What’s up in ARMM?

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Written by Ambassador Henrietta de Villa

Was there ever a permanence in the holding of elections in ARMM?  Since February 1990 when the first Regional Governor was elected, elections in the region have been postponed eight times.  What seems to be the only permanent thing in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao when it comes to elections is that the Central Government always calls the shots.

NSO lists 4.2 million as the population of ARMM with 1.5 million of this as registered voters.  A drop in the bucket of some 90 million Filipinos out of which over 50 million are registered voters.  Yet during national and local elections the ARMM command votes can rewrite the entire election results of the country.  The PPCRV has pitched its tent with our Muslim brothers and sisters through a Coalition it forged with 15 Bangsamoro civil society organizations.  Our Coalition is intent on helping change what the Muslim religious leaders bewail as the perception that “the ARMM is the cheating capital of elections in the Philippines.”

Why are elections in ARMM so contentious, so fraud ridden?  I covered two elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao – in Lanao del Sur and Marawi City for the 2007 national and local elections, and in Maguindanao in the 2008 ARMM regional elections. It is an understatement to say I was shocked to the bone with what I saw and heard and experienced.  PPCRV has been on the job of giving voters’ education and monitoring the conduct of elections for close to twenty years.  We have participated in 23 electoral exercises as the Comelec’s Citizen’s Arm.  And so I thought I knew all forms of cheating, intimidation and life threatening assaults to the sanctity of the ballot and the free choice of the voter.  But when I got to ARMM and came face to face with the grossest election fraud – vote buying, under age voting, “hakot” of flying voters being transferred from precinct to precinct, grenade rolling past me, snatching of ballot boxes like these were trash cans to be thrown out and burned, bombing the roof off a voting center, fist blows above my head, shoot outs with guns blaring and goons flying high (all in broad daylight) – my mind was in a rage and my heart in tears.  Was this the Philippines?  Where have justice and truth, love and peace gone?  Aren’t elections supposed to be a rational peaceful search for good competent men and women who will serve the people, the nation, and God? 

Going back to the basics, PPCRV and our Coalition partners are pro-actively intensifying voters’ education which includes understanding the context which situates politics in the region.  We are bent on motivating and training anew our pollwatchers thoroughly on the electoral process, including the AES (Automated Election System).  Our roadmap continuously identifies the challenges or Key Result Areas that PPCRV and our partners must strategically address, such as  . . .

• Flawed Computerized Voters List – abounding with dead registrants, under-age registrants, multi registrants
• Proliferation of Private Armies –  abounding with guns, goons, gold 
• Election Operators – abounding ad-intra and ad-extra

Now that the Supreme Court has come out with the decision favoring synchronization of the ARMM polls with the 2013 national and local elections, and the appointment by President Aquino of OICs for the interim period, PPCRV has a wish list for the ARMM  . . .

• Thorough cleansing of the Computerized Voters’ List
• Registration with biometrics of all ARMM voters
• Use of a device that identifies the voter through his/her fingerprint during elections
• Thorough housecleaning re-Comelec field officers in the region
• OICs appointed by the President to voluntarily inhibit themselves from running in the 2013 polls
• Serious campaign to dismantle private armies without fear or favor
• Complete gun ban in the region without exceptions during the election period
• Systematic voters’ education by involved election stakeholders in the region supported by Comelec and secured by AFP/PNP   

What’s up in ARMM?

My inroads into its political history brought me face to face with a bedrock where power in the hands of a few breeds grinding poverty in the lives of so many. In spite of billions of pesos poured out into the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, from the Central Government and foreign funders, still the majority of its people are poor, underdeveloped in body, mind and will.  Their daily grind is running from one refugee center to another, from one warlord to the next, Unending incidence of progressive poverty cannot be their fate forever.  Elections can change this. The outrageous reality that there are those entrusted with governance whose greed for power and money use and manipulate the very people they are to serve for their own selfish ends cannot be a permanent situation. Elections can change this.  

Whatever is up in ARMM, PPCRV moves on offering and seeking CHAMP – Clean Honest Accurate Meaningful Peaceful – Elections. 

“Hope is she who always begins.”