U.S. SENATOR, '86 SNAP POLL OBSERVER, TO MONITOR RP MAY POLLS
MANILA, February 19, 2004 (STAR) By Marichu Villanueva - Malacañang welcomes a group of international observers led by United States Sen. Richard Lugar to come to the Philippines and observe the conduct of the May elections, officials said yesterday.Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, in a letter to Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos dated Jan. 28, said President Arroyo has allowed representatives from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to monitor the elections.
Malacañang released a copy of Romulo’s letter, as well as Abalos’ response dated Feb. 16, yesterday.
Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye told the government-run Radyo ng Bayan that the NDI wrote a letter to Romulo expressing their "group’s interest to participate in the elections here as a monitoring team."
Romulo merely "endorsed" the NDI’s request to the Comelec, he added.
Bunye noted that Lugar led a team of US observers during the February 1986 elections when the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos ran for re-election against Corazon Aquino.
He said it was Lugar who, upon returning to the US, denounced the alleged massive cheating during the 1986 snap election.
A breakaway group led by former defense secretary Juan Ponce Enrile confirmed the electoral fraud that triggered the EDSA I revolt, and soon Washington called to tell the beleaguered Marcos to "cut and cut clean."
Enrile is now one of the senatorial candidates of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP), whose standard-bearer is actor Fernando Poe Jr. Poe is the bosom buddy of another ousted president, Joseph Estrada, who is being detained on graft charges.
"This is the same group that is expressing intent to send a monitoring team and this expression of interest has been sent by Romulo to the Comelec," Bunye said.
He added that the NDI told Romulo that it will consult with the International Republican Institute and the Carter Center "so that they could form a delegation that would be multi-national and bi-partisan."
Citing Mrs. Arroyo’s desire to ensure that honest, orderly and peaceful elections are held on May 10, Romulo informed Abalos that the NDI was seeking an audience with the Comelec to coordinate their activities with the poll body.
"We believe that the presence of international observers will help ensure integrity, transparency, impartiality and credibility in the electoral process, a bedrock of Philippine democracy," Romulo said.
He cited that international election monitoring is already being practiced in many countries — including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, Peru, Venezuela and Pakistan.
"To ensure the success of this undertaking, the objective of which lies at the very core of the (Comelec’s) mandate, the international delegation will coordinate and need the cooperation of the Comelec," Romulo told Abalos.
Abalos, for his part, expressed the Comelec’s willingness to work with the NDI delegation led by Lugar.
"Indeed, the presence of international observers will send a message to the world that democracy in the Philippines, while relatively young, puts absolutely no one above the sacred process of election, and that leaders are chosen only by the genuine will of the people," Abalos told Romulo.
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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