Melo: Automation of ARMM polls on

07/25/2008

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Jose Melo announced yesterday that the “automation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections is on,” even as the signing of new peace agreement between government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) looms and two Mindanao solons have filed a bill seeking to postpone the polls.

“The automation will definitely push through. And I believe there will be no postponement of the ARMM elections,” Melo said.

Melo was speaking during the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) between the Comelec and technology provider Avante International Technology Inc. for the conduct of a massive voter education drive in the ARMM in line with the regional polls next

month. Actor Robin Padilla, a renowned peace advocate and election automation supporter, witnessed the signing. Also present were Sen. Richard Gordon and Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) president Henrietta de Villa.

”This is needed now. We should always move forward and not look back,” Padilla said. “Let us support the automation of the elections, as I believe it will jumpstart real national progress, especially in Mindanao.”

Gordon for his part said that with the upcoming automated ARMM elections, the country “is now on the eve of electoral greatness. Because hopefully our democracy will speak the truth, and it will speak fast and efficiently… We’ll see the end to anomalies in our politics, anomalies in our elections, anomalies in our count,” he said.

“Now, we have a Commission on Elections that we can be very proud of. The Comelec has a new face, newly washed,” said de Villa who heads one of the poll body’s accredited citizens arms, PPCRV.

After the MoA signing, the Comelec commissioners together with Gordon and De Villa witnessed the final canvassing and consolidation of the Maguindanao mock election results. Smartmatic-Sahi spokesman Vince Dizon reported that “in less than an hour, all election results from Maguindanao have been electronically transmitted.”

According to Hermogenes Esperon, the government’s chief adviser on the peace process, both parties would soon set a date for the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MoA) between the government and the MILF, and formal substantive peace talks would proceed thereafter.

Esperon said the parties have agreed to enlarge the ARMM, with the addition of a total of 712 barangays from Cotabato, Lanao del Norte, Sultan Kudarat, Zamboanga Sibugay and Palawan.

The integration of the additional villages in the ARMM would be subject to ratification in a plebiscite to be held six months after the MoA is signed.

The MoA also proposes to allow a new Bangsamoro legal entity to control certain forest, mineral and aquatic resources.

The MILF is also seeking the postponement of the Aug. 11 ARMM elections, warning the polls would only delay the transition period for the new Bangsamoro entity that would be established by a final peace agreement.

Meanwhile, in anticipation of the signing of the long-overdue peace agreement with MILF which is expected to include provisions for the geographical expansion of the ARMM, two Muslim members of the Lower House have filed a bill calling for the postponement of the regional polls.

Dumarpa, 1st District, Lanao del Sur, and Rep. Munir M. Arbison, 1st District, Sulu, filed the bill Thursday morning seeking to reset the upcoming ARMM elections to May 10, 2010 to coincide with the synchronized national and local elections of 2010.

The two solons added that the bill responds to the call made by President Arroyo to Muslim members of the House and the ARMM in a conference and consultation regarding the request of the MILF to postpone the upcoming ARMM elections.”

Dumarpa stressed that the proposed 18-month-extension will give way to the ongoing peace process between the government and the MILF at which time the latter shall fully recognize the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, thus leaving no obstacle in their participation to any political exercise.

Mina Diaz, Charlie V. Manalo

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