INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

LP, party-list groups form alliance

Inquirer

Dona Pazzibugan

MANILA, Philippines -- To make up for its lack of poll watchers nationwide, the Genuine Opposition (GO) has entered into a post-election alliance with Bayan Muna (Nation First) and four other leftwing party-list groups to monitor the votes of its senatorial candidates for them.

Bayan Muna and affiliated party-list groups Anakpawis, Gabriela, Suara Bangsamoro and Kabataan had formed their own Task Force Poll Watch 2007 to conduct a parallel count of the party-list elections and guard their votes.

They, however, expanded their private canvass to include not only the GO’s 11 senatorial candidates but the administration’s 12 TEAM Unity and two independent candidates as well.

GO and Bayan Muna reached an agreement on a common front against election fraud because GO did not have the thousands of poll watchers Bayan Muna does, while Bayan Muna did not have access to official election results.

“There was a mutuality of interest between GO and the Task Force. We give them access to election documents, appoint them as watchers, and they give us the protection we need,” said Renato Constantino Jr., an aide to GO campaign manager Sen. Sergio Osmeña III.

“With this relationship, we are able to protect the votes,” Constantino said.

Nathaniel Santiago, Bayan Muna secretary general, said the party-list groups entered earlier into an agreement with the Liberal Party (LP) where the party-list groups would receive the official copies of election returns (ERs) and certificates of canvass (COCs) in cities and municipalities where the LP had no presence.

The Commission on Elections had declared the LP headed by Sen. Franklin Drilon as the dominant minority political party in this election, which entitled the party to receive an official copy of all election results.

The LP and the United Opposition (UNO) party headed by Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay joined forces with other political groups to field a common senatorial slate under the GO coalition.

“We have an arrangement that in areas where the LP has no candidates or watchers and the GO candidates also have no watchers, we’ll get the ERs and COCs and monitor the canvassing. Then we’ll compare notes,” Santiago said.

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