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PHILIPPINES: Arroyo faces churches' quest for 'politics of change'
"We should remain vigilant and not leave the political exercise to politicians alone," the Rev. Rex Reyes, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, told Ecumenical News International on March 3.
Reyes cited a March 1 report by the Philippine Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, a watchdog backed by the Roman Catholic Church, which said it had uncovered more than 40,000 "double registrations" and "ghost voters," in Davao City and Davao del Sur in the southern Philippines.
The council said the discovery is just "a tip of the iceberg," and Reyes said therefore it must "make us work and push for a politics of change because electoral reforms are still a long way off."
Citing a former election commissioner's revelation, retired Catholic Archbishop Oscar Cruz of the Lingayen archdiocese told ENI there are "padded lists" of voters for 2010 bloating the roll by up to five million. That figure, he said, could be more than enough to overturn the result of the election.
Election commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, however, denied any double registration of voters. He told reporters that the pastoral council may have got a tentative voters' list and not the final one. The Catholic council's lawyer, Howard Calleja, insisted, however that his organization received the final list. Larrazabal then pledged to investigate the matter.
The election commission has given an assurance that the 2010 election will be credible, because, for the first time, it will be automated and specially designed ballots will be counted by computers.
But the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, the Catholic Pastoral Council and other independent poll-watch groups say they won't lower their guard. Reyes said there remains a threat that "those in power will undermine the electoral process."
Some of those who share his perception allude to the victory of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004 as being highly questionable.
Others note an irony that Arroyo was supported by church leaders like the late Cardinal Jaime Sin in a "people power" uprising against former president Joseph Estrada in 2001 after he was accused of plundering national resources and being a heavy gambler. Arroyo, then the vice president, was sworn in as president in January 2001 and ran for re-election in 2004.
Protestant and Catholic organizations are united in supporting voter education drives, the push for selection criteria in choosing candidates, and an end to the use of bribes and guns to get votes.
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