Comelec, Namfrel to meet tomorrow for ’04 elections

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) are set to meet at the Manila Hotel tomorrow to discuss critical issues for the May 2004 elections.

Representing the Comelec are Chairman Benjamin Abalos and Commissioners Rufino Javier, Mehol Sadain, Resurreccion Borra and Florentino Tuason Jr. Namfrel will be represented by Chairman Jose Concepcion Jr., Bishop Ramon Arguelles, Fr. Eliseo Mercado OMI, Sr. Rosanne Mallillin SPC, Ambassador Howard Dee; Marixi Prieto, Eduardo Go, Jose Cuisia, Augusto Lagman, Sr. Luz Emmanuel Soriano RA, and Guillermo Luz and Telibert Laoc, Namfrel secretary general and executive director.

Among the groups to be represented are the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Management Association of the Philippines, Makati Business Club, Philippine Computer Society, representatives of overseas Filipino workers and 200 organizations affiliated with Namfrel.

Namfrel, in a statement, said the meeting is very crucial because there are just 16 months before the May 2004 elections and extensive preparations are needed to make the election clean, honest, orderly, and peaceful.

Echoing one of Mrs. Arroyo’s eight major points of reform, which is to improve the electoral process, the meeting will have its first major point of discussion on the use of automated counting machines in 114 cities and 1,496 municipalities nationwide as mandated by Republic Act 8436, signed into law by President Fidel Ramos in December 1997.

The second issue of concern is the immediate accreditation of Namfrel as the citizens’ arm of the Comelec in order to mobilize its chapters and coordinate with its partner-organizations and volunteers. Namfrel needs sufficient leadtime to organize itself in every city and municipality in order to effectively assist the Comelec.

In a special meeting, it was agreed that Namfrel will be the citizens’ arm and all other organizations will coordinate with Namfrel to pool resources, prevent overlapping of duties, and become more operationally efficient so that all chapters will speak with one voice and meet the objective of ensuring the integrity of the elections.