Workers launch own election watch body

CEBU, Philippines -Barely three weeks before the May 2010 elections, members of the labor sectors launched Workers’ Electoral Watch (WE-Watch) to educate worker-voters on the automated election system and its vulnerabilities and conduct its own monitoring of fraud through the use of cellular phones.

Romeo de Vera, education officer of Workers’ Electoral Watch or WE-Watch said that their group intends to have a mechanism for understanding and monitoring the automated election system and to monitor the conduct and outcome of the local and national polls.

“It’s time na makialam tayo. Before kasi walang citizen’s arm… it’s only PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting) and Namfrel (National Citizens Movement for Free Elections),” he said.

He also added that the PPCRV and Namfrel are for the “elite”.

In its launching statement, WE-Watch said that after gathering a body of evidence on the implementation of the automated election system, they will make public their findings, assist in the necessary prosecution of fraud perpetrators and put forward policy recommendations to the Philippine government and the international community regarding electoral fraud and automation.

Joselito Natividad, lead convenor of WE-Watch, was earlier quoted as saying that with some 75 percent of the current electorate belonging to the labor sector of Philippine society either as formals or informals, the labor sector presents as huge potential in the popular advocacy of ensuring the integrity of the upcoming elections.

“With the formation of this non-partisan network of worker-volunteers, we commit ourselves to promoting good governance, human rights, and social justice,” he said in a prepared statement.

WE-Watch is a nationwide project organized by the Ecumenical Institute for Labor and Research and funded by the European Union under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights.

It educates workers on how to vote and trains them to participate in an SMS-based fraud monitoring system that covers twelve major cities and industrial centers in the country.

The reports gathered through this monitoring system are stored and filed to serve as evidence for electoral adjudication, which is done in cooperation with the Legal Network for Truthful Elections.

Devara said that part of the advocacy is to put into account how dirty is the Philippine elections especially with the use of the automated election system.

“Malalaman din natin kung mas marami bang incident ng pandaraya. Dayan kaya using the machine, bribery, o sa pagtakbo ng mga ballot boxes,” he said.

He said that basing on the mock elections, voters are “caught in confusion on how to vote.

Other areas that have WE-Watch include Metro Manila, Iloilo City, Bacolod City, Olongapo City, and Davao City.  (FREEMAN NEWS)