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PRESIDENT Arroyo on Tuesday hinted at an openness to the
postponement of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
(ARMM) elections, set on August 11, on the assumption it
would give peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front “an opportunity to succeed.”
Press
Secretary Jesus Dureza said Tuesday via telephone after
the Cabinet meeting in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao,
that the President had consulted ARMM stakeholders and
local officials.
He added
this was because of “a consensus that [the stakeholders]
would seek a postponement of the forthcoming August 11
ARMM elections.”
Several
senators, however, are not keen on supporting President
Arroyo’s proposal to suspend the elections.
Senate
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. expects an
exhaustive debate in both chambers of Congress over the
Palace plan to defer it. “It’s a bad idea to postpone
elections because you lengthen the term of those who
don’t deserve it and then you deny good people the
chance of being elected to public positions,” Pimentel
said.
Other
senators also cited lack of time to pass an amending law
that would push back the scheduled regional elections
set next month.
Even
administration Sen. Richard Gordon, who chairs the
Senate electoral reforms committee, strongly opposed the
poll-deferment plan, arguing that the process has
already been put in place, including the testing of the
automated elections system that would serve as a dry run
for full automation of the 2010 presidential elections.
“I am
totally against the postponement of ARMM elections.
Congress has already set a date for the ARMM elections
and only Congress can reset the date of the ARMM
elections,” he said.
He also
noted that the Commission on Elections is a
constitutional and independent body that should not be
dictated upon, even by the President. “The Comelec is
already ready. We should go through with it as scheduled
as it is not only important to ARMM but also to the
entire country. The automated elections in ARMM will
pave the way for clean, honest and orderly elections in
2010 and beyond.”
Besides
Pimentel and Gordon, other senators who objected to the
postponement are Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy
Estrada, Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan and Sens.
Francis Escudero and Pia Cayetano-Sebastian.
Pangilinan pointed out that the Palace decision to call
for the poll postponement is “ill advised,” warning that
“it creates a perception that the government is weak and
incapable of getting things done and making things
happen.”
Only
Sen. Panfilo Lacson backed Mrs. Arroyo’s call, saying
postponement “may be a well-advised practical move
considering the country’s difficult times as well as the
reported food shortage in Mindanao.”
Dureza
said the postponement is meant “...to give some space
for the peace process to succeed since we reached a
strategic threshold of coming out with a settlement on
the ancestral domain issue.”
Sought
for comment, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said, “It
is really the call of Congress; it is up to the Senate
and House of Representatives to look into that matter.”
Jimenez
added, “But I personally believe that these elections in
the ARMM are not only for ARMM.... They are in
preparation for 2010. We should go into this as soon as
possible.”
Dureza
said a bill seeking to reset the August 11 elections
will have as principal authors Reps. Datu Pax
Mangudadatu of Sultan Kudarat, Nur Jaafar of Tawi-Tawi,
and Yusop Jikiri of Sulu at the House; and Sen. Juan
Miguel Zubiri at the Senate.
“We will
leave, therefore, to the good judgment of Congress the
final decision as to whether or not a postponement would
be approved,” he said.
The
President was scheduled to proclaim administration
candidates in the ARMM polls in Datu Odin Sinsuat on
Monday night, but it was scrapped early Tuesday morning
to give way to discussions on the postponement.
Dureza
said chief peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and
government peace panel chairman Rodolfo Garcia
principally recommended the move to the President.
Asked
how the postponement of the polls would help the peace
process, Dureza said, “It will provide an open
opportunity for the peace process, for the negotiations
to move in the next stages” because pushing through with
the August 11 polls would mean that “a new [group of
elected officials] will be sitting after” the election
and there will be a “constricted transition period,”
that could delay a possible final peace agreement.
Reacting
to the comment of Speaker Prospero Nograles that it may
be too late to postpone the elections, Dureza said
Malacañang realizes this but will still pursue its
resetting.
Last
week, government and MILF panels hurdled the final
obstacle to formal peace negotiations by resolving
differences over the ancestral domain issue, the
thorniest in the peace talks.
In her
speech at the launch of the Katas ng Vat program to
upgrade primary provincial hospitals in Datu Odin
Sinsuat, the President announced the Philippines is “on
the threshold of peace” following the successful
executive session on the ancestral domain issue in Kuala
Lumpur last week.
Comelec
Chairman Jose Melo said on Tuesday they were satisfied
with the outcome of Tuesday’s mock elections for the
ARMM, held in Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Maguindanao,
Lanao del Sur, and Shariff Kabunsuan to test the
automated machines to be used.
“The
results are okay; we are very satisfied with the results
of the elections,” Melo said in a press briefing. “We
hope we will have the same kind of peaceful elections on
August 11.”
Jimenez
said 50 voters voted in the test to vote for officials
but using names of famous Hollywood stars.
“The
election process, as a whole, was fast because of
advanced technology used. . .In less than an hour the
results were already known,” said Jimenez.
The
Comelec will use two types for the mock polls—direct
recording electronic (DRE) units and optical mark
readers (OMR). The OMR machines use paper ballots to be
filled out by voters and then fed into a machine while
the DRE units use touch pads and touch screens. (With
Butch Fernandez and TJ Agcaoili) |
