Party List Fraud?

Posted by Luz Rimban, PCIJ

 

THE Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao became a source of votes not just for president, but also for some party-list groups.

Hints that party-list votes were being manipulated appeared in the conversation between Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and a certain Ruben on June 7, 2004, and the conversation between Garcillano and an unidentified man on June 14:

Conversation between Gary and an unidentified man on 14 07:45 hotel June '04

Gary: Hello.

Man: Padre. Kelan mag-ano yung sa party-list?

Gary: Ina-ano ko pa, wala pa kahit isa after the 23 na mapoproclaim. Ang mauna siguro tong     ALIF (?).  Pero gusto ko masabay-sabay. Kung may tatlo, apat, sabay-sabay na yan.

Man: Oo dapat ganun.

Gary: Pero pipilitin ko Padre.

As it turned out, ALIF (Ang Laban ng Indiginong Filipino), a first-time party-list group, garnered the most number of votes in ARMM based on the Comelec's Party List Canvass Report No. 20 at 176,034 votes, almost enough to guarantee it a seat in Congress. And from just four provinces.

What is ALIF and what's wrong with it? In a petition filed more than a year ago on May 26, 2004, the party-list group Partido ng Manggawa had already asked the Commisison on Elections to disqualify ALIF, among other party-list organizations.

The PM petition says:

 "The party-list ALIF must be disqualified for failure to comply with the seventh guideline of the Supreme Court (# 7: Not only the candidate party or organization must represent marginalized and underrepresented sectors; so also must its nominees). Its nominee, Acmad Tomawis, is a big businessman engaged in overseas contracts, particularly trucking services in Iraq; he is likewise the brother of Ambassador Jerry Tomawis who currently holds a post in a country in the Middle East. The nominee, ALIF, cannot be considered as marginalized and underrepresented."

Jerry Tomawis does not appear in the current roster of Ambassadors although he was once an assemblyman. The party-list nominee, Acmad Tomawis, though, was himself a former government official, having been executive director of the Office of Muslim Affairs. Acmad Tomawis now sits as a member of the House of Representative.

Another petition filed by the party-list group Citizens' Battle Against Corruption, on the other hand, pointed out discrepancies in the Certificates of Canvass (COCs) and Statement of Votes (SOV) in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Tawi-tawi that the group said cast doubt on the votes these party-list groups garnered.

• In Lanao del Sur, the total number of votes for cast for the top 20 party-list groups was 100.3% of the total number of registered voters. In other words, there were more party-list voters than there were registered voters. 
• In Maguindanao, the total votes cast for party-list was placed at 283,012 out of a total of 334,331 registered voters, equvalent to a high turn out of 84.65%
•  In Tawi-tawi, the total number of votes for party-list was 76,334 out of 120,402 registered voters, or a turn out of 63.4%

Even before the May 2004 elections, survey groups had been predicting a low party-list turn out because Filipinos were still unfamiliar and unaware of the party-list system. This is why the CIBAC petition alleges that the 84% turnout in Maguindanao, and the 63% turnout in Tawi-tawi are statistically impossible. The Lanao del Sur turnout of 100.3%, the group says, is downright absurd.

How can the party-list groups in ARMM have such a huge following when in Quezon City, headquarters of some of the party-list groups like Akbayan and Bayan Muna, and focus of intense election propaganda, the turnout of party-list votes, according to the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER), was only 35%?