30 foreign observers lured by polls
Traditional and new candidates present their views
Manila _ Some 30 foreign observers confessed being lured by iconic contests between traditional politicians, some of them with pending criminal cases, and reform-oriented candidates in several election hotspots nationwide, sources said.
Young observers from Afghanistan, Australia, Burma, Denmark, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Netheralands, Pakistan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, and United States were divided into six teams that observed elections in Cagayan and Pampanga in northern Luzon; Camarines Sur in southern Luzon; Masbate and Cebu in central Philippines; and the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the southern Philippines.
Before they left to their destinations, one of the foreign observers, said, “We wanted to see the effects of reforms that were pushed by President Benigno Aquino on the mid-term elections this year.”
“We wanted to eyewitness the parliamentary clashes of two different kinds of politicians in this country,” said another foreign observer.
They watched democracy at work, with the clashes of political titans and reform-oriented newcomers, in short, a fight between David and Goliath, said political analyst Alfred Crespo.
Foreign observers were attracted to the conduct of elections in Pampanga, where former President Gloria Arroyo who is under hospital arrest for alleged fraud, and an unknown provincial administrator of Pampanga, Vivia Dabu, fought for the second time a congressional seat at the House of Representatives.
Also in Pampanga, incumbent Governor Lilia Pineda, alleged as protector of illegal lottery (lotto) ran with her son Dennis Pineda as a vice governor. They belong to a collation of Arroyo’s Lakas, Nationalist People’s Coalition and the opposition United Nationalist Alliance. Their opponents, former governor of Pampanga, Catholic priest-turned politician Ed Panlilio, and lawyer Maria Amalia Tiglao, were the candidates of the ruling Liberal Party (LP).
In Camarines Sur, southern Luzon, foreign observers saw two women candidates who fought the gubernatorial race. Lawyer Leni Robredo of the ruling LP, wife of the late Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, filed vote-buying case against her opponent, Nelly Villafuerte.
Vote buying is a criminal case and carries the conviction of imprisonment.
