan armed groups,” the EastMinCom said in a slide presentation before an election monitoring group in Davao City on April 14.

According to the presentation, of five areas with 51 “partisan armed groups,” 42 were in Maguindanao with about 3,330 armed followers.

A list sent by the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations to the EastMinCom chief last Dec. 11 showed an inventory of 1,891 members of the civilian volunteer organizations or CVOs. Another report from the same office, dated Dec. 6, listed 346 members of the Special Civilian Armed Auxiliary (SCAA) units in four SCAA companies.

According to Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, EastMinCom spokesperson, the SCAA companies have been disarmed and disbanded but not the 1,891 CVOs.

Cabangbang said the CVOs are in the areas which are in frequent skirmish with the MILF. But they are now under the supervision of the military instead of the police, he said.

Only the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) are supposedly armed, not CVOs. But Executive Order 546 issued by President Gloria Arroyo apparently to appease Ampatuan in July 2006, allowed the arming of CVOs.

Only 735 firearms were seized in Maguindanao from Nov. 24 to Dec. 12, of which 697 were high-powered. Cabangbang said there are only 160 armed men who have remained unaccounted for in Maguindanao since the massacre. All of them were implicated in the massacre, he said.

Fr. Eliseo Mercado Jr., executive director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance and former president of the Notre Dame University in Cotabato City, acknowledged that all eyes were on Maguindanao in this year’s elections “because of the (Ampatuan) massacre and the notoriety of Maguindanao (during elections)” where “you don’t know when to proclaim your candidates.”

The province is notorious for delivering “command votes” during elections. Under the Arroyo administration, it gave a 12-0 victory to the administration’s senatorial candidates in the 2007 midterm elections and figured in the 2004 “Hello Garci” controversy involving elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and Arroyo.

It was in Maguindanao where Garcillano resurfaced in November 2005, after months of hiding since the controversy was exposed.

In the runup to the polls, Mercado said the main fear of national parties was what was being “cooked” in Maguindanao and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. But computerization of elections helped solve the problem.

He said: “For the first time, 85 percent of local election winners (were) known within 24 hours. Within 24 hours, nationally, we (had) a president. The vice presidency (was) still a tossup between (Jejomar) Binay and (Manuel) Mar Roxas but within 48 hours, we (knew) already the winning 10 senatorial candidates. This has never been done in the whole history of Philippine elections.

Bernardo of the 6th Infantry Division and head of Task Force HOPE attributed the “generally peaceful” elections to the cooperation of various sectors, including candidates and civil society poll watchers, and the agreement the government peace panel’s ceasefire committee and the MILF signed on April 23.

The “Guidelines for Mutual Understanding between the Coordinating Committees on the Cessation of Hostilities of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for Ceasefire-Related functions for the May 10, 2010 National Elections” were implemented from May 3 to 13.

Section 10, for example, provides that the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces-MILF elements “should not go near polling centers and avoid displaying firearms along routes leading to the areas where electoral activities are ongoing.”

Bernardo, a former member of the government’s CCCH, said the MILF had adhered to the April 23 guidelines “largely and extensively.”

On election day, the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Post composed of representatives from the government, MILF and International Monitoring Team was deployed to serve as the advance monitoring and response group in Barangay Kitango, Datu Saudi Ampatuan.

Civil society’s active participation in monitoring the elections through the Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms Inc. (Citizens Care), Parish Pastoral Center for Responsible Voting, the presence of foreign election observers, also contributed to the “generally peaceful” voting.

But the absence of the Ampatuan patriarch and politician sons in this year’s election, the first time in nine years, has also been identified as a contributing factor to the “generally peaceful” election. They are detained in Bicutan and being tried for multiple murder charges for the massacre.

The Ampatuans left behind were mostly women as some of the male Ampatuan leaders remain at large.

The Ampatuans had earlier taken efforts to prevent the transfer of the patriarch in Davao City or if that were not possible, to have ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan and brother-in-law Akmad “Tato” Ampatuan walk out of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group detention facility in General Santos City as free men in early April.

Acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra had tried to drop Zaldy and Tato from the charge sheet, but mass protests aborted the attempt.

On election day, a tarpaulin on display at the roundball in Shariff Aguak intended for Zaldy and Tato bore the message, “Welcome Home.” But neither Zaldy nor Tato ever got to see it.

(MindaNews is the news service arm of a cooperative of Mindanao-based journalists.)

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao.—Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu will take his oath of office as the new governor on June 30 and deliver his inaugural address in his hometown Buluan, 40 kilometers from the provincial capitol here.

Mangudadatu intends to be far from this place, the bailiwick of the Ampatuans who are standing trial for the Nov. 23 massacre that left his wife Genalyn and 57 other civilians dead in what is now known as the worst case of pre-election violence in the country’s history.

The former Buluan vice mayor who beat the Ampatuans’ gubernatorial bet Datu Ombra Sinsuat in the May 10 elections intends to restore the provincial capitol in Simuay, Sultan Kudarat town, which the Ampatuans abandoned after the patriarch Andal Sr. was elected governor in 2001. While waiting for the old capitol to be restored, Mangudadatu will hold office in a building behind the Buluan town hall “for very important reasons,” he stressed.

The new governor is not taking chances with his safety. Although the May 10 elections in Maguindanao were peaceful and defied predictions it would again emerge as the hotbed of political violence on election day, uncertainty still grips the province which remains in a state of emergency.

Fears for his security led Mangududatu to ride an Army Simba tank tailed by a convoy of security escorts from Buluan to the capitol, passing through the GenSan-Cotabato national highway, for his proclamation as governor-elect on May 14. Mangudadatu told reporters waiting at the capitol he took this unusual mode of transport on the advice of Army officers.

“For security purposes,” Mangudadatu said. “There were threats that bombs were placed along the highway and were set to explode when I passed.”

Not only is the provincial capitol right smack in the heartland of the Ampatuan clan’s turf, it is also just 400 meters away from the mansions of the patriarch, Ampatuan Sr., and his son, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan.

Father and son and at least 10 other prominent members are implicated in the massacre. Six are detained in Bicutan: Ampatuan Sr.; Zaldy; Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr., mayor of Datu Unsay town; Datu Anwar, mayor of Shariff Aguak; Sajid, former vice governor and OIC governor; and the patriarch’s son-in-law, Datu Akmad M. Ampatuan, elected Mamasapano mayor in 2007 and appointed vice fovernor in January 2009. Six others are at large, including grandsons Saudi Jr., Bahnarin and Datu Anwar “Ipi” Ampatuan Jr.; Kanor Datumanong Ampatuan, Datu Mama Ampatuan and Datu Norodin Ampatuan.

The massacre generated national outrage. Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces and the city of Cotabato were placed under a state of emergency under Proclamation 1946 issued on Nov. 24, a day after the massacre, in a bid to “prevent and suppress the occurrence of similar other incidents of lawless violence.”

On Dec. 4, President Arroyo issued Proclamation 1959 declaring a state of martial law and suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the province. Martial law was lifted on Dec. 12, but not the state of emergency.

By the time election period rolled around, all eyes were on Maguindanao, and election day was peaceful, for the first time in a long while.

“Not a single drop of blood was shed and no one was killed in Maguindanao (on election day). No watcher was hurt or abducted. There was some commotion in the polling precincts, but these were addressed fairly and squarely,” Mindanao-based journalist John Unson said in his remarks at a breakfast meeting at the 6^th Infantry Division’s Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town on May 12, just two days after the election, held to celebrate the “generally peaceful” elections.

But authorities acknowledged that loyalists or “partisan armed groups” (more commonly known as “private armies”) of the Ampatuan clan remained a threat during the elections, even if they may have been dispersed from Shariff Aguak in the days following the Nov. 23 massacre.

Of the 698 election hotspots in the Eastern Mindanao Command’s (EastMinCom) area of responsibility, 300 were in Region 12, 168 of them in Maguindanao. Of five areas with 51 “partisan armed groups,” 42 were in Maguindanao with about 3,330 armed followers.

The EastMinCom also noted that the “presence of unidentified armed groups in isolated areas especially in the second district of Maguindanao causes apprehension which may affect the outcome of the elections.”

The Ampatuans’ turf is within the second district.

Although the Ampatuan patriarch lost his bid for vice governor, 10 other clan members implicated in the Nov. 23 massacre won in the elections.

“The hold of that man in traditional areas (was still) uncontested,” said Fr. Eliseo Mercado Jr., executive director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance and former president of the Notre Dame University in Cotabato City, referring to Ampatuan Sr. who served as Maguindanao governor from 2001 to January 2009 and as acting governor just before the Nov. 23 massacre.

Ampatuan Jr. and Zaldy did not run for any elective post but fielded their wives. The rest, including the patriarch, filed their certificates of candidacy before the deadline on Dec. 1, just a week after the massacre.

When Mangudadatu announced he would run for governor, few people believed he would win. He only had five mayors out of Maguindanao’s 36 towns. But he linked up with the Masturas, a powerful clan that has control over a few but vote-rich towns.

In early December, Energy Undersecretary Zamzamin Ampatuan, the first nominee of a party-list group and a relative of the Ampatuans, expressed concern over the decision of the patriarch to run for vice governor and field a daughter as one of the opponents. The decision reached at a meeting of political leaders in Shariff Aguak after the massacre was for Sinsuat to run for governor and Datu Midpantao Midtimbang for vice governor as earlier agreed upon with the patriarch.

But at the last minute, Ampatuan Sr. decided to run for vice governor, prompting Midtimbang to run for governor. Mangudadatu won by a slight margin. He would have lost if Sinsuat’s and Midtimbang’s votes were combined. Ampatuan Sr. lost to Ismael “Dustin” Mastura by a huge margin.

Mangudadatu and Mastura said they prefer to work in the old provincial capitol along the national highway in Sultan Kudarat town. For Mangudadatu, this would mean a 140-kilometer drive from Buluan passing through Makilala in North Cotabato then on to the Davao–Cotabato highway north to Sultan Kudarat.

The Ampatuan patriarch held office in Simuay briefly, when he was first elected governor in 2001. But an alleged ambush on his convoy—critics call it a case of “ambush me”—triggered the transfer of the capitol to Shariff Aguak.

Where Mangudadatu and Mastura intend to hold office “is up to them,” said Brig. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, assistant commander of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division.

“They have other considerations, I am sure, other than security and safety factors but we can recommend of course, citing security as a paramount consideration. But whatever will be the decision, we should be ready to provide and fill in the gap to eliminate any degree of threat to them, together with the police of course,” he said.

Mangudadatu said he trusts the military because the personnel assigned in the province are new. “Wala silang pinapanigan (They’re not siding with anybody),” the governor-elect said.

Bernardo does not foresee the governor-elect being transported every day by a Simba tank but stressed there should be “proactive security measures. “Huwag namang sobra security detail. Yung tama lang and as required under the circumstances (There shouldn’t be an excess of security detail, just the right number required under the circumstances,” he said.

But Mangudadatu does not intend to ride the Simba to Shariff Aguak either. He has decided to govern from his hometown in Buluan while the old capitol is being repaired.

The old capitol in Sultan Kudarat is now rundown, with some parts of the building “cannibalized,” said the governor-elect.

Mastura said rehabilitation of the old capitol will take six months. He plans to temporarily hold office at the ABC Hall in Sultan Kudarat, his hometown.

What will happen to the provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak has yet to be decided. It could be converted into a hospital or the office of the Department of Education or Agriculture. “It depends,” said Mangudadatu.

Having the governor and vice governor holding office in their respective hometowns in the first six months of their three-year term might be problematic, but securing them every day in the Ampatuan stronghold right here would likely be a nightmare.

(MindaNews is the news service arm of a cooperative of Mindanao-based journalists.)

AN election watchdog has this piece of advice for the Commission on Elections: Don’t buy the counting machines used in the May 10 elections.

Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER), instead urged the Comelec to just lease the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines amid a suggestion from the Venezuelan firm Smartmatic for the poll body to buy the 80,000 units it had leased for P8 billion for this year’s elections.

Smartmatic president Cesar Flores made the pitch at a press conference upon the arrival of Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela, its “Ambassador for Transparency.” He had said the Comelec would save billions of pesos if it bought the machines now for future use. The lease contract with Smartmatic gives Comelec the option to buy the technology for P2 billion.

Addressing a post-election summit convened on Friday by the Ateneo School of Government, Casiple acknowledged that the PCOS machines were “still the best” for the elections, but he also identified the shortcomings of those used in the country’s first nationwide automated elections.

For one, the source codes should be in the PCOS machines and not in the compact flash (CF) cards, as was the case in the last elections, said Casiple, who is also a member of the Comelec Advisory Council.

He said the removable CF cards and the last-minute recall and replacement of defective cards had raised fears of possible cheating.

Casiple also reported that more than 1,000 CF cards were “scrambled” because of a technical glitch: Election inspectors had failed to hook the machines to the backup batteries and the scrambling occurred when brownouts hit several voting centers.

The experience highlights the need for voting machines to have built-in batteries, he said.

The IPER executive director also reported that 10,000 PCOS machines failed to transmit election results and caused delays in the counting of the votes.  He cited a report to the Advisory Council last week that only 95 percent of the results have been accounted for.

Casiple also stressed the importance of the PCOS machines to be used in succeeding electons to incorporate biometrics, particularly a fingerprint reader.

Casiple said while the May elections were successful, he said Comelec must address the problem of long queues resulting from, among other reasons, the clustering of precincts.

He also said Congress should reexamine the law on the manner of canvassing, especially by the National Board of Canvassers, given the speed with which the election outcome can now be known, thanks to technology.  “Should it (canvassing) still be done the old way?” he asked.

Election results are counted at the precinct levels. These are then canvassed at the municipal and city or provincial levels.  The votes for senators and party-list groups are then canvassed by Comelec. In presidential elections, Congress, convening as the National Board of Canvassers, canvasses the results for the president and vice president and proclaims the winners.

A review of the Constitution is also in order, especially its provision on the electoral tribunals deciding election-related protests, according to the IPER chief.  Questioning the qualifications of a number of tribunal members, Casiple said the electoral  tribunals are best returned to the judicial system.

With automated elections expected to be a permanent fixture, except perhaps in barangay elections, Casiple called for the modernization of the Comelec by providing it with an IT-oriented building as well as IT training for its personnel at both its national and local offices.

He also urged the professionalization of the poll body, calling the exemption of Comelec from civil service standards “a mistake.”

The standards that should apply to Comelec and its personnel should even be higher, Casiple said.