Both dominated this year’s  local elections in Pampanga as Kapampangan voters trooped to their polling places last Monday amid an avalanche of campaign materials. In the end, they settled for familiar names in the country’s first automated elections.

This has enabled traditional politics to return with a vengeance barely three years after the much-vaunted miracle that seated good governance advocate Eddie “Among Ed” Panlilio as governor.

As Lilia Pineda, staunch ally of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and wife of alleged jueteng (an illegal numbers game) lord Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda, continues to edge out Panlilio in the gubernatorial race, her allies, including daughter Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab and daughter-in-law Yolanda Pineda , are emerging as sure winners for the mayoralty in the towns of Lubao and Sta. Rita, respectively.

Pineda-Cayabyab ran unopposed. Another Pineda scion, Dennis Pineda, is in the running as nominee of Ang Galing Pinoy partylist, a party that claims to represent security guards but has Arroyo’s eldest child Juan Miguel “Mikey” as primary nominee.

A few days before Monday’s  elections, the Comelec en banc issued a decision on the 2007 elections recount case filed by Pineda against Panlilio on allegations of vote-buying, dagdag-bawas (vote shaving and padding), harassment andcoercion. It affirmed an earlier resolution by the 2nd Division unseating Panlilio as governor based on the results of the recount.

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV-Pampanga) challenged the results of the 2nd Division resolution based on its own monitoring of the 2007 elections and analysis of the recount results.

Arroyo, the first Philippine president to run for a lower office supposedly “to continue serving the people,” is the winner in the race for representative of the 2nd district, a position previously held by her son, Mikey.

Two days after the elections, Kapampangan voters continue to tell their stories and experiences about the automated polls and politics in Pampanga.

Raul (not his real name), a registered voter of a barangay in Guagua town, said he saw a member of a Board of Election Inspectors drop the indelible ink bottle inside a precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine while voting was ongoing. The incident was reported to the BEI chairperson who did nothing about it.

The whole process of marking the index finger with indelible ink was skipped. To make matters worse, partisan campaigners freely roamed the polling area.

When Raul was handed the ballot secrecy folder, he was surprised to find a slip of paper inside with the words, “Vote for ______” (name of a candidate running for councilor under the administration party Lakas-KAMPI-CMD).

While he was filling up his ballot, he was constantly being told to vote for some candidates. He added the voters in his precinct had no privacy because a lot of people were milling about while they were casting their votes.

Mila (not her real name) relates that the night before the elections, voters from a barangay in Lubao where she resides were gathered and given P500 each to vote for certain candidates.

Earlier, Panlilio urged the Comelec to look into claims of vote-buying allegedly perpetrated by the Pineda camp. He cited instances of new forms of vote-buying activities, including multilevel recruitment of coordinators and poll watchers, job fairs, raffle draws, gift-giving and outright handing out of cash to voters.

Panlilio decried the “culture of silence” among Kapampangan voters. “People refuse to give their testimonies and sign affidavits attesting to vote-buying out of fear,” he told a press conference on the Comelec en banc’s recount decision.

With this latest development in Pampanga politics, leaders of various civil society groups and lay movements have vowed to continue their fight for good governance and political reforms. Banjo Serrano, convenor of  L.A.I.K.K.O. (Lebadura, Asin, Ilaw para sa Kinabukasan–AkO), a Catholic lay movement advocating principled politics, said the organization will assess the election.

“Why did many of our people sell their votes? Where do we go from here? We will have to find answers to these questions,” Serrano said.

Pampanga Auxiliary Bishop Pablo S. David, D.D., chairman of PPCRV-Pampanga and convenor of the Movement for Principled Politics in Pampanga (MP3), challenged Kapampangan voters to “look beyond elections and explore a way of getting involved and participate in politics in a positive way.”

He said that regardless of who assumes office after the elections, MP3 will engage the government by checking and monitoring it conduct and performance, especially in the use of public resources to deliver services, improve the community welfare, and protect people’s rights.

David also expressed concern over the accumulation of campaign materials such as tarpaulins, leaflets, flyers and posters.

“The election campaign is an environmental nightmare,” he said. “What will they do with all of the non-biodegradable materials after the elections? Perhaps the tarpaulins and other materials can be recycled.”

In Angeles City, where David is parish priest, the Comelec and Philippine National Police, in partnership with PPCRV, MP3 and the local Boy Scouts, conducted Operation Baklas twice at the height of the campaign to rid the city of illegally posted campaign paraphernalia.

Some local candidates, including actress Marang Morales who ran for councilor and Blueboy Nepomuceno who ran for mayor, cooperated in this effort.

SAN FERNANDO

It had been a long day for members of the BEIs who, like in past elections, had withstood hours of hunger and exhaustion. Administering the elections was certainly markedly different this year because of the bigger number of voters the election inspectors had had to serve as a result of precinct clustering. Where three-member BEIs each used to deal only with 200 voters, they had to manage triple the number in most instances.

But several BEI members admitted that conduct of this year’s elections was also made more difficult by the lack of proper orientation on automation.

Civil society electoral watchdogs noted that election inspectors were indeed not properly oriented on the voting procedures, including on the distribution of election returns to groups accredited by Comelec.

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), one of the three accredited citizens’ arms, was entitled to the fourth of the first eight copies of the returns and one of the 22 printed returns in the second batch. But the Church-based group here reported that some BEIs refused to give these copies to PPCRV representatives

In Batasan in Macabebe town, the PPCRV sent a team to monitor polling in the area amid reports that a man with more than one ballot was feeding these to the PCOS.

The Church-based group said its representative asked the man why he was doing that when it was supposed to be the BEI’s responsibility. Its representative also noted the presence of another man, later recognized as a barangay captain and brother of a mayoralty candidate, giving orders to the first man.

The PPCRV also found the ballot box in the precinct unlocked, to which the BEI replied it was because of the paper jam.

Chaos and frayed nerves marked the first few hours of voting in the province as people, jittery over the automated elections, trooped to the polling places and endured the sweltering summer heat in long queues that had them waiting in line and sweating for at least three hours.

Malfunctioning precint count optical scan (PCOS) machines worsened the situation in some Pampanga towns and caused delays in the casting of votes. A good number of voters gave up after failing to locate their names in the Certified Voters’ List. There were also spoiled ballots, but the PPCRV said it was minimal.

By 2 p.m., at least half of the registered voters were able to cast their votes after the Comelec allowed more voters inside the polling places, extended voting by an hour and permitted election inspectors to cast their votes in their respective polling assignments.

In Lubao town where President Gloria Arroyo cast her vote during the first hour of voting after hearing mass at the San Agustin Church beside her mansion, voting was generally peaceful.

The problem was the lack of PPCRV volunteers in Lubao. As a result, poll watchers of the administration party Lakas-Kampi-CMD took upon themselves to help voters, from locating their names in the certified voters’ list to organizing the queues to shading the ballots for senior citizens who were given priority at polling precincts nationwide.

When voting ended, random manual audit was performed in four precincts precint in Lubao—Sta. Cruz (Precinct 72), Palcarangan (Precinct 54), San Francisco (Precinct 34), Sta. Monica (Precinct 84)— and a precinct in Porac (Precinct 27 in Mancatian).

PAMPANGA. –

“This is not a matter of saving a personality but a matter of saving Pampanga and the crusade for good governance,” Panlilio said.

He said he has yet to receive a copy of the Comelec resolution deciding in favor of Pineda’s petition for a recount of the 2007 election results in Pampanga, which he won by a slim margin of 1,147 votes.

Panlilio expressed surprise that the Comelec was still able to issue a resolution en banc at such a late hour “amid the chaos caused by glitches in the country’s first-ever automated elections.”

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV)-Pampanga, meanwhile, reiterated its earlier opinion declaring the 2007 elections in the province as clean, honest and accurate.

In an official communication sent to Comelec Chair Jose Melo, the local PPCRV reported its observations based on its monitoring of the 2007 elections and analysis of the results of the recount as contained in the resolution of the poll body’s Second Division.

The poll watchdog cited errors in calculation. It also questioned the application of the rule that election returns are the best evidence in the absence of ballots.

“Reading from the resolution, it appears that certain precincts were not subject to a recount because the ballots from these precincts were described as ‘wet’ or ‘burned’ (for example, there were ‘wet ballots’ from Arayat and ‘burned ballots’ from Mabalacat),” it said.

Based on the results of the recount process that showed Pineda with 190,729 votes as against Panlilio’s 188,718, the Comelec’s Second Division headed by Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer declared the former as the real winner in the 2007 elections in its Feb. 11 ruling.

Panlilio filed a motion for reconsideration, which the Comelec en banc denied upon review.

On Monday, Panlilio and Pineda will have a rematch outside the courts of law, leaving it up to their constituents to deicde the issue.

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga. —Tension runs high at the University of the Philippines-San Fernando Extension in the Clark Free Port (UP Clark) because of the school director’s continuous refusal to allow the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to use their covered court as a polling precinct this May 10 elections.

UP Clark Director Juliet Mallari has threatened to file a case of illegal trespassing against Comelec representatives, Smartmatic technicians, and their three police escorts who entered the school premises to install one unit of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine last May 3.

Dr. Mallari pointed out that UP campuses have never been used as polling places before and any move to do so should be covered by an official agreement between the UP Board of Regents (BOR) and the Comelec.

The entry of the group inside UP Clark in Pampanga was covered by a directive from Comelec Region III Chief Temie Lambino and reportedly authorized by Dr. Emmanuel Angeles, chair of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the UP BOR.

PO3 Rodolfo Agustin, a member of the Mabalacat Police Force, said despite the threat of a lawsuit, they will continue to stay at the UP Clark covered court “to guard the PCOS machine 24/7”. They decided to put the PCOS machine inside a parked red Pajero, owned by one of them, for safekeeping during the standoff.

The testing and sealing of the machine was postponed to May 7, following a nationwide recall by the Comelec of PCOS machines’ faulty memory cards. The official ballots for Pampanga were delivered on May 2.

The planned polling precinct inside UP Clark has 947 registered voters, composed mostly of Air Force personnel and their families. They used to vote at the Dau Central Elementary (DCE) in Mabalacat town, which is two rides away from Clark.

In opposing the transfer to UP Clark of said polling precinct, Dr. Mallari gave the following additional grounds: a) UP has its own charter and the supposed authorization issued by Dr. Emmanuel Angeles (CHED and UP BOR chair) is not valid because he has to get the concurrence of the other BOR members; b) protocol was not properly observed because the Comelec did not honor the disapproval of the director of UP Clark; and c) UP administration’s concerns regarding lack of facilities, and lack of manpower to provide utility services and security.

A dialogue between the Comelec and the UP Clark Administration has been scheduled to resolve the issue.

Meanwhile, volunteers from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) in the area were instructed to closely monitor the situation.

SAYING the church cannot remain “nonpolitical,” Pampanga Auxiliary Bishop Pablo S. David has challenged Kapampangan voters to find a way of getting involved and participating in politics in a positive way.

“This is a political activity; let us be partisan for truth,” David said in his homily at the sendoff rites for the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV)-Pampanga volunteers on May 1 at the Arzobispado of the Archdiocese of San Fernando in Pampanga.

PPCRV-Pampanga has recruited more than 3,000 volunteers to help safeguard the votes and ensure the peaceful conduct of clean and honest elections in the province.

More volunteers are expected to enlist with barely three days to go before Monday’s polls.

Amid rumors of a No-El (no-elections) or failure of elections scenario, PPCRCV-Pampanga has drafted a contingency plan.

David also urged voters to look beyond elections and “engage government pro-actively and positively,” reiterating the challenge he issued during the 2007 elections for PPCRV-Pampanga to transform itself into PPCRP (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Politics).

“After the elections, we tend to forget that there are some things we can do when the new set of officials assume office,” the bishop said. “For instance, we can monitor the utilization of public funds to ensure that these are spent on social services.”

He invited the PPCRV volunteers to join the newly organized Movement for Principled Politics in Pampanga (MP3), a movement that seeks to promote the common good through the practice of good governance and responsible citizenship in the province.

David, chairperson of PPCRV-Pampanga and convenor of MP3, said the movement seeks to engage government in a constructive manner by checking and monitoring its conduct and performance.

According to the religious organization Dilaab Foundation, voters want candidates who are “God-fearing.” Fr. Carmelo Diola, overall coordinating steward of the foundation, said “discernment circles” consulted by Dilaab point to this quality as most desired by voters.

“Surprisingly, competence figured lower than God-fearing in terms of voter preference,” said Fr. Diola.

Dilaab Foundation has introduced what it called the “LASER” test in helping voters identify their candidates of choice. LASER stands for lifestyle, action, supporters, election conduct, and reputation.  This was the result of a series of reflection sessions called “circles of discernment for elections” (CIDE) involving more than 30 groups from various parts of the country.

The LASER test was used by Lebadura Asin Ilaw para sa Kinabukasan AkO (L.A.I.K.K.O), a new Catholic lay movement in Pampanga, to identify four candidates it will be supporting in the elections.

The organization came up with four names: Jo Imbong (Ang Kapatiran) and Alex Lacson (LP) who are both running for senator, and gubernatorial candidate Ed Panlilio and his running mate Marco Lazatin, both of LP.

LAIKKO has not come up with any presidential and vice presidential candidate to endorse. Other posts such as the congressional, board membership, mayoralty and council positions will have to be endorsed by their respective districts or cities.

Aware of the changing political landscape in the province after the 2007 elections, lay leaders from various religious organizations in Pampanga have gathered in a series of meetings to discuss how to help promote principled politics and good governance.

Aside from the endorsement of worthy candidates, LAIKKO plans to initiate moves to combat patronage politics, which is seen as a major block in sustaining political reforms in Pampanga.

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga.—Saying “my kabalens are intelligent voters,” Filipinas Sampang, independent candidate for the 2nd district, believes she stands a chance against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the congressional race.

As one of three Kapampangans challenging Arroyo for the congressional seat, the 48-year-old Sampang said there is a “great opportunity of beating GMA because the people of the province are tired of her.”

“They can see through her motives. What GMA intends to do is an open secret. She wants to be a congresswoman to escape her legal problems,” she said.

Like some political analysts who have expressed fears that Arroyo is eyeing the speakership as a prelude to a constitutional change that would make her prime minister, Sampang said, “The perpetuity in power of one person is dangerous to our fragile democracy.”

Offering herself as an alternative choice to the electorate, she said:  “I have 25 years of public service, equipped with two master’s degrees in Management and in Public Administration. This is a moral crusade.”

Sampang, who has been seen campaigning with Bangon Pilipinas Party candidates led by Bro. Eddie Villanueva, offers a development agenda for the 2nd district of Pampanga. This includes economic self-sufficiency for indigenous peoples, infrastructure, livelihood and scholarships for the district’s six municipalities.

Lubao, hometown of Arroyo’s late father former president Diosdado Macapagal, has the biggest number of voters in the 2nd district: 73,536 registered voters in 44 barangays. The district has 277,825 registered voters from 159 barangays.

Aside from Sampang, the two other congressional hopefuls are Adonis Simpao of the Liberal Party and independent candidate Feliciano Serrano.

As the campaign period nears its homestretch, Arroyo had her first sortie in the 2nd district on April 24. She appeared before an assembly in Lubao in the company of close friend and ally, gubernatorial candidate Lilia Pineda, wife of alleged jueteng lord Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda.

Before announcing her candidacy, Arroyo was noted to have visited the 2nd district of Pampanga at least 50 times last year, bringing various “gifts” to her kabalen in the form of budgets for infrastructure, livelihood and other projects.

Sampang said there had been initial talks among the three on the possibility of uniting against Arroyo by coming up with a lone opposition candidate.

She said she was willing “to subsume personal interest for the sake of national interest in defeating GMA.” The talks, however, did not prosper.

Common Poster Areas. – Political parties, party-list groups, organizations and/or coalitions thereof, and independent candidates may, upon authority of the Commission, through the City or Municipal Election Officer (EO) concerned, erect, at their expenses, common poster areas wherein they can post, display, or exhibit their election propaganda to announce or further their candidacy subject to the following requirements and/or limitations:

1.   A common poster area does not refer to a post, a tree, the wall of a building or an existing public structure that is in active use, but a structure, the location and number of which are herein below determined, that is temporarily set up by the candidates or political parties for the exclusive purpose of displaying their campaign posters;….

6. The size of each common poster area shall not exceed the following dimensions:

f.1. For political parties and party-list groups – twelve (12) by sixteen (16) feet, or its equivalent but not exceeding a total area of 192 square feet; and

f.2. For independent candidates – four (4) by six (6) feet or its equivalent but not exceeding a total area of twenty four (24) square feet.

7.     The individual posters that may be posted in each common poster areas shall not exceed two (2) by three (3) feet. However, in case of space limitations, posters of candidates of political parties may be reduced to a uniform size to accommodate all candidates. This regulation is also violated by making single letters of names having the maximum size or lesser and then putting them together to form a size exceeding two (2) by three (3) feet;…

Joel Ocampo, a participant in the Citizen Journalism seminar-workshop organized by the Holy Rosary Parish in Angeles City, Pampanga sent us these photos.

But it doesn’t mean Mikey will be out of the House of Representatives.

It has been reported that Mikey is the first nominee of ” Ang Galing Pinoy,” the party-list group registered as representing the marginalized tricycle drivers and security guards.

Tonette Orejas, Pampanga correspondent of  The Philippine Daily Inquirer, sent us this photo with a note: “The name of ‘Ang Galing Pinoy’ has been on the tarpaulin of the Lakas-Kampi in Pampanga long before Mikey told reporters he was  ‘invited’ as a nominee of various party list groups.”

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga. –The Second Division of the Commission on Elections on Thursday declared former provincial board member Lilia Pineda won by 1,561 votes over Gov. Eddie Panlilio in the 2007 elections.

In an interview with Punto, Second Division chairman Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer stressed, however, that the decision was not immediately executory as the camp of Panlilio still had five days from today within which to submit a petition for reconsideration.

Panlilio’s lawyer Ernesto Francisco said he will file the petition Tuesday.

While members of the Pampanga Mayors’ League expressed jubilation over the Comelec decision, civil society groups have expressed concern.

Aur Broquil, chairperson of the Kilusan para sa Pampansang Demokrasya, accused the Comelec of bias in favor of Pineda, as she noted that Pineda and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are known to be close friends.

“It’s all part of a grand scheme of Mrs. Arroyo to install Pineda because that would work well for her plans to run for Congress in the second district,” she said.
At the Capitol here, Panlilio’s chief of staff Armando Vitug asked Panlilio’s supporters to start a prayer vigil earlier than the initially slated 7 p.m. at the Capitol grounds. Employees will reportedly wear black during the vigil. Otherwise, however, the atmosphere remained calm as news spread about the Comelec verdict at about 3:30 p.m. today.

The Second Division cited results of the recount of votes cast for governor in the 2007 polls indicating that Pineda got 190,279 votes as against Panlilio’s 188,718.

The recount, completed in September, arose from the electoral protest filed by Pineda after the Comelec proclaimed that Panlilio won over her by 1,145 votes in the 2007 gubernatorial elections.

Ferrer said in the interview that while the verdict ordered the ouster of Panlilio, Pineda could not take over the governor’s post unless Panlilio fails to submit any petition for reconsideration within five days.

“Also, the decision can not be enforced without any writ of execution from the division,” he said. The petition for reconsideration would then be submitted to the Comelec en banc for decision.

Ferrer also said the en banc’s verdict could also be appealed before the Supreme Court. Asked whether supporters of Panlilio should expect immediate takeover of the gubernatorial post, he emphatically replied, “No.”

In an interview, however, Pineda’s lawyer George Garcia said he would immediately file a petition for a writ of execution of the Comelec decision. He said the Supreme Court has recently been approving such petitions so as not to deprive a candidate such as Pineda of what remains of her term.

Meanwhile, Broquil debunked the allegations Pineda made in her electoral complaint that Panlilio committed anomalies in the 2007 polls.

She noted that Pineda had vast resources when she ran as candidate of the administration Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi Party), while Panlilio, who had just resigned from being parish priest of Betis in Guagua town, was an independent candidate without resources.

During the last elections, the Pampanga Mayors’ League (PML) also backed Pineda as the league’s president is her son, Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda.

Panlilio is seeking reelection as the official candidate of the Liberal Party in the May polls while Pineda is running anew for governor as candidate of the administration Lakas-Kampi-CMD party.

Pineda is the wife of Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda, who was tagged as a big time gambling lord during the Senate trial on the plunder charges against former President Estrada.