JEDDAH, 28 May 2004 — The clear cheating that has taken place in the May 10 elections is finally bubbling to the surface with the current joint session of Congress, who are sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, or NBC.
The first two days of discussions, shown live on the ANC news channel, were sedate except for the outburst caused by a visitor in the public gallery who on Wednesday passed a note to opposition Rep. Didagen Dilangalen telling him to shut up as he was wasting taxpayer’s money. Thankfully, the woman was ejected with her daughter, who it turned out were, unsurprisingly, die-hard President Gloria Arroyo supporters.
The joint session was momentarily suspended after Dilangalen showed, while interpellating, that election returns from a certain barangay in District 1 of Cebu City were tampered with, changing President Arroyo’s tally from 41 to 140, and Fernando Poe Jr.’s from 13 to 14. He then said that Speaker of the House Jose de Venecia was avoiding the truth and trying to cover up for President Arroyo. That is when he said: “Klarong-klaro and pandaraya! (The cheating is crystal-clear!)”
Before this accusation was hurled at the administration, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel gave a very lucid and intelligent explanation of why the NBC should be given the power to dig deeper than just the certificates of canvass, which he claimed would not show the real extent of vote manipulation.
The administration’s main attack bully, Sen. Joker Arroyo, on Wednesday complained that it would take the NBC almost three-and-half-months if each member were allowed to examine the 176 certificates of canvass (CoCs). Now the administration lawmakers are pushing for a quicker count by committee, while the opposition says that whole NBC should be allowed to examine the CoCs.
I really believe that it is the duty of the NBC to look into all charges of vote manipulation and fraud thoroughly, and not just be a rubber stamp for the Commission on Elections.
As Pimentel said on Thursday, the administration politicians should not ram down the throats of the opposition rules concerning the canvass of the votes. Doing so will only leave the impression that the Arroyo administration has something to hide. For the results of the May 10 elections to have legitimacy in the eyes of the Philippine public, and in the eyes of the world, all vote counting irregularities have to be looked into. Even if it takes the NBC three months to check all anomalies, then so be it.
I know that many of you will protest that it’s not the NBC’s role to look into election anomalies, claiming that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal is better suited to look into such cases. I hold that the NBC has the right to look further into election returns that bear suspicious erasures. If they don’t, then complaints get sent to the SET and are quickly forgotten by the public.
The Continued Abuse of Pinay Maids
Filipino women who work abroad as domestic helpers continue to be the most vulnerable of overseas Filipino workers. The news this week that the Department of Foreign Affairs is sending a team to Beirut, Lebanon, to investigate the suspicious deaths of three Filipino maids there, brought that point home again.
All three victims, Louella Montenegro who died Feb. 24, Catherine Bautista who died on May 3, and an unnamed third victim who died on May 16, fell to their deaths while trying to escape from their abusive employers. In Bautista’s case, her family claims that she was told by the daughter of former Ambassador Roy Se?eres to go to the Philippine Embassy in Beirut and await further instructions. Unfortunately for Bautista, embassy officials told her to return to her employer. Shortly afterward, Bautista fell to her death while attempting another escape.
The Lebanese police have agreed to reopen her case upon pressure from the Philippine government, and have launched a criminal investigation after National Bureau of Investigation examiners in the Philippines said that Bautista had a head fracture due to clubbing and not from a fall.
The DFA team should make sure that criminal charges are filed against all three sets of employers, and they should find out who at the Philippine Embassy told Bautista to return to her employer. Already, embassy officials are playing a game of “I’m not to blame.” Labor Attaché Alicia Santos told INQ7.net that she had already been transferred to Rome, Italy, when the whole Bautista incident took place. She pointed the finger to the current labor attaché in Lebanon, Mrs. Liddy Ta?edo.
The DFA should make it their policy not to force runaway maids to return to abusive employers. If no reconciliation can be achieved, or if there is any doubt as to the continued safety of the maid if she returns to work, the maid should be sent back to the Philippines. Abusive employers treat their maids as modern day slaves, locking them in, not giving them a day off, and sometimes beating and sexually abusing them. Not covered by labor laws, maids have little legal recourse to complain about 18-hour workdays and delayed salaries. The least that Philippine missions abroad can do for them is provide with them refuge and help them return home.
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