No massive cheating in elections — CBCP

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) declared yesterday that the May 10 electoral exercise was "generally peaceful" and ruled out a "national conspiracy to engage in massive cheating," contrary to the claims of the opposition.

In a statement issued late yesterday afternoon, the CBCP, which had initially kept mum on the conduct of the elections, said its conclusion was based on reports from its bishops. The statement was signed by CBCP president Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla.

"The personal responses of the bishops to my questionnaire also show that there were some instances of cheating and violations of election laws by political parties in their areas but these did not affect the voting in general. There were a few exceptions, of course," said Capalla. "If there were reports of cheating locally or regionally, the bishops cannot say that there was a national conspiracy to engage in massive cheating."

The CBCP statement comes on the heels of the start by Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, of the official canvassing of votes for president and vice president. It echoes the statement made earlier by the election watchdog National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel).

Namfrel secretary general Guillermo Luz said last week that the last electoral exercise was generally credible. Though he admitted that suspected cases of fraud and anomalies were spotted, these were mostly "confined to the local level."

Namfrel chairman Jose Concepcion Jr. added that people were more vigilant in guarding their votes this year compared to previous elections.

However, the camp of opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr. continues to accuse the administration of massive cheating. Opposition senatorial candidate Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen singled out Cebu as the place where massive cheating allegedly took place to favor Mrs. Arroyo.

The President won by almost a million votes over Poe in the province. The winning margin of the country’s next president is reportedly around that figure. Different camps had predicted a narrow victory for the winning candidate.

The administration has responded by saying that allegations of fraud should be filed with the Supreme Court — sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal — and should not in any way delay the congressional canvassing.

"For this reason, we urge our lawmakers to speed up peacefully the national canvassing of votes. We also urge complainants to go to the proper courts. Our people expect the loser to accept defeat magnanimously, and the winners to welcome victory with humility," said Capalla.

In a separate statement, CBCP’s national secretariat for social action-justice and peace (Nassa) was more specific in supporting its conclusion that there was no massive cheating in the May 10 polls.

Quoting Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, who claimed that Mrs. Arroyo won overwhelmingly against Poe in the province, Nassa said the May 10 elections were "generally fair and relatively peaceful" although it had "more than the usual chaos and confusion (evidenced by the difficulty) in finding voters’ names and precincts, lack of and delayed arrival of election paraphernalia and lapses of some board of election inspectors."

Vidal, together with Capalla and Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales, are co-founders of the Coalition of Hope, which earlier issued statements that there was massive and systematic cheating in the last elections.

The Nassa statement also cited the assessments of the bishops and priests of Maasin in Pangasinan, Tagbilaran City in Bohol, Lucena City and Gumaca town in Quezon, Cotobato City, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi; and Mati, Davao Oriental.

Meanwhile, Cotobato Archbishop and former CBCP president Orlando Quevedo was quoted as saying that there were incidences of fraud, vote-buying, dagdag-bawas (vote padding and shaving) but "those were isolated cases and would not change the overall election results."