Lugar not coming here — US Embassy

Contrary to previous announcements made by Malacañang, US Sen. Richard Lugar will not join a team that will come here to observe the conduct of the elections on May 10, the United States Embassy in Manila said yesterday.

US Embassy public affairs counselor Ronald Post told The STAR that Lugar will not be flying in with international observers under the National Democratic Institute (NDI), which earlier wrote the Palace about its desire to come and observe the May elections.

Lugar has long been interested in Philippine affairs but he himself is not coming, Post said.

Reports of Lugar’s return to the Philippines to observe the presidential elections came out after the Palace released a copy of the letter, dated Jan. 28, sent by Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo to Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin Abalos.

"That’s false information," Post said.

Romulo impressed upon Abalos that President Arroyo, who is seeking a full six-year term in the May 10 elections, has no objection to the presence of international election observers.

Citing Mrs. Arroyo’s desire to ensure the holding of honest, orderly and peaceful elections in May, Romulo informed Abalos that the NDI was seeking an audience with the Comelec to coordinate its members’ activities with the poll body.

"We believe that the presence of international observers will help ensure integrity, transparency, impartiality and credibility in the electoral process, a bedrock of Philippine democracy," Romulo said.

He cited that international election monitoring is already being practiced in many countries — including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa, Peru, Venezuela and Pakistan.

Abalos, for his part, expressed the Comelec’s willingness to work with the NDI delegation.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye earlier noted that Lugar led a team of US observers during the February 1986 elections when the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos ran for re-election against Corazon Aquino.

He said it was Lugar who, upon returning to the US, denounced the alleged massive cheating during the 1986 snap presidential election.

A breakaway group led by former defense secretary Juan Ponce Enrile confirmed the electoral fraud that triggered the EDSA I revolt, and soon Washington called to tell the beleaguered Marcos to "cut and cut clean."

Enrile is now one of the senatorial candidates of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino. Actor Fernando Poe Jr., the coalition’s presidential bet, is the bosom buddy of another ousted president, Joseph Estrada, who is detained and being tried on graft charges.

Bunye added that the NDI told Romulo that it will consult with the International Republican Institute and the Carter Center "so that they could form a delegation that would be multinational and bipartisan." — Marichu Villanueva