By Citizen Journalists-Pampanga
SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga. — Traditional politics and trash.
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.