Julius Rocas

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PEO­PLES' INTER­NA­TIONAL OBSERVERS MISSION

NEWS RELEASE

May 16, 2007

Ref­er­ence: Johan Fobbelets, Spokesper­son, IOM Quezon team +639204441342 or +639206700864

Young poll­watcher threat­ened by sus­pected mil­i­tary agents,
Brings com­plaint to for­eign observers

QUEZON PROVINCE ―Foreign observers expressed con­cern over the harass­ment of young poll watch­ers by sus­pected mil­i­tary agents in Sari­aya, Quezon province,

Irene Anoso, a nineteen-​year old poll­watcher of Kabataan (Youth) party list in Brgy. Pobla­cion, Sari­aya, com­plained to mem­bers of the People's Inter­na­tional Observers Mis­sion (IOM) team in Quezon about being pro­filed, pur­sued, and sent mali­cious text mes­sages by sus­pected mil­i­tary agents.

Anoso told the team that men in mil­i­tary hair­cut but wear­ing civil­ian clothes started taking pic­tures and videos of poll­watch­ers in precincts in Brgy. Pobla­cion at around 8:00 a.m. last May 14. These men car­ried dubi­ous Com­mis­sion on Elec­tion (Com­elec) IDs lack­ing basic infor­ma­tion, such as names, pic­tures, and autho­rized signatures.

When she and another Kabataan Party-​list poll­watcher were on their way home that night in Sari­aya, a red car with a gov­ern­ment plate kept side­track­ing the tri­cy­cle they were riding on. They were trailed for about an hour by the said vehi­cle. At around 7:42 pm that day, Anoso received a text mes­sage that read: "Kamusta ang bin­a­ban­tayan mo na party-​list ng NPA?" (How is the NPA party-​list that you are watch­ing for?)

She received sim­i­lar reports that men in motor­cy­cles were roam­ing around that night, look­ing for Kabataan pollwatchers.

Kabataan party list is among the pro­gres­sive party-​lists being dis­cred­ited by the Arroyo admin­is­tra­tion and by ele­ments of the 74th and 76th Infantry Brigade of the Philip­pine Army deployed in Quezon as "front orga­ni­za­tions" of the Com­mu­nist Party of the Philippines-​New People's Army.

In the IOM teams' travel across Quezon province, inter­na­tional observers noted the pro­lif­er­a­tion of black pro­pa­ganda against pro­gres­sive party-​lists Bayan Muna (People First), Anakpawis (Toil­ing Masses), and Gabriela Women's Party.

"Slo­gans malign­ing pro­gres­sive party-​lists, usu­ally painted on sacks or over cam­paign posters, are usu­ally found in areas near mil­i­tary detach­ments," said Johan Fobbelets, a trade union leader from Bel­gium and spokesper­son of IOM Quezon team.

He added that such tes­ti­monies and obser­va­tions only con­firmed reports of sys­tem­atic efforts by the Armed Forces of the Philip­pines to pre­vent pro­gres­sive party-​lists from gain­ing con­gres­sional seats through black pro­pa­ganda, threats, and actual violence.

"The attacks against pro­gres­sive party-​lists tend to show that the Philip­pine elec­tions is an exer­cise in silenc­ing the voices of the mar­gin­al­ized, rather than that of democ­racy ," said Fobbelets. ###