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We support the call of the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines on the people to organize themselves
effectively and work to ensure that this year’s elections become
as honest, credible and free from violence as possible.
Said the CBCP in a pastoral
letter read at Masses on Sunday January 28: “These coming
elections in May 2007 are especially important. Many of our current
political problems, which have hindered fuller economic development
and social justice, especially for the poor, can be traced to
unresolved questions concerning the conduct of past elections. As a
nation, we cannot afford yet another controversial exercise that
further aggravates social distrust and hopelessness.”
In response to this call various
Catholic-Church-related groups have formed a movement—VforCE, or
“Volunteers for Clean Elections.” Their task is to gather, train
and mobilize 1 million volunteers who will serve in various
capacities under the 11 (and perhaps more) support groups that have
formed the nationwide backbone of the Comelec-accredited citizens’
watchdog Namfrel (the National Movement for Free Elections) and the
PPCRV (the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting).
Among these support groups that
are Namfrel’s and PPCRV’s source of manpower and skills are
Pinoy Bantay Bayan, an Ateneo and Jesuit-community initiative; the
Bantay Eleksyon ’07-People’s Coalition to Monitor 2007 Election;
the Makati Business Club; Lente, or the Legal Network for Truthful
Elections, which is the first nationwide network of lawyers, law
students, paralegals and other volunteers trained to monitor
election matters and activities; the CBCP’s NASSA, or National
Secretariat for Social Action; the Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan,
another Jesuit undertaking; One Voice Para sa Tunay na Pagbabago,
which became the nemesis of the Supreme Court-rejected people’s
initiative effort to change the Philippine Constitution; the
Integrated Bar of the Philippines; and the movement Pera’t
Pulitika.
As of today, VforCE and its
component groups have already 500,000 volunteers. They need another
half a million good Filipinos throughout the archipelago to man
their chapters in each of the 300,000 precincts and 1,600 canvassing
points.
What the patriotic volunteers
will do
VforCE’s main task is to help
protect the integrity of the elections by fighting fraud and
violence. It is also committed to working for lasting political and
social reform.
Since the volunteers are its
working arms, they will be assigned to work in the areas of (1)
Voter education and engagement in the reform effort. (2) Poll
watching on election day. (3) Citizens’ vote count (the work of
Namfrel, with support from PPCRV and NASSA). (4) Canvassing watch,
to be done by lawyers, paralegals, auditors and others specifically
trained to assist the LENTE’s Integrated Bar of the Philippines
and One Voice monitors. (5) Various other monitoring jobs using
systems set up by the Makati Business Club, the Simbahang Lingkod ng
Bayan and the campaign-spending watch of the Pera’t Pulitika
movement, and the Bantay Eleksyon’s effort to document the entire
election process and what the Comelec is doing in every area every
step of the way.
As described by the Ateneo-based
Pinoy Bantay Bayan: “The anchor of the political education work is
the PPCRV’s Pinoy Voters’ Academy [PVA] which was developed in
close partnership with the SLB of the Jesuit Philippine Province.
PBB-VForCE also aims to extend this voter education process so that
it becomes a mechanism for communities to set their own agenda,
choose their candidates and hold politicians accountable after the
elections. This is the project called Bantay Pangako, which builds
on the covenant-signing process of the PVA and develops mechanisms
to monitor campaign promises after the elections, along the lines of
the Silingan Ka experience in Ipil Prelature, Zamboanga-Sibugay.”
The entire VforCE “provides a
framework that underlines the importance of both defending
democratic institutions in the short-term and deepening or reforming
them in the long-term,” say its organizers. “Thus the initiative
recognizes that political involvement in the May 2007 elections will
only be meaningful if put in the perspective of a longer term
project to develop leaders, constituencies and networks for building
genuine democracy towards 2010 and beyond.”
Volunteers have a menu of job
options. Each job is exciting, fulfilling, patriotic and
epoch-making. The conduct of the coming elections and the tallying
and canvassing will define what will become of our democracy and our
republic.
We urge our able readers to offer
their services to VforCE.
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