Issues

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/02 November) -- The appointment of Moslemen Macarambon, Sr. to the Commission on Elections has been met with mixed reactions from various civil society groups.

So divided are the views of civil society that a fiery whistleblower is willing to stand by him before the Commission on Appointments while others see his appointment as another attempt of Malacanang to control the election process.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/02 November) – President Arroyo has named Moslemen Macarambon, Sr., to the Commission on Election, to fill in one of two seats vacated by Mehol Sadain and resigned Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos.

Macarambon, whose curriculum vitae shows he served as executive assistant of the Senate Electoral Tribunal from 1988 to 1989 and was appointed by President Arroyo as presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court in Iligan City on October 3, 2003, was not on the shortlist Malacanang submitted earlier for the poll body for comment.

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/29 July) -- Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III will formally file Monday a formal complaint with the Senate  Electoral Tribunal (SET) questioning the proclamation of Juan Miguel  Zubiri as the 12th winning senatorial candidate.

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/12 June) – The police regional director in Southwestern Mindanao has ordered a thorough probe on the killing last Saturday of an alleged whistleblower of electoral fraud in Pagalungan, Maguindanao.

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/09 June) – The election supervisor of South Cotabato finally broke her silence over accusations she was involved in a dagdag-bawas (vote-padding/vote-shaving) operation that allegedly decreased the number of votes for opposition senatorial candidate Aquilino Pimentel III.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 May) -- The move of Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. urging the relief of Commission on Elections Region-11 director Remlane Tambuang is "totally drastic, unfair and against all rules about due process," a Comelec-11 official said.

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao (MindaNews/17 May) – GMA-7 reporter Raffy Tima and his crew were not allowed to enter the provincial capitol compound Wednesday to cover the canvassing of votes from the province’s 22 towns.

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/17 May) -- The Diocese of Kidapawan has lauded all volunteers of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), National Secretariat for Social Action (Nassa) and the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) for participating in the quick count all over the diocese.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/16 May) -- He may beat all the boxers from all over the world in his division, but in the political arena, Manny Pacquiao is just no match to a diminutive lady several pounds less than his weight.

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/16 May) -- Contrary to expectations, the election for the governorship of Bukidnon turned out to be a lopsided contest between the incumbent, Jose Ma. R. Zubiri Jr., and Juan Romeo Nereus O. Acosta, the three-term representative of the province's first district. As of today (May 16), initial results of the counting that trickled in from different municipalities indicated that Zubiri is well on his way to a third term. In some precincts in the third district, the governor's bailiwick, Acosta even failed to get a single vote.

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/16 May) -  An administration mayoral candidate in T'boli, South Cotabato has lodged a complaint before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) here over the alleged massive vote-buying committed by the camp of the town's incumbent chief executive.

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/15 May) --  Somsri Hananuntasuk of Thailand,
the executive director of the Asian Network for Free Elections (Anfrel) has had several encounters with armed men in her monitoring of human rights violations and in the conduct of elections in various places, including Afghanistan. But seeing so many heavily-armed men on election day in Matanog, Shariff Kabunsuan, the muzzle of the their long firearms not pointed down,  some people “acting like a warlord” and the feeling there might be war there, .was “worse than Afghanistan,” she said.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/15 May) --  The conduct of elections in Southeastern Mindanao was "generally peaceful and orderly" but “disorderly at the precinct level” owing to voters' confusion, a Commission on Elections official said.

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao (MindaNews/14 May) --  Voting in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was generally peaceful but  problems of statistical improbability and multiple registrants continue to hound the electoral process in an area being referred to as “cheating region.”

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao (MindaNews/14 May) – ARMM Governor Datu Zaldy Ampatuan stepped out of the Shariff Aguak Central Elementary School at around 9 this morning only to return through the main gate as former Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong, a relative who is seeking reelection as representative of the second district of Maguindanao, arrived with his wife to cast their votes.

MARAWI CITY (MindaNews/14 May) -- Gunmen, the presence of flying voters and threats of ballot snatching forced poll officials to declare a failure of election in 11 towns of Lanao del Sur.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/14 May) -- Failure of elections was declared in 19 towns in Mindanao, mostly in Lanao del Sur, according to a report from the Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo)-initiated Kalinaw Mindanao election monitoring here.

SURALLAH, South Cotabato (MindaNews/14 May) -- After more than four decades of waiting, residents of barangay Ned in Lake Sebu will now experience how the votes they cast during elections are actually counted.    

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/14 May) – Who has the right to get the copy of election returns for the ruling Lakas- Christian Muslim Democrats and the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) here?

MONKAYO, Compostela Valley (MindaNews/14 May)—A village official here was reprimanded by election authorities for allegedly hanging around with his supporters in a polling center at the height of Monday’s voting as police declared the town’s conduct of the national and local polls as “generally peaceful.”

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/14 May) -- The election campaign officially ended midnight Saturday. But for many local candidates, the real crunch time had come. The relative silence that filled the city's streets after days of noise caused by campaign jingles that competed for voters' attention simply meant that the contest had shifted to another arena. Except for the trickles of disniformation spread by one group to confuse the other, the propaganda war had ended. It was time for the final push.

The final push was vote-buying which, as expected, took place on the eve of Election Day.

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews) – If the increase in number of Lanao del Sur’s registered voters is statistically improbable, a convenor of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) here wants the Commission on Elections to explain why Iligan City’s number of registered voters has decreased from 163,265 in 2004 to 149,246 in 2007.

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/14 May) -- The conduct of the elections in South Cotabato was generally peaceful but the Commission on Elections was plagued with complaints on alleged vote buying, harassment, cheating and the usual voters’ complaint that they could not find their names in their precincts.

KORONADAL CITY  (MindaNews/14 May) -- A shortage of  indelible ink and other election materials and the late arrival of poll clerks delayed the opening of  several polling precincts here this morning, triggering confusion among voters in some parts of the city and nearby towns of South Cotabato.

LUTAYAN, Sultan Kudarat (MindaNews/14 May) – Where have all the watchers gone? 

The Board of Election Inspectors opened the precincts for voting at 7 a.m. but no volunteer of election watchdog National Movement for Free Elections was around to monitor the voting in this bailiwick of the Mangudadatus.

Philippine Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) - Archdiocese of Cotabato, Rosary Heights Parish Church, Ramon Rabago Street, Cotabato City

ARMM ELection Monitoring Report, May 14, 2007 

(As of 1:00 p.m.)

8:45 am

Two bombs exploded in Brgy. Dalican, Datu Odin Sinsuat at about 7:10 a.m. outside a residential house and outside the premises of the Dalican Pilot Elementary School. No one was reported injured. PNP-ARMM Chief Superintendent Gen. Joel Goltiao, in an interview over DXMS, said the bombs were intended to harass, “nananakot lang”. The bomb explosions however did not affect the conduct of elections.

MARAWI CITY (MindaNews/13 May) -- Non-government organizations here expressed alarm today over the significant increase in the number of registered voters in Lanao del Sur who will troop to the polls on Monday.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/13 May) -- Delays in the shipment of election paraphernalia, alleged inaccessibility of Comelec officials, and a questionable alteration of members of boards of election inspectors have tainted the run-up to the polls tomorrow. 

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/13 May) -- Eduardo Dastas and his family live in a house here walled by roofing sheets they borrowed from somebody. They squat on the land along with at least five other households.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/12 May) -- A delegation from the International Observers Mission 2007 is expected to arrive Sunday in Compostela Valley to monitor the May 14 elections, local hosts announced.

In the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, 21 poll observers from six countries have been deployed for tomorrow's polls. 

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/12 May) -- Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. today said hundreds of ballot boxes containing prefabricated election returns favoring Team Unity candidates have been intercepted by volunteers of Genuine Opposition.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/12 May) – The Commission on Elections will not act on reports of rampant vote-buying “unless a complaint is formally filed at the City Prosecution Office,” Melcar Unso, Comelec spokesperson for Southeastern Mindanao, said in a press conference Friday at the Task Force Davao headquarters.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/12 May) – The National Democratic Front has urged the Commission on Elections to "oppose and frustrate" schemes for election fraud and instead "stand up for truth and integrity", an NDF official said. 

BUKIDNON (MindaNews/11 May) – He waited three and a half hours to deliver his 18-minute speech at the rally of “Bando Garcillano, Bando Albarece” at the Damilag gym in Manolo Fortich Monday night.

When he went up the stage, former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano started (as he always does, he told MindaNews) with the “Hello Garci” controversy to “attract their attention.”

BUKIDNON (MindaNews/10 May) – Visitors to Virgilio Garcillano’s farm in Baungon, Bukidnon have to travel some 16 kilometers of rough road but visitors he still has plenty,  including potential voters demanding money but whom he sent away that Monday morning, he said, without cash and with an advice not to vote for him.